ASSASSINATION OF NIZAM AL-MULK ACCORDING TO COEVAL SOURCES

The assassinations that made an incredible impact in world history and politics are a common sight. Of those, the murder of Seljuks’ strong and powerful vizier, the leading power of the era, Nizam al-Mulk in the 11th century is a remarkable incident. The role of the vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, was great in launching the Seljuks which established an omnipotent state ruling the world and having the most powerful army of that time. Nizam al-Mulk, a politician who was a master in the field of ilm-i insha and diplomatics, was of a vizier of Alpaslan and Melikshah, the two biggest sultans of the Seljuks, and caused the assassination of Meliksah by having the pen of the latter broken, and thus causing the state to enter the period of decline. The leader of Nizarite Ismailis, Hasan Sabbah, played a great role in this process. The enmity and struggle between Nizam al-Mulk and Hasan Sabbah, whose political, intellectual, and religious views were different from each other, paved the way for the murder of the Seljuk vizier through a superbly executed and skillfully planned the assassination. This paper aims at investigating the process that ended up with the assassination of Nizam al-Mulk, the elements of power in the Seljuk state and their relations with the assassination, the enemies of the grand vizier, the reasons of hostilities, the Batinids and the leader Hasan Sabbah who led the assassination and the process leading to the assassination. The pieces over twenty works published between the 12th and 14th the centuries regarding assassination related to the Hasan Sabbah's political, intellectual and religious antagonisms with Nizam al-Mulk, assassination preparations, planning, and the assassination have been analyzed along with the narratives related to assassination