ABSTRACT
The poems to Sanjar as sultan and their background will now be considered, followed by the poems to the members of his family and vassals, most of whom were also connected with him by marriage, and, finally, the poems to the viziers and other senior officials who held office during the remainder of Mu‘izzı-’s life. As several of these officials were Mu‘izzı-’s patrons before Sanjar became sultan, this will involve a certain amount of back-tracking and repetition, but it has seemed sensible to treat each group of poems to one patron as a whole, regardless of date. When Sanjar succeeded Muh.ammad, his position on the international scene, to put it in modern terms, underwent an enormous change. For 20 years he had been a provincial ruler, albeit a very powerful one, the ‘march-lord’ of the eastern frontier; he was now sulta-n-i mu’az.z.am, the ruler of an empire extending from Transoxania almost to Baghdad, which had been even further enlarged by the acquisition of the Ghaznavid domains of Afghanistan. Accounts of Muh.ammad’s death-bed, as we have seen, suggest that he saw his son Mah.mu-d as his heir; but he must have been aware that Sanjar would enforce his primacy over his nephew, as indeed he did at Sa-veh in 513/1119 (IA X pp. 387-89). The change in Sanjar’s status is reflected both in Mu‘izzı-’s poetry and in his mamdu-h. s. He is no longer just the poet of a young prince and his officials; he is the poet of the dynasty, as Ru-dakı-was of the Sa-ma-nids, expected to compose panegyrics to vassals and allies. There is a change too in his poetic style; the light touch and lyricism of some of the earlier poems has been replaced by a heavier and more fulsome style. Mu‘izzı-was now an old man, probably about 70 when Sanjar became sultan, and the poems of his latter years, though historically interesting and, as always, professional and competent, are not in general among his most attractive or memorable compositions. The two major military campaigns in these later poems were Ghazna and
Sa-veh. After Malik Arsla-n or Arsla-nsha-h seized the Ghaznavid throne in Shawwa-l 509/February 1116 (Bosworth 1977 pp. 92-94), his brother Bahra-msha-h took refuge first with Arsla-nsha-h of Kirma-n, and then with
Sanjar. Sanjar sent him with an army commanded by Amı-r Oner to reclaim his inheritance and Ta-j al-Dı-n Abu-’1-Fad. l Nas.r b.Khalaf, malik of Nimru-z, the ruler of Sı-sta-n, joined them at Bust. In an engagement near Bust, the Seljuq army defeated a force assembled by Malik Arsla-n, who made an unsuccessful attempt to buy off Amir Oner. Sanjar now set out in person, and a major battle took place on the plain outside Ghazna, which Ibn alAthı-r calls Shahra-ba-d, and is probably the Shabahar of Farrukhı-and Bayhaqı-, on which Mah.mu-d used to review his army (IA X p. 354). Malik Arsla-n’s army included 120 elephants (100, according to Mu‘izzı-), which caused panic among the Seljuq troops, until Abu-’1-Fad. l of Sı-sta-n, with great personal courage and presence of mind, demonstrated how to kill the elephants by stabbing them from below. This turned the tide, the Ghaznavid army collapsed, and Malik Arsla-n fled to India. Sanjar entered Ghazna on 20 Shawwa-l 510/25 February 1117 on horseback, with Bahra-msha-h walking in front of him, in a visibly subordinate position, until they reached the palace, where Bahra-msha-h was allowed to take his place on the throne. The khut.ba was read in the name of the Caliph, Sultan Muh. ammad, Malik Sanjar (much to the surprise of the local people, according to Ibn al-Athı-r), and Bahra-msha-h as sultan. After 40 days, Sanjar left Ghazna with enormous quantities of loot, the accumulated wealth from the Indian conquests of the Ghaznavid sultans. But very soon after his army had departed, Malik Arsla-n and his forces returned and reoccupied the city; Bahra-msha-h fled in panic to Ba-miya-n and appealed to Sanjar for help. Sanjar did not come himself, but sent another army, and Malik Arsla-n, despairing of holding the city against the Seljuq forces, left it after a month’s occupation. He was subsequently captured by one of Sanjar’s commanders and handed over to Bahra-msha-h, who had him strangled in Juma-da II 511/October 1118 (IA X pp. 353-56). Mu‘izzı-’s first references to Ghazna are in two poems, one to Sanjar and
one to Bahra-msha-h, almost certainly written in the same year and possibly for the same occasion, a meeting between the two princes to settle the details of the Ghazna campaign. The poem to Sanjar is for ‘I
- d al-Fit.r, probably
Shawwa-l 509/March 1116, at about the time when Malik Arsla-n seized power. After the usual compliments, Mu‘izzı-comes to what is evidently the real subject of the poem, the arrival of Bahra-msha-h in Marv and the prospect of a campaign to install him in Ghazna, on Sanjar’s terms; he will be Sanjar’s vassal, like the Qarakha-nid Kha-n of Turkestan (p. 494, ll. 11631-32, 11634 ff./458): ‘You [Sanjar] can put him on the throne of kingship, for you, throughout the world, are a king who makes kings [malik-i malik-nisha-n]’. Mu‘izzı-addresses Bahra-msha-h directly as Fakhr-i Mulu-k in the second of the two poems (p. 288), and it seems to have been one of his early titles, though Gulam Mustafa Kha-n, who did not use Mu‘izzı-as a source, does not mention it (p. 63). Mu‘izzı-then speaks about the relationship between the two princes and their fathers in language similar to that used in the first
poem (ll. 6927-28), and anticipates a successful campaign through ‘the fortune of the King of the East’. Two more poems on or relating to the conquest of Ghazna were composed
while Sanjar was still Malik, one to Sanjar himself and one to Ta-j al-Dı-n Kha-tu-n. The poem to Sanjar (p. 202) begins with a short but lively description of the battle and of the victorious army: ‘The swords of the Malik’s army in the ranks of the battle shone and burned like fire today’ (l. 4862). The battle in question is evidently the first engagement, near Bust (l. 4860), not the second and final battle outside Ghazna, in which Sanjar took part in person; nothing is said of his presence there, as it is in the other poems. The cause is righteous; the Ghaznavid army has been spurred on by envy, the Seljuq army by justice. There is some emphasis here and in other poems on the multi-national nature of the Ghaznavid forces, Kurds, Arabs, Ghaznavı-s, Khalaj and Indians (l. 4865), displaying the unspoken implication that at least some of these are infidels and, therefore, a legitimate target for a Muslim army. Mu‘izzı-does not mention the major battle (perhaps he was leaving it for another poem), but turns to the status of Bahra-msha-h. He deserves the kingdom not because of his ancestry, but because Sanjar has placed him there; he will put Sanjar’s name in the khut.ba and on the coinage, and send elephant-loads of gold and jewels every month to Sanjar as tribute (ll.4879 ff.). A more prosaic version, given in the Selju-k-na-ma, is that Bahra-msha-h had to pay a thousand dinars every day to Sanjar’s treasury from the city of Ghazna’s customs-duties (furda-t), and an ‘a-mil was appointed to Ghazna to collect the money (ZD pp. 44/80). The second poem, to Ta-j al-Dı-n Kha-tu-n (p. 555/509), celebrates four
joyful events: the ‘I - d (unspecified), springtime, the conquest of Ghazna, and
the arrival of the Kha-tu-n’s cavalcade, presumably in Marv, after a happy and successful visit to Is.faha-n (l. 12951), apparently to visit Sultan Muh.ammad. She is congratulated on having two sons like Moses and Aaron, a familiar comparison (l. 12942), and her ‘fortune’ is held to be a major factor in Sanjar’s victorious career. The victory at Ghazna is evidently very recent. Mu‘izzı-looks forward to further victories, in India, and to the arrival of vast wealth from Ghazna, caskets of jewels, bags of gold and silver and other treasures, and livestock – droves of horses, elephants and dromedaries (ll. 12955 ff.). This poem can, for once, be dated fairly precisely. It was almost certainly composed for ‘I
- d al-Ad.h. a-510/15 April 1117; ‘I
- d al-Fit.r, early in
February that year and nearly three weeks before Sanjar’s ceremonial entry into Ghazna, seems unlikely. The cheerful tone of the poem implies that Muh.ammad was in good health at the time of his mother’s visit, and this too makes spring 1117 the most likely date; by the following spring he was mortally ill. Of the several poems of Sanjar’s sultanate that make more than a passing
reference to the capture of Ghazna (pp. 86/85, 151, 196, 205, 520/480, 554/ 509), the earliest is probably a short one instructing a newly arrived
cupbearer to give Sanjar wine in a golden cup to celebrate the conquest (p. 554, ll. 12923 ff./p. 509). The longest and most detailed is a highly coloured, very literary but imprecise description of the battle outside Ghazna and its aftermath (pp. 196 ff.). It seems very doubtful whether Mu‘izzı-ever accompanied any of his patrons on campaign, even in his younger days (cf. Chapter 4); he certainly had no first-hand experience of the Ghazna campaign, though he probably had access to people who had taken part in the battle. He was evidently familiar with the battle poems of earlier poets; the introduction to the present poem (p. 196) begins with an adverse comparison between Alexander and Sanjar that was obviously inspired by Farrukhı-’s Somnath qas.ı-da. Another long poem (p. 520/480) begins in a similar vein, with a short passage on the battle, followed by a line depicting Sanjar (not Bahra-msha-h) sitting onMah.mu-d’s throne in the Ba-gh-i Pı-ru-zı-(l. 12204). The scene then changes to Balkh, with messengers coming to Sanjar’s court from the three major vassal states, Kirma-n, the Qarakha-nid khanate, and Ghazna. The poem ends with a reference to the hot climate of Balkh, a passage in praise of wine, and good wishes. Two more poems, though not primarily about the Ghazna campaign,
devote several lines to it. The first (pp. l5l ff.) begins with a short meditation on the achievements of the race of Seljuq, from their origin in New Bukha-ra-
(l. 3482) to their present glory; then there is a short passage on Ghazna, followed by praise of Sanjar. There is also a mysterious reference to a visit to Sanjar’s court by ‘the King of the Arabs [sha-h-i ‘arab], from Arabia’ (l. 3514). The only person who would have held this title at the time was the Mazyadid prince Dubais b.Sadaqa, whose father Sayf al-Daula Sadaqa (d.501/1107-8) was known as the King of the Arabs (CHIR V p. 115). Mu‘izzı-is the only source for such a visit, which, on the face of it, seems unlikely in view of the distances involved; but according to Bunda-rı-, Dubais had been in Sanjar’s service for ten years, and had only recently returned to Iraq, apparently after Muh.ammad’s death (Bunda-rı-1889 pp. 121-24). Ibn al-Athı-r says that he was sent to the Caliph after the battle of Sa-veh to have the khut.ba read in Sanjar’s name, on 26 Juma-da I 1513/mid-September 1119, and there are other indications that he was regarded as an ally by Sanjar and a political counter-balance both against Mah.mu-d and the power of the Caliph al-Mustarshid (IA X p. 389). The second poem to Sanjar, who is addressed by Alp Arsla-n’s title of Burha-n Amı-r al-Mu’minı-n, and congratulated, in a passage of some 20 lines (p. 205, ll. 4949 ff.), on the victory at Ghazna, against enemies described as treacherous Indians and sorcerers, and also on the valour of the army, matching horsemen against elephants, on the immense booty, the treasures of Mah.mu-d and his sons, brought out by camels and mules (l. 4961), and on the conquest of Ghazna after 130 years of empire. The occasion for the poem appears to have been the celebration of the circumcision of the son of the sipa-hsa-la-r Amı-r Sonqur Beg ‘Azı-zı-(l. 4974), and Mu‘izzı-ends the poem with a short passage of h.asb-i h.a-l, warmly praising Sanjar’s generosity and kindness to him.
