Sultan Melikşah

Sultan of Great Seljuklu Empire (B. August 6, 1055-  D. November 20, 1092). His full name is Muizzuddin Ebul feth; and he is son of Seljuk Sultan Alpaslan, who had opened the gates of Anatolia to Muslim Turks.

During the reign of Meliksah, Diyarbakir was conquered on May 28, 1085. Rule of Mervanoglu was ended. Ulu Mosque was restored upon Meliksah's orders. The first epitaph in Ulu Mosque belongs to Meliksah.

Diyarbakir Ulu Mosque is among the first mosques in Anatolia and the epitaph dated 484 (1091-1092) bears the name Sultan Meliksah. During his reign, the city castle was also expanded and the first epitaph on castle also belongs to Meliksah. Nur bastion and Seljuk bastion is the works of Meliksah period. It is written with Kufi script (1088).                                  During his twenty years of reign; there was a unique period of peace, welfare and prosperity.

Meliksah was raised carefully by his father Alpaslan. He has received religious information from the scholars of that period and also was trained as a skillful fighter by the warriors. He was interested in governing when he was eight years old. When he was ten, he joined the Georgia campaign with his father and represented him at the encampment. He conquered a Byzantine castle with Nizamulmulk. He insisted on the siege of Meryem Nisin Castle close to Kars/Ani and played an important role in the capture of castle.

Alpaslan has officially declared the beloved, Islam-oriented, and skillful leader Meliksah as his crown prince in 1066 and stated this to everyone around. When Alpaslan was martyred in 1072; Meliksah became the sultan of Seljuk State when he was only seventeen years old.

Sultan Meliksah spent the first two years of his reign by appeasing the internal fights and defending the borders of state. He had appointed Nizamulmulk, a skillful ruler, as his vizier with vast authority. He fought against the Karakhanid and Ghaznavid states which threatened the state and defeated them. During the first years of his reign; his uncle Kavurd had revolted to seize the rule; he defeated his uncle and established order within his country. Meanwhile, Karkhanid and Ghaznavid states have collaborated against Seljuk State, taking the upheavals within the country as an advantage. He defeated both states and Karkhanid State was divided into two. Then Karahitays have demolished the Eastern Karkhanid State as Kharzemshahs have demolished the Western Karkhanids.

The greatest ideal of Meliksah was to unite all Muslim states and to establish the Islam Union. He began to work to achieve this goal. He had close relations with Caliph Kaim bin Amrulah. Caliph has entitled Meliksah as "Mu'izze'ddin" and "Celaluddevle" and with "Kasım Emire'l Mu'minin", which was the first time to be entitled to a ruler and meant the greatest supporter of caliphate.

The completion of Anatolia's conquest rapidly continued during his reign. With the aids he provided to Suleyman Sah; Anatolia has become a land of Islam. Anatolian Seljuklu State was established upon his order. Meliksah has put the state and army into an order and continued with the conquest campaigns as his father did. Famous commanders such as Kutalmisoglu Suleymansah and Mansur, Artuk Bey, Tutak and Alp Ilıg as famous Turcoman commanders have achieved victories in Anatolia, defeating the Byzantine armies. The Christians in Anatolia were having problems with the Byzantine rule. The feudal lords were ruling over Anatolia due to fraud in palace and weakness in administration. There were commanders who declared themselves as emperors and walked to center, which caused a pressure. So, they were celebrating the arrival of Muslims who treated them with justice and brought peace and prosperity together.

Turcoman armies have conquered the Yesilırmak, Kelkit and Coruh basins and reached to the Aegean shores by capturing Alasehir. Another branch of the army has defeated Byzantine armies around Urfa and Nizip; conquered Southern and Southeastern Anatolia. Suleyman Shah has conquered Iznik; moved to Üsküdar and took control of Bosphorus. More than thirty castles and towns were conquered around Mardin and Diyarbakir in a short time. Siirt, Bitlis and Ahlat were also captured and joined the Seljuk lands. Mosul, Jerusalem, Dimesk, Aleppo, Lazkiye, Gence, Caucasia, Kars, Oltu, Erzurum (these regions were captured by the Georgian king, then re-conquered in 1080), Trabzon, Azarbaijan, Bukhara, Semerkant, Hijaz (Meccah-Madina) and Yemen have joined the Seljuk lands during the reign of Meliksah. After the Seljuk State has captured Diyarbekir and its surroundings in 1085; Marwani State was demolished. After capturing Urfa, Menbic and Aleppo castles; his armies went down to Antalya and reached to Mediterraneane. He took his cloth out and prayed on the ground, took the sand he took from the sea back to Iran and splattered them on his father's grave, saying: "Father, here is good news for you; your son whom you left as a child has conquered the world from one end to another with the help of Allah."

Meliksah has expanded the lands of Great Seljuklu State from Kasgar to Bogazici, from Caucasus to Yemen and Aden; becoming the greatest political power of his period. He has achieved to turn the justice foundation of state as Nizamulmulk said, and therefore he was called as "Just Sultan". He was never defeated during his reign so he has received the title "Ebu'l Feth".

He has devoted his life to do good and useful things for Islam and prayed as follows:

"Oh God, if I am to be useful for Islam, help me, make me victorious. If my opponent will be useful for Islam, then help him, make him victorious."

Nizamulmulk was among the strongest viziers of Meliksah and he was assasinated by the fadain of Hasan Sabbah. In the same year, on November 20, 1092, he was poisoned and murdered by unidentified people when he was only thirty-seven years old. His funeral was taken to Isfahand and buried to the tomb next to the madrasah he made built.

During the reign of Meliksah, a structured Divan (government) organization and a permanent army consisting of half million soldiers was established with the help and effort of his Grand Vizier Nızamulmulk. He added extra allowances into the state budget to protect poor people, scientists and artists. Scholars and artists were protected; he had great interest in them; visited the scholars personally and respected their knowledge and personalities. Important scholars such as İmam-ı Gazali, Kaşgarlı Mahmut, Cürcânî were raised during his period.

Nızamulmulk pioneered the establishment of Nizamiye Madrasahs which had great contributions for the dieological development in 11th century Minor Asia and Anatolia; and the Seljuklu sultans have also competed with each other in to realize this dream. We can see that Alpaslan has put great effort to establish these educational institutions all around the Seljuk lands and donated one tenth of his income to these organizations. Meliksah has also built madrasahs and cultural institutions and donated 300.000 dinars (gold) to these annually. Sultan Sencer is a unique case in Seljuk history and he donated hundreds ıf thousands of dinar, thousands of clothes, horses and valuables to the scientists.

Meliksah has developed the Seljuk lands and prospered the people. He had Nizamiye madrasahs established in major settlements. Science, culture, agirculture, industry and trade improved during his reign. His Vizier Nizamulmulk referred his ideas as follows: "Meliksah is religious, respectful to scholars, good to spiritualists, compassionate to the poor and just to the people. These are attributes very rare in a world leader." In his country, science and justice was praised; peace and welfare ruled, and a wealthy empire was established.

REFERENCE: İbrahim Kafesoğlu / Sultan Melikşah Devrinde Büyük Selçuklu İmparatorluğu (1953) - Sultan Melikşah (1973), Osman Turan / Tür­kiye Selçukluları Hakkında Resmî Vesikalar (1958) - Selçuk­lular Zamanında Türkiye (1971), Ahmed bin Mahmud / Selçukname (1977), TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (c. 29, s. 54, 2004), Erdoğan Merçil / Büyük Selçuklu Devleti (2005), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Devlet Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 1, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).