Malik-Shah: The Knowledge-Loving Ignorant Man

 

On p. 17, he has described the Seljuk king Malik-Shah as “a young man, open-minded, loves knowledge and scholars.”

Although he loves knowledge and scholarship, he apparently did not benefit from such love. He, as the book under discussion portrays him, was the most ignorant of all people about the most simple of matters and of the most axiomatic Islamic and historical matters, as if he lived in an island then entered just recently in the lands of the Muslims. He even does not know about the existence of a sect called “Shi`a” who are, as the book states on pages 25-26, half the population of the Muslims whom he rules. He does not even know the meaning of the word “Shi`i” in addition to other historical and non-historical issues.

We do not know why his father, Sultan Alp Arsalan, neglected to educate him and prepare him to assume his post, and why he did not gather the most learned, renown and experienced scholars and specialists to teach him. Kings and caliphs used to take special care to teach and educate their sons, especially those whom they delegated to succeed them in their posts to run the affairs of the land and of its inhabitants.