A.D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the original testimonies
of the Persians and Arabians, (de Religione veterum Persarum, c. 16 p.
200-211.)]

In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest barbarism, the light
and splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the docility rather than the
knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An ample share of their wisdom and
virtue is due to a Persian vizier, who ruled the empire under the reigns
of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of the most illustrious ministers
of the East, was honored by the caliph as an oracle of religion and
science; he was trusted by the sultan as the faithful vicegerent of his
power and justice. After an administration of thirty years, the fame
of the vizier, his wealth, and even his services, were transformed into
crimes. He was overthrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival;
and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration, that his cap and
ink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by the divine decree
with the throne and diadem of the sultan. At the age of ninety-three
years, the venerable statesman was dismissed by his master, accused by
his enemies, and murdered by a fanatic: [451] the last words of Nizam
attested his innocence, and the remainder of Malek's life was short and
inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of this disgraceful transaction, the
sultan moved to Bagdad, with the design of transplanting the caliph,
and of fixing his own residence in the capital of the Moslem world. The
feeble successor of Mahomet obtained a respite of ten days; and before
the expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the angel of
death. His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in marriage a Roman
princess; but the proposal was decently eluded; and the daughter
of Alexius, who might herself have been the victim, expresses her
abhorrence of his unnatural conjunction. [46] The daughter of the sultan
was bestowed on the caliph Moctadi, with the imperious condition, that,
renouncing the society of his wives and concubines, he should forever
confine himself to this honorable alliance.

[Footnote 451: He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan Sabek,
founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p.
95.--M.]

[Footnote 46: She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena was only
nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah, (A.D. 1092,) and
when she speaks of his assassination, she confounds the sultan with the
viz