Injustice, Corruption, and Partisanship in the Eastern Seljuq Lands of the Early Twelfth Century

This article analyses five historical missives written by the great theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī to three Seljuq viziers, and datable to the years 490/1097 to 504/1110 f. The first four of these letters form a progressive series complaining of governmental corruption in Ṭūs during the Seljuq civil war around the turn of the sixth/twelfth century, and thus provide the sole extant eyewitness testimony from Khurāsān during the last five years of the Seljuq civil war period. They also reveal al-Ghazālī’s vision of just rule far more concretely than do al-Ghazālī’s numerous theoretical writings on the subject. The fifth letter, written after the civil war had ended, explores the problem of intra-Sunni madhhab-based religious partisanship ( taʿaṣṣub ), and also incidentally reveals important biographical information about al-Ghazālī. All five of these letters constitute unique eyewitness testimony to some of the major political and social problems of the Seljuq period

Ancient history · Art · Injustice · Language change · Literature · Persian · Political science · Theology · Byzantine Studies and History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy

• The book ʿUyūn al-Tawārīkh (Choice Accounts of History) by Ibn al-Sābīʾ

  Open Access•Issam Okleh, Nagwa Zouair et al.•Journal of Islamic Thought and…•2026

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