ابـن الهبّـاريـّة شاعر مغمور من عصر السّلاجقة نسبه، آثاره، حياتـه، وعصره

Abstract

This article addresses the topic of literature in an age that came to be known as the “age of states” in the history of Islam; this is a name that fits this period in the big picture, for the branches of the Abbasid state had become independent of their center in Baghdad, each state gaining a strong ruler that expressed its functional independency from the hub of the Khaliphate rule.  However, the state still owed the Khaliph nominal loyalty to gain its legitimacy to exist as a power obedient to the Khaliph, despite the Khaliph having no appreciable degree of power, even in the capital of the Abbasid state, Baghdad, where we see the Khaliph falling from time to time under the influence of one of the dynasties which had gained enough authority to qualify it to control the Khaliph.

These dynasties used to shift according to the powers they gained at the expense of each other, like the Turks, Buwaihis and Saljuki, among others, with many of the sons of these dynasties isolating the Khaliph and appointing those who would serve their purposes instead.

When these rising powers that took the place of the Khaliph were not Arab, Arabic literature was affected exponentially, and this was according to how patronizing these powers were to literature and scholars and to science and scientists.

We have chosen to discuss the Saljuki period, which is known as the time of political trials and unrest in Baghdad, and its surrounding Persian areas, the seat of Saljuk rule. The name of “Nitham Al-Mulk” had emerged from among the Saljuk political banners, and what made him outstanding among rulers was his attention to literature and science and the schools he founded in Baghdad, schools known as official schools.