NIZAM AL-MULK AND HIS ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF THE SELJUK IQTA SYSTEM

Nizam al-Mulk had an important role in the Seljuk history with his regulations in the state organization and the foundations he pioneered. Nizam al-Mulk, who wrote an important work titled Siyar al-mul？k or Siyāsatnāmeh (the Book of Government), was the vizier of Seljuks for a long time, in this regard he was not only the theoretician of the statecraft principles that he revealed in his work but also he was the performer of them. Nizam al-Mulk, who was highly competent on both the Old Persian state traditions and Islam culture and civilization, certainly learnt Turkish state tradition, culture and civilization during his long-term service to the Seljuk dynasty and state organization. One of the regulations he pioneered with his knowledge and experience was the Iqta system. He amended the inconveniences of ？qta system, which also had been applied before Seljuks, extended military ？qta, which had not been applied commonly before, and got the ？qta gain a military function in addition to its administrative and economic functions. In that way, the Seljukian Iqta system which was remarkable with its characteristics appeared and all of the Muslim Turkic States founded after the Great Seljuk State took that Seljukian Iqta system as an example