Did Hasan Sabbah Order the Assassination of Nizam al-Mulk?
Updated: 6 November 2026
Short answer
Possibly, and the mainstream account says so, but it cannot be proved. The Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk was stabbed near Nahavand on 14 October 1092 by a man disguised as a Sufi. He was also in open conflict with the palace, so Terken Khatun's circle is often named as well.
The killing
The vizier was travelling from Isfahan to Baghdad on 10 Ramadan 485 when he was attacked in his litter. The TDV entry names the killer as Abu Tahir Arrani. Sultan Malik-Shah died a few weeks later, and the empire fell into a succession struggle.
Were they friends?
The tale that Hasan, Omar Khayyam and Nizam al-Mulk studied together should, in Daftary's words, "be dismissed as a legend". Nizam was born in 1018, decades before Hasan, and Bernard Lewis also doubted the story. It became widely known in English through FitzGerald's introduction to the Rubaiyat.
Frequently asked questions
- Did Hassan Sabbah order the assassination of Nizam al-Mulk?
- This is the mainstream view, but no surviving document proves it, and palace involvement remains a suspicion.
- Were Hassan Sabbah, Omar Khayyam and Nizam al-Mulk friends?
- No credible evidence supports it. The age gap with Nizam makes it especially unlikely.
Sources
- “Nizam al-Mulk”, English Wikipedia
- Farhad Daftary, “Hasan Sabbah”, Institute of Ismaili Studies (edited from Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. XII)
- Abdülkerim Özaydın, “Hasan Sabbâh”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 16 (1997), pp. 347-350 (in Turkish)
Medieval authors such as Juvayni, Rashid al-Din and Ibn al-Athir are cited here through the listed studies, not directly. Prepared by the hasansabbah.com editorial team.