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A great academic college founded in Baghdad to teach students, providing them with books and classes freely in an environment of care.

The Nizamiyya of Baghdad was one of the most celebrated collegiate academies in Islamic history, founded by the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk in 459 AH. The college provided students with lodging, food, books, and expert instruction free of charge, with illustrious scholars like Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi teaching there.

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The inauguration of the renowned al-Madrasa al-Nizamiyya in Baghdad in Dhu al-Qada 459 AH (1067 CE), established by the Seljuk grand vizier Nizam al-Mulk al-Tusi as a pioneering endowed collegiate institution. The Nizamiyya revolutionized institutional higher education in Islam by establishing dedicated residential colleges with salaried professorships, student stipends, endowed libraries, and structured curricula. Instructed by luminary scholars including Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, it played an influential role in academic scholarship, legal training, and state administration.

Summary

In 459 AH the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad was completed, and Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi was appointed to teach in it. Nizam al-Mulk built it, and according to al-Dhahabi it was said to be the first madrasa built for jurists. ²

Construction

Ibn al-Jawzi says that work began in Dhu al-Hijja 457 AH, and that the remaining riverside houses at Mashra'at al-Zawaya, al-Farda, Bab al-Sha'ir and Darb al-Za'farani were demolished to make way for it. ³

The first lessons

When people gathered, al-Shirazi did not attend and went into hiding. Ibn al-Imad reports that a boy met him and asked: "How can you teach in a usurped place?" So Ibn al-Sabbagh, author of al-Shamil, taught instead. ⁴

The people then persuaded the sheikh until he agreed. Ibn al-Jawzi reports that he began teaching there on the tenth of Dhu al-Hijja 459 AH, twenty days after Ibn al-Sabbagh's lesson. Whenever the time for prayer came, he would leave and pray in one of the mosques. ⁵

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Sources

Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 645-646

Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p.645-646

al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi , j.8 p.140

Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p.315

al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi , j.8 p.246-247

The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market

In 470 Nizam al-Mulk's letter reached Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi rebuking the anti-Hanbali agitation in his own Nizamiyya: 'Sultan's policy and the rule of justice oblige us to lean to no madhhab over another; we did not build this school but to shelter the people of learning — not to split the community — and the madhhab that dominates Baghdad and its quarters is that of the imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.' The Hanbalis circulated it and were strengthened. Then on Tuesday 2 Shawwal a madrasa student called al-Iskandarani went to Suq al-Thulatha pronouncing the Hanbalis unbelievers; pelted with a brick he fled back to the madrasa market, whose men sallied out and looted the other market — until the mob reversed it, burst into the madrasa market, plundered their quarter and killed a sick man in his room. The Daylamite guards shot dead some fifteen, and the bodies were carried to the diwan for the qadis and witnesses to attest.

The Founding of the Nizamiyya in Baghdad

At a glance

In time

Summary

Construction

The first lessons

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market