The killing of Sultan Alp Arslan and the accession of Malikshah

In 465 AH Sultan Alp Arslan crossed the Oxus on a bridge he had laid across it, with more than two hundred thousand horsemen, heading for Bukhara. A captive was brought before him: the lord of a fortress known as Yusuf al-Khwarazmi. ²

The sultan reviled him and ordered four stakes driven into the ground, with his limbs tied to them. Yusuf said, "You effeminate wretch! Should someone like me be killed in this way?" The sultan grew angry, took a bow and an arrow, and ordered his two attendants to free Yusuf from the stakes. He shot and missed. Yusuf rushed at him; the sultan had been seated on a dais and rose to come down, but he stumbled and fell on his face. Yusuf leapt on him and struck him with a knife in the side, and the soldiers caught up and killed Yusuf. The sultan's wound was bound, and he returned with them to the Oxus, where he died on Saturday, 10 Rabi' al-Awwal, aged forty years and five months; his reign had lasted nine years and six months. When he died, the army was assembled, and his son Malikshah sat on the throne while the amirs stood. Nizam al-Mulk said, "Speak, O Sultan." Malikshah said, "The eldest of you was my father, the middle one was Anha, and the youngest is my son; and I will do with you what has never been done before." They answered, "We hear and obey." ¹