great blot on his escutcheon: his treatment of his able and faithful minister, Nizām ul-Mulk. Influenced by lying reports brought to his ears by the enemies of the vezīr, he degraded his devoted servant and indirectly brought about his death. For, shortly after Nizām ul-Mulk’s removal from office, he was murdered by an assassin,[294] employed perhaps by his successor in office, who feared a change in the Sultan’s sentiments, A.H. 485 (1092). Melik Shāh did not long survive the fallen minister. Within a month he was seized with a violent illness, which terminated his life in the thirty-eighth year of his age. He left four sons, who each in turn succeeded to his throne.[295] The youngest, Mahmūd, was only four years of age when his father died; but the ambition of his mother, the Sultana Khātūn Turkān, placed the crown upon his infant head, and the Caliph Muktadi was prevailed on to have his name mentioned in the public prayers. The Sultana marched to Isfahān, preceded by the corpse of Melik Shāh. Berkiyāruk, the eldest prince,[296] was residing there; but, powerless to resist, he retired to Ray, attended by Mu`ayyad ud-Dawla, the son of the late vezīr Nizām ul-Mulk, who warmly espoused his cause, with all the adherents of his family. This support enabled him to return, and Khātūn Turkān was compelled to resign a great part of her treasures as the price of permission to retain control of Isfahān. All her schemes of aggrandisement were soon afterwards terminated by her own death and that of her son, A.H. 487 (1104).