Al-Kunduri

Amid al-Mulk Abu Nasr al-Kunduri (Persian: عمیدالملک ابونصر الکندری; 1024 – 29 November 1064), commonly known as al-Kunduri (کندری; also spelled Kunduri), was a Persian bureaucrat, who served as the vizier of the first Seljuk Sultan Tughril (r. 1037–1063) and his nephew Alp Arslan (r. 1063–1072). Kunduri was born in Kundur. He was recruited into the Seljuk bureaucracy as a secretary, at the suggestion of his teacher, Imam al-Muwaffaq al-Nishapuri. A natural schemer, Kunduri sought to exploit the power and influence over the Seljuk sultan. Kunduri's first scheme was during his early vizierate when Tughril had tasked him to arrange a marriage between Tughril and a princess from the family of the Khwarazmshah. Instead, Kunduri arranged the marriage for himself. Kunduri subsequently went to Tughril, where he absolved himself by shaving off his beard and castrating himself. While Tughril was preparing a march towards Mosul to fight the local contender al-Basasiri in 1057, Kunduri plotted to install the son of Tughril's wife Altun Jan Khatun, Anushirwan, on the throne. However, the conspirators, including Altun Jan Khatun, quickly dissociated themselves from the conspiracy. Nevertheless, Kunduri was kept as vizier. Kunduri's third scheme was against the Abbasid caliph al-Qa'im (r. 1031–1075), whom he successfully convinced to accept a marriage between his daughter and Tughril. After the death of Tughril in 1063, Kunduri attempted to install his infant nephew Sulayman (a son of Chaghri Beg) on the throne. It was, however, Chaghri Beg's more competent and elder son Alp Arslan, who ruled Khurasan, that ultimately ascended the throne. Kunduri was initially kept as vizier, but at the instigation of his peer Nizam al-Mulk, Alp Arslan had Kunduri imprisoned on 31 December 1063, and executed the following year, on 29 November 1064. Kunduri was succeeded by Nizam al-Mulk.