Nizamiyya Madrasas

Timeline

1. c. 1065–1067Baghdad · BaghdadSeljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk founded the first Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad, supported by waqf endowments, establishing scholarships, dormitories, and a Sunni jurisprudence–theology curriculum, marking the institutional starting point of state-funded higher religious education in the Islamic world.
2. 1071–1080Cities of the Seljuk Empire · Seljuk EmpireAs Seljuk power expanded after the 1071 Battle of Manzikert, the Nizamiyya system spread to the empire's core cities, attracting students from many regions and becoming a central hub of Sunni scholarship and political propaganda, forming a close network with court jurists and theologians.
3. 1258Baghdad · BaghdadMongol forces captured Baghdad and the Abbasid caliphate fell; the Baghdad Nizamiyya was severely damaged and ceased operations, but its madrasa architectural form and waqf-based educational model were widely imitated across the Islamic world in the later Middle Ages.