With the start of preparations for the series “Nizam al-Mulk – The Golden Age,” there is renewed talk about Turkish historical drama and its ability to renew itself and maintain its appeal to the audience, despite the transformations taking place in the production market and the platforms’ trend towards shorter works.
The new work, which deals with the biography of the Grand Vizier of the Seljuk State, Nizam al-Mulk, not only evokes an influential historical stage, but also returns viewers to a type of historical drama that has been relatively absent from Turkish screens in recent years.
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Since the great success of “The Sultan’s Harem” (The Magnificent Century) when it was shown in 2011, Turkish historical works have been associated in the minds of the public with conflicts within palaces, competition for influence, and political conspiracies taking place behind the closed doors of government. The series then represented a turning point in the Turkish drama industry, after it achieved exceptional spread inside and outside Türkiye, and opened the door to a wide wave of works inspired by history.
But the following years took a different path, with the rise of works such as “The Resurrection of Ertugrul,” “The Founder Osman,” “Alp Arslan,” and others, where stories of founding, conquests, military battles, and border conflict dominated the Turkish historical scene.
As for “Nizam al-Mulk – The Golden Age,” it seems closer to restoring the atmosphere established by “The Sultan’s Harem,” as it places at the center of events a political figure who is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the Seljuk state, in a work whose events are expected to revolve around the complex balances within the court, alliances, conspiracies, and struggles over power, as much as it deals with the historical facts themselves.
A shift in drama
The stake in “The King’s System – The Golden Age” is not limited to the historical figure it deals with or the era it restores, but also includes the way history itself is presented. While Turkish historical drama during the past years has been associated with huge works that sometimes extended to hundreds of episodes, as happened with “The Resurrection of Ertugrul” and “The Founder Osman,” the new project comes in only about 15 episodes, in a clear reflection of the transformations that digital platforms have imposed on the drama industry.
This transformation reveals that Turkish drama is not abandoning history as a popular material that has proven its ability to attract viewers inside and outside Turkey, but rather is reformulating this material to suit new viewing patterns. After years of long works that relied on expanding narratives and multiple lines and characters, platforms today are moving towards more focused and intense works that maintain the same elements of historical suspense, but within limited seasons and a faster pace.
Hence, “Nizam al-Mulk – The Golden Age” appears to be an attempt to combine two worlds: the classic historical drama that was based on political conflicts, influential figures, and major events, and the modern platform model that prefers short seasons. Thus, the work turns into a new test of the ability of Turkish historical drama to maintain its audience.
Back to court drama
The work includes a group of well-known names in Turkish drama, led by Mert Turak in the role of Nizam al-Mulk, and Alp Navruz, who embodies the character of Sultan Malik Shah in his first experience within historical works. Also participating in the tournament are Deniz Barot as Safiye Hatun, Bulent Çolak as Hassan Sabah, and Burak Çelik as Prince Tuş, in addition to Dilara Yeşil Yaprak as Zubeida Hatun.
The work is directed by Amir Khalilzadeh, while the script bears the signature of Issa Yildiz and a team of writers specialized in historical drama.
The characters of the work, such as Nizam al-Mulk, Malik Shah, and Hassan al-Sabbah, reveal that the focus of events will not be based on military conquests and battles alone, as is the case in a number of Turkish historical works, but rather on a complex network of alliances, political conflicts, and competition for influence within the Seljuk state.
This makes “Nizam al-Mulk – The Golden Age” closer to works that were based on the corridors of governance, conspiracies, and decision centers, an atmosphere that previously contributed to the success of “The Sultan’s Harem” and made it one of the most influential and widespread historical works.
The work comes to provide viewers with a visual and historical experience that is intended to be different in its approach to characters and events, within a treatment that combines the dramatic dimension and the historical framework on which the Seljuk state and its complex conflicts were founded.
This is not the first time that the character of Nizam al-Mulk has appeared in Turkish drama. The famous Seljuk minister previously appeared in the series “The Great Seljuk Renaissance,” which was shown between 2020 and 2021. Actor Mehmet Ozgür portrayed the character of Nizam al-Mulk, while Gurkan Uygun played the role of Hassan al-Sabah, one of the most prominent opponents of the Seljuk state and founder of the “Assassins” group.
Between history and drama
Nizam al-Mulk, or Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Tusi, was not just a minister in the Seljuk state, but rather one of the most prominent political minds in medieval Islamic history. He gradually rose within the ruling circles until he became the Grand Vizier of the Sultans Alp Arslan and then Malik Shah, to be the administrative mind that contributed to stabilizing the pillars of a state that extended from Central Asia to the Anatolian plateau. His name was associated with reorganizing the administration and the army, and establishing the idea of a strong central state. He also established a system of regular schools that played a pivotal role in spreading religious and intellectual education in his era.
But his historical picture is not complete without stopping at one of the most exciting chapters of his life, which was his long struggle with Hassan al-Sabbah, the founder of the Assassin group, where the confrontation between them turned into a struggle of influence, doctrine, and politics within the heart of the Seljuk state, and ended with his assassination in 1092, in an incident that remains one of the most influential political assassinations in Islamic history.
History between reformulation and the bet on the present
“Nizam al-Mulk – The Golden Age” puts Turkish historical drama to a new test, not only related to the subject or era, but also to the way history itself is invested within a rapidly changing industry. Between the weight of a personality the size of the King’s regime, and the complex conflicts that the Seljuk era entailed, the work bets on re-presenting history as a political drama charged with tension, capable of attracting an audience accustomed to seeing in this genre a space for amazement and follow-up.
