and facilitated people's adoption of them. The second was the danger that began to emerge from the Crusaders, who started to harass the northern borders of the Seljuk state and managed to sweep through some areas of the Levant. This also served as an entry point to a conflict between the Seljuks and the Fatimids over possession of the Levant.

The intellectual life in Baghdad was flourishing during this period, and much of the credit for this goes to the vizier Nizam al-Mulk, who was passionate about knowledge. He founded numerous schools in Baghdad and other cities, encouraged scholars, organized intellectual gatherings, and helped resist the Batinis by preparing debaters for them from the People of the Sunnah. This gave rise to a vibrant intellectual movement, the most prominent feature of which was the critical and dialectical aspect shared by the People of the Sunnah, the Mu'tazila, the philosophers, and the Batinis. Baghdad in the late 5th and early 6th centuries was home to towering scholars in every field, a fact described by Ibn al-Arabi when he entered Baghdad in the year 486 AH, saying: "O people of the two horizons! I said: This is my lost treasure that I was seeking."

Ibn Tumart's Education in the East: Ibn Tumart's stay in the East lasted no less than ten years. The sources do not provide any details about this long stay, neither regarding the places he visited nor the student life he led. The few faint references in some sources related to his stay in Baghdad and some of his sheikhs there lead us to believe that he made this city his primary residence. As explained earlier, it was then a center of intellectual wealth and the seat of the most renowned scholars of the era in various fields. This was his goal for which he traveled. However, it is not unlikely that during this long stay, he made short trips to See: Ibn al-Arabi, Al-Awasim min al-Qawasim, p. 39 onwards. Abdul Monem Hassanein, Seljuks of Iran and Iraq, p. 40. Ibn al-Arabi, Al-Awasim min al-Qawasim, pp. 41, 76-5. 72