Al-Ābī, Abū al-Maḥāsin Naṣīr al-Dīn Saʿd b. Muḥammad (d. 500/1107) known as Saʿd al-Mulk, was vizier to the Saljūq sultan Muḥammad b. Malik Shāh. As suggested by his full title, Saʿd al-Mulk was from Ābah, a village in the centre of the Iranian plateau, near Sāwah (see Yāqūt, ‘Ābah’). Information on Saʿd al-Mulk's life before his vizierate is sparse. We only know that he was one of the inner circle of friends of Abū al-Ghanāʾim Tāj al-Mulk, a prominent official at the court of the Malik Shāh. He was later appointed to the office of financial affairs (dīwān-i istīfāʾ) by the vizier, Muʾayyid …