In 1092, when Malik Shah I was assassinated shortly after Nizam al-Mulk, Taj al-Mulk nominated Mahmud as Sultan and set out for Isfahan.[7] Mahmud was a child, and his mother Terken Khatun wished to seize power in his stead. To accomplish this, she entered in negotiations with the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadi to secure her rule. The Caliph opposed both a child and a woman as ruler, and could not be persuaded to allow the khutba, the sign of the sovereign, to be proclaimed in the name of a woman: eventually, however, the Caliph agreed to let her govern if the khutba was said in the name of her son, and if she did so assisted by a vizier he appointed for her, a condition to which she saw herself forced to accept.[8]