At the heart of the Fatimid state lay the imamate, which challenged both the political hegemony and the religious authority of the Sunni ‘Abbasid caliphate. The Fatimids were a sect of Shi'is, that is, one of several groups who argued that ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib should have succeeded the Prophet Muhammad as head of the Islamic community of believers. These partisans of 'Ali (shVa, hence the term ShVt) also eventually claimed that the headship of the Islamic community should rest with the descendants of 'Ali and his wife Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet. They also believed that the descendants of 'Ali and Fatima had inherited special authority to interpret the Qur’an and religious law and belief. Disputes among different groups of Shi'is often centered, therefore, around genealogy. The Fatimids traced their own descent through Isma'il, one of the early Shi'i imams, and thus we call them Isma'ili.
When the Fatimids came to Egypt, they had already worked out their genealogical claims in detail, moved from being a secret missionary group to an openly declared caliphate, and founded a state in Ifriqiyya (modern-day Tunisia).’ The turning-point for the dynasty came with the accession of the fourth Fatimid imam-caliph, al-Mu'izz li-din Allah in 342/953. In 358/969, he succeeded in conquering Egypt after three unsuccessful attempts by his predecessors. The relatively bloodless campaign was led by his general Jawhar, who founded a new capital city, Cairo, just two miles north of the original Arab capital Fustat. Several years later, al-Mu'izz moved his court from north Africa to Cairo, and Egypt remained the center of the Fatimid empire until the end of the dynasty in 1171. Al-Mu'izz also carried out a successful program of propaganda in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, where local rulers recognized Fatimid rule until the eleventh century.
' For these developments, see chapter 5 above.
The reign of al-Mu‘izz’s successor al-‘Aziz (ruled 365-86/975-96) was dominated by his ambition to control southern and central Syria, and in this period the Fatimid empire reached its greatest extent. Egypt flourished under al-‘Aziz, who introduced a series of military reforms. He fixed the rates of pay for his army and court personnel, and he brought Turkish slave troops into the army. These Turkish troops rose to prominence at the expense of the Berbers who had brought the Fatimids to power. They were often at odds with both the Berbers and new regiments of black slave troops, beginning a history of factional strife that would continue to plague the Fatimid army.
Al-‘Aziz was succeeded by al-Hakim (ruled 386-411/996-1020), perhaps the best-known Fatimid caliph. His reign has been the object of much study, and modern scholars have puzzled over his often erratic behavior. In a state that had been marked by its tolerance of Jews, Christians, and Sunnis, al-FIakim introduced numerous repressive measures against those groups. However, he often repealed those measures as suddenly as he announced them. His eccentricities were a source of encouragement to a small group who believed him to be an incarnation of divinity. This group, the Druze, believed that when he disappeared in 411/1020, he had gone into concealment and would return at a later time. It appears, however, that al-FIakim was murdered by his own sister, Sitt al-Mulk, not only because of the threats his unpredictable behavior posed to the dynasty, but also because of his plan to make a cousin his successor, a move that would have violated the fundamental Isma'ili principle of father-to-son succession. Sitt al-Mulk also did away with the troublesome cousin and ensured the accession of al-Zahir (ruled 411-27/1020-35) to the throne, averting what could have become an early schism, and acted as regent. Al-Zahir’s undistinguished reign was marred by famine and internal unrest as well as by a series of foreign relations failures, most notably with the Byzantines. Nonetheless, in the early years of the long reign of al-Mustansir (ruled 427-87/1035-94), the Fatimid state was prosperous and its rulers had access to considerable financial resources.
The Persian traveler Nasir-i Khusrau reported, in the aftermath of a visit to Egypt in 1047-48, that the caliphs owned all the shops in Cairo - numbering 20,000 (an inflated figure, to be sure), and collected rent of between 2 and 10 dinars each month from each one - the caravanserais and bath-houses in Cairo, and an additional 8,000 revenue-producing buildings in Cairo and Fustaf. However, starting in the 1060s, a series of low Niles resulted in intermittent famine for nearly twenty years and compelled the caliph to appeal to the Byzantine emperor for grain. In addition, the factional fighting of rival Turkish and black slave soldiers escalated into open warfare, inaugurating a period called by medieval chroniclers al-shidda (the calamity). The Caliph al-Mustansir was forced to sell the dynasty’s immense treasuries of costumes, jewelry, and ceremonial arms in order to placate the army. But the situation continued to deteriorate, and in 465/ 1073, al-Mustansir asked the governor of Acre, Badr al-Jamali, for help.
Badr, a freed slave of Armenian origin, arrived in Egypt in the winter of 1073 and restored order in a matter of months. With a private army composed largely of Armenian soldiers, he crushed the Turkish troops in the capital. Drought and factional fighting in the provinces had prevented the cultivation of agricultural land for several years; there was famine; parts of Cairo had been decimated by looting; poverty was widespread, affecting even the Fatimid family. Badr crushed the fighting factions in the provinces, cultivated the support of the merchant class in pursuing a policy of law and order, and suspended taxes for three years in order to allow the peasants time to begin cultivating their land again. His policies succeeded in restoring order and creating the conditions which, once the drought was over, allowed the economic recovery of the country.
Badr’s power, unlike that of previous wazirs, did not depend upon the ditect patronage of the caliph; he had an independent base of power, his army, and his title atntr al-juyush (commander of the armies) was no mere honorific. Badr’s arrival inaugurated a century of rule by military wazirs with their own armies that persisted until the end of the Fatimid state. He assumed leadership of the civil bureaucracy, the military, and the propaganda mission. After Badr, Fatimid wazirs were almost exclusively military officers, and they were the real rulers of the state.
Badr died in 487/1094, only a few months before the Caliph al-Mustansir, and was succeeded in the wazirate by his son al-Afdal. Al-Afdal installed the younger son of al-Mustansir as the Caliph al-Musta'li (ruled 487-95/ 1094-1101). The first five Egyptian Fatimids (al-Mu‘izz, al-‘Aziz, al-Hakim, al-Zahir, al-Mustansir) were eldest sons, and the Fatimid family itself appeared to have adhered to the succession of the eldest son. The Nizaris, or supporters of the dispossessed elder son Nizar, never accepted the legitimacy of al-Musta‘li and his line, and they worked actively, but unsuccessfully, to overthrow the Farimid government. The short reign of al-Musta'li was dominated by the Nizari threat and by al-Afdal’s relatively successful attempts to recapture lost territories. In 495/1101, al-Afdal raised a five-year-old son of al-Musta'li to the throne. This caliph, al-Amir (r. 495-524/ 1101-30), remained under the thumb of al-Afdal until the latter’s death in 515/1121.
After al-Afdal’s death, al-Amir was able to reassert some of the power of the caliph, and he ruled directly after imprisoning his wazir al-Ma’mun al-Bata’ihi in 519/1125. But al-Amir’s rule was challenged constantly by the Nizaris, as well as by marauding Berber tribes. In 516/1125 he issued a proclamation that asserted the legitimacy of al-Musta'li’s line, but in 524/ 1130 he was assassinated by the Nizaris. At his death, al-Amir is said to have left an infant son, al-Tayyib. A cousin of the late caliph, 'Abd al-Majid, was named as regent by factions of the army. However, the son of al-Afdal, Abu ‘All Kutayfat, overthrew the government, confiscated the palace treasuries, and imprisoned ‘Abd al-Majid. He also deposed the Fatimid line in favor of the expected imam of the Twelver Shi'is. Abu ‘Ali Kutayfat remained in power for a little over a year and was murdered in 526/1131. At that time, ‘Abd al-Majid was restored as regent; but the infant al-Tayyib had disappeared, and there was no apparent heir. ‘Abd al-MajId thus proclaimed himself the imam with the title al-Hafiz (ruled 524-44/1130-49). His authority was contested both by the Nizaris, who opposed the Musta‘lian line altogether, and by the Tayyibis, who maintained that al-Tayyib was in concealment in the Yemen.
The last three Fatimid caliphs, al-Zafir (ruled 544-49/1149-54), al-Fa’iz (ruled 549-55/1154-60) and al-‘Adid (ruled 555-66/1160-71) came from the Hafizi line. All were children, and the last few years of Fatimid rule were essentially a contest for power between generals and wazirs. The last wazir of the Fatimid caliphs was Salah al-Din, best known to modern readers as the heroic figure who successfuly recaptured Jerusalem from the crusaders. But he also dealt the final blow to the Fatimid caliphate. In 566/1171, Salah al-Din had the name of the ‘Abbasid caliph read in the mosques of Cairo for the first time in over 200 years. A few days later, the last Fatimid caliph died.
World History
