in the two expeditions against Egypt, and in the vigour with which he
repressed the simmering revolts in Africa. His accession was marked by
two expeditions; a naval attack on the south of France, the coast of
Genoa and Calabria, which resulted in the bringing home of many slaves
and plunder: and another attempt on Egypt, which, however, was promptly
checked by the Ikhshid’s brother, ʿUbayd Allah.
At the moment Egypt was too well administered to allow opportunity for
invasion such as had taken place in 307-8. The Ikhshid was doing his best
to hold Syria and to bolster up the tottering throne of the Khalifs,
but had forces to spare for the protection of Egypt. It is true that he
was defeated shortly afterwards by Ibn Raiq, who had seized Damascus
and was compelled to pay tribute, but after two years’ payment Ibn Raiq
died (A.H. 326), and then the Ikhshid was able, not only to recover all
that he had temporarily been compelled to yield, but was in a position
to extend his dominions, and brought Syria under his control. Not long
afterwards the Khalif entrusted him with the guardianship of Mecca and
Madina. At that time the Ikhshid was the only loyal supporter on whom the
Khalif could rely, chiefly, of course, because of his jealousy towards
those who threatened the throne of Baghdad.
Unable to divert his subjects by the long hoped for conquest of Egypt,
al-Qaʾim had to meet more serious rebellions in the west than his father
had experienced. The principal revolt took place amongst the Zenata tribe
of Aures and Zab, south of the Katama territory, nearly all members of
the Kharijite sect, led by a darwish named Abu Yazid, who assumed the
title of “Sheikh of the true believers,” but was better known as “the man
with an ass.” This movement was mainly of a nationalist character, and
aimed at establishing a purely Berber state in which Arabs should have no
place. The Berbers had won Spain, and had done most to place the Fatimids
on the throne of Kairawan, but in both cases they seemed to have been
cheated out of the fruits of their labours by wily Asiatics, and so the
motive in this revolt was the assertion of their racial rights.
In 332 Abu Yazid marched northwards at the head of most of the Zenata
tribe of the south, hereditary rivals of the Katama, and many other
Berbers. In rapid succession he took Baghai, Tabassa, Mermajenna, and
Laribus. The Fatimid forces tried to prevent his advance upon Baja, but
were repulsed. It was the story of Abu ʿAbdullah over again, but this
time it was a Berber at the head of Berber tribes, and the religious
motive assigned was the restoration of the primitive ideals of Islam,
the democratic election of the Khalif, and all the reactionary programme
of the Kharijites which was, and is, the most congenial to the nomadic
tribes of Africa and Arabia. We have seen very much the same programme in
the history of the Sanusi in recent times. The successful repulse of the
Fatimid army made a great impression, and all the Zanata tribes of Zab,
the Hwaras of the Aures, and many others, rallied round Abu Yazid. At the
head of a large, but undisciplined force, he marched towards Kairawan:
on the way he met a Fatimid army, but this time suffered defeat. It was,
however, no more than a temporary check; he soon rallied, took Raqada,
and then pressed on to Kairawan, defeated the forces of the Fatimid
Khalif, and captured the city. Al-Qaʾim was obliged to take refuge in
al-Mahadiya, which Abu Yazid forthwith besieged. At this juncture the
Katama and Sanhaja tribes came in mass to relieve the city, and Abu
Yazid’s followers, demoralised by the steady resistance of the defenders,
were obliged to retire. As they retreated al-Qaʾim followed, and was soon
able to recover the whole of Tunisia, but after an interval Abu Yazid
rallied and laid siege to the town of Susa.
At this juncture al-Qaʾim died, and was succeeded by his son, who took
the name al-Mansur (the protected).
Al-Qaʾim had accompanied his father, the Mahdi, in his flight from
Syria, and had proved himself a trusty and competent general before his
accession to the throne. He figures in history solely as a fighting man:
we hear nothing of any development either in the Ismaʿilian sect or in
the organization of the Fatimid state.
VII
THE THIRD FATIMID KHALIF, AL-MANSUR
(A.H. 335-342 = A.D. 946-953)
The stability of the Fatimid Khalifate was problematical when al-Qaʾim
died at the height of Abu Yazid’s rebellion. The first task of the
new Khalif al-Mansur was to relieve Susa, and he was fortunate enough
to inflict a severe defeat on Abu Yazid, and to drive him back to the
mountains of Kiana in the extreme west of Ifrikiya. There a stubborn
struggle followed which lasted a whole year, but was terminated by the
final defeat and complete rout of the insurgent Berbers, Abu Yazid
himself being mortally wounded in the final engagement and dying soon
after.
This revolt, however, begins the decay of Fatimid authority in the
west. The Zanata tribes of Maghrawa and B. Ifrene were able to form a
separate state in the neighbourhood of Tlemsen, whilst the Umayyads of
Spain established a colony at Fez, where they placed the descendants
of Musa ibn Abi l-Afia and his followers, Syrian Arabs who had been
invited to Spain but had become obnoxious, and whom it was advisable to
segregate from the earlier settlers in Spain. Central Maghrab, roughly
corresponding to the greater part of Algeria, was held by the Sanhaja
tribe, steady allies and supporters of the Fatimid Khalifate, under the
government of Ziri b. Menad, who built the town of Achir as his capital.
Such was the position when al-Mansur died in 342 and was succeeded by
his son Maʿad, who took the name of al-Moʿizz. Al-Mansur’s reign had
been occupied entirely in dealing with Abu Yazid’s rebellion, and in the
consolidation of the country after this rebellion had been put down. It
cannot be said that he left the Fatimid state in a strengthened position
when compared with conditions under the Mahdi, for already independent
states had begun to be formed in the West, but he had dealt successfully
with the emergency existing at the time of his accession.
The Fatimid state was essentially an hereditary one, for the Shiʿite
theory implied the legitimate descent of the Imam. The recognition of
Ismaʿil, the son of Jaʿfar, clearly showed that the father’s claimed
right of disposing of the succession was invalid in the eyes of the sect
of Seveners. From that time the succession had been strictly hereditary.
But the Fatimids, seated in power, borrowed the constitutional usage of
the Khalifs of Baghdad, and secured the succession by obtaining formal
recognition of the heir during their lifetime. Thus Maʿad was formally
recognised as next in succession on Monday, the 7th of Dhu l-Hijja 341,
and came to the throne in the following year. In the ʿAbbasid Khalifate
this recognition was a relic of the earlier election, and meant that the
next Khalif was formally elected by the princes during his predecessor’s
lifetime, the orthodox Khalifate not being professedly hereditary. The
case was otherwise with the Fatimids who were legitimist, and could only
have as Imam the one chosen by God, and to whom alone the Divine Spirit
could pass at the preceding Imam’s death. No doubt the formal recognition
during the father’s life was adopted as a measure of precaution;
theoretically it might be defended by the supposition that its point was
the father’s public recognition of his son and heir, but the real case
seems to be that it was simply borrowed from the usages of the court of
Baghdad, and marks a relaxation of the theocratic and sectarian character
of the Fatimid state which is gradually inclining towards becoming a
purely secular one, differing from the Baghdad Khalifate in little more
than in that it professed Shiʿism as the established religion.
VIII
THE FOURTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-MOʿIZZ
(A.H. 342-365 = A.D. 953-975)
The new Fatimid Khalif was of a type somewhat different from his
predecessors. Like them, indeed, he proved an able and efficient ruler,
but unlike them he was a man of cultured tastes and of considerable
literary ability. His heart was set on the conquest of Egypt, the great
dream ever present before his father and grandfather, which seemed now
coming within the bounds of possibility.
To understand this we must turn for a while to the course of events
in Egypt. The Ikhshid Muhammad b. Tughj had died in 335, and had been
succeeded by his son Abu l-Qasim Unjur, a child of 15, who was kept in
a state of pupilage by a black eunuch named Abu l-Misk Kafur, _i.e._,
“Camphor, the father of musk.” This Kafur was an ungainly black slave, of
ponderous bulk and mis-shapen legs, who had been purchased as a boy of
ten in the year 310 and sent one day with a present to the Ikhshid; the
present was returned, but the messenger was retained. Little by little he
rose in the service, first of the Ikhshid’s household, then in that of
the state, conciliating everyone by his pleasing manners and fair words,
and was finally appointed by the Ikhshid _atatek_, or guardian, to his
two sons. At the Ikhshid’s death a riot broke out, and this Kafur put
down with such tact that he was regarded with even greater favour and
consideration by all the public officials. Soon afterwards news arrived
that the Hamdanid Sayf ad-Dawla ʿAli had taken Damascus, and was marching
upon Ramla. At once Kafur set out at the head of the army and checked
ʿAli, returning home with considerable booty. This greatly increased
his reputation, and, although holding no constitutional authority he
was able to get all the business of the state into his hands, and was
generally conceded the title of _ustad_ or “tutor,” a word often used
in the same sense as _patron_ in French, and under this title he was
mentioned in the _khutba_ or Friday prayer. As his ward Unjur grew
older, however, a more or less veiled hostility arose between them, each
on his guard against the other, until the titular prince died in 349,
not without suspicion of being poisoned by the ustad, although such
suspicions were usual in every case where a death seemed to be timely:
the oriental world has always had an obsession for poisoning.
Kafur was now strong enough to control the appointment of the next heir
and, as Maqrizi expresses it, appointed the deceased prince’s brother
Abu l-Hasan ʿAli to succeed him, paying him an annual pension of 400,000
dinars, and reserving the whole administration in his own hands. The
new Emir, though 23 years of age, was kept shut up and was permitted
to see no-one. However, the same strained feelings arose between him
and the ustad as in the case of his brother, and when he died in 355
there were the same suspicions. For some time Egypt remained without a
regular governor,—it must be remembered that the Emir was theoretically
no more than a viceroy appointed by the Khalif at Baghdad,—and all the
power continued in Kafur’s hands as he declined to proclaim Anujin’s
son, saying that he was too young to occupy the position of Emir. About
a month after Abu l-Hasan ʿAli’s death he displayed a pelisse of honour
sent from Baghdad and a charter nominating himself governor under the
title of ustad, and on Tuesday, the 10th of Safar 355 (Feb., 966), he
began to wear the pelisse in public (Ibn Khall. ii. 524, etc.).
Before long the Khalif al-Moʿizz made another attempt upon Egypt, and his
army advanced to the oases before the western frontier, but Kafur checked
the advance and slew several of the invaders, but received at his court
some of the Fatimid missionaries whom al-Moʿizz sent as envoys to invite
Kafur to recognise his authority. The Ustad received them favourably,
and most of his entourage and the chief officials gave their promises
of homage to the Fatimid. It seems, indeed, that Kafur had formed the
definite plan of transferring allegiance from the ʿAbbasid Khalif to the
Fatimid, or rather that such a transference should take place at the next
vacancy in the governorship of Egypt.
Kafur never repeated the military enterprise or success of his two
earlier expeditions, his defeat of the Hamdanid and his repulse of the
Fatimid, if indeed this latter can be regarded as a success. He was
unable to prevent the Qarmatians who had raided Syria in 352, from
capturing the caravan of Egyptian pilgrims on their way to Mecca in 355.
Nor could he restrain a Nubian invasion into Egypt which plundered the
more southern districts and took home much booty. Still more serious
misfortunes which were not under his control were the two low Niles,
producing famine and misery, and a severe fire which destroyed parts of
Fustat, as well as an earthquake. On the whole the four years of Kafur’s
rule were a period of distress and discontent.
Yet many in after days looked back to those years as a kind of golden
age. It was a period in which the later growth of Arabic literature was
in full tide, that later literature which contrasted with the ancient
Arabic poetry of the more strictly classical period, when both prose
and poetry were manipulated mainly by men who were not Arabs by race,
but obtained a greater technical skill than the earlier writers had
achieved. To that later literature the negro ruler of Egypt showed
himself a generous patron and his court was filled with poets, wits,
and men of letters who were attracted to Egypt by the liberality of
the black Maecenas. Like most of his race he was passionately fond of
music; and the beautiful gardens which he laid out on the north of
Fustat, gardens which the Fatimids incorporated in their royal city of
Cairo, transmitted his name to succeeding generations. He was lavish
in his expenditure,—the negro is always ostentatious,—and especially
so on the daily provisions of his kitchen, but this was counted in his
favour, for the Arabic tradition was that princes should dispense an
open handed hospitality, and the Egyptians of ancient and modern times
have had a strong inclination to appreciate feasting and the indulgence
of the appetite. But most welcome of all to his table were poets and
epigrammists, who rarely went away without some substantial rewards
for their literary efforts. One poet was able to leave behind him a
hundred suits of robes of honour, twice that number of vests, and five
hundred turbans. Such literary courtiers naturally turned their genius to
complimentary verses about their patron. One, playing upon his name Kafur
or “camphro,” composed verses on the fragrant scented gardens which he
had laid out, and which long stood for the ideal gardens in the Egyptian
mind: another explained in verse how the shocks of earthquake had been
caused by the Egyptians dancing for delight as they contemplated Kafur’s
merits, an effusion which caused the delighted Ustad to throw him a
purse containing a thousand dinars. Amongst his pensioners was the poet
al-Mutanabbi, who had left the court of the Hamdanid Sayf ad-Dawla in
anger at the smallness of his presents, and thought little of a prince
who did not come up to his very high standard of generosity. At first
Kafur used to smile graciously at him, but the poet wanted presents and
not mere compliments. “When I went into Kafur’s presence,” he said, “with
the intention of reciting verses to him, he always laughed at seeing me
and smiled in my face, but when I repeated to him these lines:—
‘Since friendship has become a mere deception, I am repaid
for my smiles with smiles; but when I choose a friend my mind
misgives me, for I know he is but a man’:
he never did so again as long as I remained with him. I was astonished
at this proof of his sagacity and intelligence.” He was very quickly
dissatisfied with Kafur. “What I want,” he said, “I declare not; thou
art gifted with sagacity, and my silence is a sufficient explanation,
nay a plain request.” At length he left Kafur’s court, dissatisfied at
the liberal gifts he received because they were not ample enough, and
revenged himself by writing satires on Kafur, such as:—
“Who could teach noble sentiments to this castrated negro?—his
white masters?—or his ancestors who were hunted like wild
beasts?”
The poet finally settled at the court of Adud ad-Dawla at Shiraz (Ibn
Khall. ii. 524, sqq.).
But Kafur, though easy going and with many of the weaknesses of the
negro, was a man who had the wit to acquire more than a superficial
education by the right use of opportunities which were often available
to the ambitious slave, and which indeed form one of the redeeming
features of slavery as it existed in Muslim lands. Besides this he was
a painstaking and efficient administrator, and a man of deep religious
convictions.
In all Kafur ruled the country twenty-two years, part of the time as
tutor to the two sons of the Ikhshih, part as independent viceroy in all
but name. During the closing years of this period he became unpopular.
Feeling had been strained by the famine due to the bad Niles, and the
reports of the Qarmatians’ advance into Syria bred disaffection amongst
the Turkish and Greek mercenaries. On Tuesday, the 20th Jumada I. 356
(May, 967), he died at the age of sixty, leaving property to the value of
700,000 dinars of gold, and goods, furniture, jewels, slaves, and animals
valued at some 600,000 dinars.
Kafur’s death left Egypt in a state of confusion. The court assembled
to elect a governor; a significant mark of the times, for no reference
was made to the Khalif at Baghdad, who was a mere phantom. The choice
fell on Abu l-Fawaris Ahmad, grandson of the Ikhshih Muhammad b. Tughj,
who was a mere child. Soon after this, however, there arrived in Egypt
Husayn, the son of ʿAbdullah, the brother whom Muhammad had left in Syria
in 321. During the thirty years which had elapsed since then ʿUbayd and
his son had had a chequered military career, and the son now arrived
as a fugitive, fleeing from the Qarmatians. His arrival was welcome to
the Turkish troops who forthwith elected him their general, and he at
once assumed the supreme power. The use he made of this authority was to
arrest the wazir Ibn al-Furat and torture him until he wrung from him
a large sum of money with which he departed at once to Syria. During
his brief stay in Egypt he had been guilty of other acts of cruelty and
rapacity, and when a year later he was himself sent a prisoner to Egypt,
there was a general feeling of satisfaction that he was himself treated
with severity. His departure for Syria took place on the first of Rabiʿ
II. 358 (Feb., 969). The rule of the Ikhshids, or at least their nominal
authority, continued for five months more until the summer of the same
year (Ibn Khall, Life of Tughj).
It was a time of acute disorder. Famine had followed the failure of the
Nile, and plague had followed the famine. The soldiers had their pay
diminished, their customary gratuities were in arrear, and they were in
open mutiny, for there was no controlling hand to restrain them. The
administration was in the hands of the wazir Ibn al-Furat, who had been
plundered by ʿAbdullah, and he was unable either to pay the troops or
to relieve the distress of the people. It was clear that under these
conditions the country would be in no condition to offer effective
resistance to an invader, and this was the moment chosen by the Fatimid
Khalif to make his attack.
For two years (356-357) al-Moʿizz had been making detailed preparations
for the invasion of Egypt. In 356 he had commenced constructing roads,
digging wells along the roadside, and building rest-houses at regular
intervals. At the same time he began collecting funds for the necessary
expenses and paying substantial sums to the Katama leaders, who were
thus enabled to arm and equip their followers. As we have already seen,
there had been Fatimite missionaries for some time at work in Egypt,
and al-Moʿizz had even made formal advances to Kafur and had been well
received, and his proposals for coming to Egypt had been heard with
politeness: he certainly had many strong adherents in high office in
Egypt. Now the general disorder following the famine and plague, and
the disorganization after Kafur’s death seemed to furnish the right
opportunity, just as all his preparations were mature.
An even more important task had been performed in bringing all North
Africa into complete subordination. Cultured literary man as the Fatimid
Khalif was, he was also a most efficient organizer, and was well served
by officials whom he treated with generous confidence. The disciplining
of Africa was a necessary preliminary to an expedition outside the bounds
of the country, which might well be of protracted duration and uncertain
issue. For this he had the assistance of an able general, Abu l-Hasan
Jawhar b. ʿAbdullah, commonly known as “Jawhar the Greek scribe,” as he
was a liberated slave trained as a secretary, whose father had been
subject of the Byzantine Empire. Like Kafur he shows that the slave
in Islam was not merely treated as a fellow man, but had a career of
ambition open before him, in which his servile origin was no obstacle;
even in modern times slaves have risen to high office, and have sometimes
married princesses. There was no colour barrier nor any racial feeling:
no reluctance was felt at white men being ruled by a negro ex-slave.
Marching to the Maghrab, Jawhar joined forces with the Sanhaja chieftain
Ziri, who was one of the most faithful allies of the Fatimids (cf. p.
123), and together they advanced upon the Umayyad colonies at Fez and
Sijilmasa. These they took and thus prevented the possibility of Spanish
interference in Africa for the time. Continuing westwards they reduced
the whole Maghrab to the coast. As a sign of the extent of the expedition
fish were caught in the ocean, and sent in jars to the Khalif in company
with the princes of Fez and Sijilmasa, who were conveyed in an iron cage.
The only town left to the Umayyads was Sibta (Ceuta). The Idrisid princes
of the far west, descendants of Hasan, the son of ʿAli, were put down,
and thus their independent rule which had lasted just over two centuries
came to an end. It was a more thorough reduction of the country than had
ever been made previously, and when Jawhar returned to Kairawan al-Moʿizz
was recognised as the unquestioned ruler of all North Africa.
The Khalif determined to entrust the invasion of Egypt to Jawhar, who
had so clearly proved his efficiency in the reduction of the Maghrab,
but just about this time Jawhar fell ill. Al-Moʿizz was not willing
to replace him, and continued his preparations, assembling troops and
supplies at Raqada: every day he visited the general who, as soon as his
health was sufficiently restored, the order to advance was given.
Jawhar was the commander of the Fatimid force, but with him was another
who played an important part in the subsequent construction of the
Fatimid state in Egypt. Yaqub b. Killis was a native of Baghdad, by
origin and for many years by religion a Jew. His father sent him first
to Syria, then to Egypt, where he became a chamberlain to Kafur, then
received a seat on the privy council and acted as accountant and
treasurer. He became a Muslim in 356. At Kafur’s death he was arrested
by his rival the wazir Ibn al-Furat, but by bribing his gaolers he
managed to escape and fled to Kairawan. The expedition against Egypt was
already in full preparation, but he joined himself with Jawhar and proved
a useful adviser. He was commonly regarded as the instigator of the
enterprise, but this does not seem to be accurate.