Al-Moʿizz attended with his court to bid him farewell. During this
meeting the general stood before the Khalif, who leaned down on his
horse’s neck and spoke to him privately for some time. The Khalif then
ordered his sons to dismount and give Jawhar the salutation of departure;
this obliged all the great officers of state to dismount also. Jawhar
then kissed the hand of the Khalif and the hoof of his horse and,
mounting at his master’s command, gave the word for the whole force to
march. When al-Moʿizz returned to his palace he sent as a present to
Jawhar all the clothes he had been wearing at the farewell interview,
save only his drawers and signet ring. At the same time he sent forward
orders to Aflah, the governor of Barqa, that he should set out to meet
Jawhar and kiss his hand. Aflah offered a gift of 100,000 dinars to be
permitted to escape this act of homage, but was obliged to submit (Ibn
Khall. i. 341-2).
Jawhar first advanced upon Alexandria. The city capitulated on liberal
terms; there was no pillage and no violence to any of the inhabitants, as
Jawhar was able to restrain his well-paid army in admirable discipline.
The news of Jawhar’s approach caused great dismay in Fustat. It was
decided that the wazir Ibn al-Furat should write to him and ask for peace
with security for the lives and property of the citizens. At the same
time Abu Jaʿfar Muslim b. ʿUbayd Allah, an emir of high standing, and an
acknowledged descendant of Husayn the son of ʿAli, was asked to go in
person to plead with Jawhar, it being assumed that an ʿAlid envoy would
carry weight with the Shiʿites. Abu Jaʿfar consented on condition that a
company of citizens went with him (id.).
The deputation set out on Monday, the 18th of Rajab 358 (= 18 June,
969) and met Jawhar at Taruja, a village not far from Alexandria. They
delivered their appeal to him, and he immediately granted all their
requests, and confirmed his promised by a written statement. With this
the envoys returned to Fustat, where they arrived on the 7th of Shaban.
The wazir Ibn al-Furat rode out to meet them, read Jawhar’s statement,
and handed to each of his companions who had written to Jawhar asking
for appointments under the new government his replies, which were in
all cases favourable. Some time was spent then in discussion, but the
informal gathering dispersed without agreeing to any uniform attitude
towards the invaders. The city was still in great alarm, and the
adherents of the Ikhshids, the officers who had served under Kafur and
some of the army, determined to reject Jawhar’s proffered peace and to
make armed resistance. Valuables were concealed, a camp was formed, and
Nahrir ash-Shoizai was chosen general. Under his leadership the Egyptian
army marched out to Giza and set companies to guard the bridges.
On the 11th of Shaban, Jawhar arrived, having been informed of the
intended resistance. He took several prisoners and marched to Muniat
as-Sayadin (the village of the fishermen) and seized the ford of Muniat
Shalkan. At this some of the Egyptian troops passed over in boats and
surrendered, but the men on the Fustat side put a guard at the ford. Then
Jawhar stripped to his trousers, and at the head of his men waded into
the river, and thus arrived at the other side where they attacked the
defenders and killed a considerable number. Night had now approached,
and under the cover of darkness the rest of the defenders fled from the
city, carrying off from their houses whatever they could. A deputation of
wives waited on Abu Jaʿfar asking him to write to Jawhar and obtain, if
possible, a renewal of his previous offers of peace. Abu Jaʿfar wrote as
requested: the Fatimid general readily assented, and issued an order to
the troops forbidding pillage and violence. At this the city recovered
its confidence, the bazars were re-opened, and commercial life went on
its normal course (Ibn Khall. i. 343).
On Tuesday, the 17th Shaban, by Jawhar’s order, a deputation of leading
officials, sharifs, the learned, and prominent citizens went out to
Giza. By orders announced by a herald everyone except the wazir Ibn
al-Furat and the Sharif Abu Jaʿfar, dismounted and saluted Jawhar in
turn, the Fatimite general standing with the Sharif on his right hand,
the Wazir on his left. After this ceremony was concluded the envoys
returned to the city, and the troops commenced their entry with arms and
baggage. After the ʿAsr or hour of mid-afternoon prayer Jawhar himself
made his entry preceded by drums and flags; he wore a silk dress heavily
embroidered with gold, and rode a cream coloured horse. He rode straight
through the city with his men, and passing out on the north-east side
pitched camp there.
Late in the evening in the camping ground he marked out a great square of
1,200 yards base, and men were stationed, spade in hand, ready to start
the foundations of this new city, or rather royal suburb, when the signal
was given. The projected lines, all sketched out by al-Moʿizz himself
beforehand, were marked with pegs, and bells were hung from connected
ropes so that a signal might be given for the simultaneous turning of the
first sod. Meanwhile the astrologers were busy calculating the propitious
moment for the birth of the city. Unexpectedly, however, a raven settling
down on one of the ropes set all the bells jingling, and the men at once
thrust their spades into the soil. It was too late to check them, though
the astrologers found that it was a most inauspicious moment as the
planet _al-Kahir_ (Mars) was in the ascendant. There was nothing for it
but to accept the omen, and the city thus commenced was named _al-Kahira_
(Cairo), or more fully _al-Kahira al-Mahrusa_ (the guarded city of Mars).
It was designed as a royal suburb to be entirely devoted to palaces and
official buildings, inaccessible to the general public, similar to the
city of al-Muhammadiya outside Kairawan. In course of time, however, the
main part of the population of Fustat migrated to Kahira, and it is now
the most populous city in the whole of Africa.
Fustat, or Misr al-Atika, or simply Misr, was the old Arab city founded
in A.H. 21 soon after the conquest. In 133 the suburb of al-ʿAskar to the
north-east was added, but this was simply cantonments for the government
officials, and was not accessible to the ordinary citizens. Al-Qataiʿ
“the wards,” a kind of additional cantonments intended for the foreign
mercenary troops, was added in 256, but was partially destroyed by the
later ʿAbbasid governors and finally abandoned. Al-Kahira stood further
to the north-east, and it was after the burning of Fustat in 564 that the
population generally began to colonize this suburb.
When the people came out from the city next morning to Jawhar’s camp they
found, to their unbounded surprise, that the foundations of the new city
had been dug during the night. For six days after the troops continued
entering the old city, passing through, and going out to the new suburb
where was Jawhar’s camp. News of the successful occupation of Egypt was
without delay sent to the Khalif, and with it were the heads of the
Egyptians slain at the ford.
Jawhar now issued orders that all mention of the ʿAbbasid Khalif at
Baghdad in the Friday prayer must cease, and in place of his name the
coinage must bear the inscription _bi-smi mulaʿi l-Moʿizz_, “in the name
of my master al-Moʿizz.” At the same time the preachers in the mosques
were forbidden to wear the black garments usual under the ʿAbbasids,
and were ordered to use white, a similar order being issued to public
officials generally. It was ordered that every Sunday a court should be
held for the “Inspection of complaints,” for the hearing of petitions
against officials and against the administration, the Kaʾid or military
governor, _i.e._, Jawhar himself, being present as well as the Wazir,
Qadi, and a number of men learned in the law, so that those who had
complaints against officials which lay outside the scope of the ordinary
law courts might obtain redress. The court did not try cases, but on
hearing a complaint referred it to the proper qadi with orders to see
that it received attention. The decision was then sent to the court of
“Inspection of complaints,” and written out in substance by a secretary,
and then passed on to another secretary who put the summary in full
legal form. This was taken to the Khalif who confirmed it, and this
authoritative decision was then communicated to the petitioner, who had
the whole protection of the state behind him in putting it into effect.
On Friday, the 8th of Dhu l-Kaada, in the _khutba_, the words were added,
“O my God, bless Muhammad the chosen, ʿAli the accepted, Fatima the pure,
and al-Hasan and al-Husayn, the grandsons of the Apostle, whom thou hast
freed from stain and thoroughly purified. O my God, bless the pure Imams,
ancestors of the Commanders of the faithful” (Ibn Khall. i. 344). This
was at once a profession of Shiʿite faith, and an assertion of the claim
of al-Moʿizz to be descended from the house of ʿAli. There is no sign
that any appreciable number of the Egyptians became converts to Shiʿite
views: for the most part these claims were regarded with complete apathy
until the celebration of the great Shiʿite festival of the Muharram, when
there was some rioting. The people at large acquiesced in the new rule
without paying any attention to its religious claims.
On Friday, the 18th of Rabiʿ II. 359, the Kaʾid Jawhar himself presided
at the public prayers and sermon in the Old Mosque, that is the Mosque
of ʿAmr. The building then existing had been erected by ʿAbdullah b.
Tahir in 212, and is still standing. It escaped destruction when the city
was burned, but suffered a disastrous restoration in A.D. 1798. At this
service many soldiers were present. The preacher was ʿAbdu s-Sami b. Umar
al-ʿAbbasi, who in the _khutba_ made especial mention of the “people
of the house,” _i.e._, the family of ʿAli, and prayed for the Kaʾid,
although Jawhar did not approve of his own name being thus mentioned,
saying that no authority for it had been given in the instructions he
had received from al-Moʿizz. In the call to prayer the Shiʿite custom of
adding the words “come to the excellent work” was adopted. In the month
of Jumada I. this addition was made in the call to prayer at the Old
Mosque, at which Jawhar was greatly pleased, and made a report of the
circumstance to the Khalif (Ibn Khall. i. 344-5).
Meanwhile progress was being made with the building of al-Kahira. The
new city was surrounded with a wall of large bricks, of which the last
fragments were observed by Maqrizi in A.D. 1400. In the middle of the
great enclosure was an open space, the _Bayn al-Kasrayn_, “between
the two palaces,” as it was afterwards called, large enough for 10,000
troops to be paraded: a small portion of this open space remains as the
Suq an-Nahhasin. On the east was the Khalif’s palace; one corner of
its site is now marked by the Khan al-Khalili, another by the Husayn
Mosque. The name of the square was of later date, and due to the fact
that al-Moʿizz’s successor built a lesser palace on its west side, at the
beginning of the beautiful garden which Kafur had laid out, and which the
Fatimid Khalifs maintained. A great thoroughfare led through the midst
of Kahira from the Bab al-Zuwayla on the south side, communicating with
the old city of Fustat, and passing through the Bayn al-Kasrayn to the
Bab al-Futah, which led out to the open country on the north. To the
north of the Khalif’s palace lay the Wazir’s official residence, and to
the south the mosque of al-ʾAzhar, which Jawhar commenced soon after the
foundation of Kahira and finished on the 7th of Ramadan, 361. Although
the existing building has been much modernised it retains enough of the
older structure to show the typical character of Fatimid architecture.
The horse shoe arch, commonly regarded as of Persian origin, seems to
have been developed in Egypt, and appears first in the Nilometer and
then in the mosque of Ibn Tulun: it had an Indian parentage, and was
not introduced into Persia until it had already been employed in Egypt
(Rivoira: _Moslem Architecture_, E.T. 154, etc.), at least no dated
example is found until later than the mosque of al-ʾAzhar. The Fatimid
style shows this horse-shoe arch combined with high imposts which occur
in the mosque of Ziadat Allah in Kairawan (A.H. 816-837); “nor does it
seem an unnatural conjecture that it was Jauhar, not only a distinguished
general, but also a man of letters, and therefore of culture, who
suggested the form to some Christian architect of Egypt: and that, under
these circumstances, the designer of the building, wishing to endow it
with some distinctive feature marking the accession of the new dynasty,
modified the pointed arch of Tulun’s time under the influence of the
Indian ‘cyma reversa’ or ogee arch” (Rivoira: op. cit. 157).
In general plan, style, the use of brick piers, etc., the mosque of
al-ʾAzhar followed the model of the mosque of Ibn Tulun, and so was a
development of Egyptian native taste. The minaret was of heavy square
type with outside stairs which has always remained popular in western
Islam.
The most novel feature introduced by the Fatimid architects was the
pendentive, the pensile cusped framing arch over a recessed angle. This
appears clearly in the interior of the dome of the mihrab in the mosque
of al-Hakim, commenced in 380 but not completed until 404. But this
reproduces the pendentive as it appears in the mosque of Cordova (A.H.
350-366) in the bay in the front of the mihrab, and had its precursor
more than four centuries before in the church of St. Vitale at Ravenna.
It is impossible, therefore, to connect Fatimid architecture with Persia:
obviously it was developed out of the older Egyptian Muslim style under
the influence of western and European, _i.e._, Italo-Greek, models. As
usual, art is a clear indication of the general line of culture contact
and intellectual influences. Though Asiatic and Persian in origin the
Fatimids were, by their heretical character, entirely cut off from the
Islamic world in Asia, a severance which the Fatimid rule in Syria, being
one of purely military occupation, did not bridge over. Isolated in art,
it was isolated in philosophy and literature, although this isolation
from the Muslim world at large was richly compensated by its close
contact with Shiʿite circles, and by some contact with the Greek and
Roman Empire along the shores of the Mediterranean.
The wall surrounding the whole city of Kahira was finished in 359. To its
south-east lay the old city which remained the centre of commercial and
non-official life until the end of the Fatimid dynasty, and to the west
the suburbs of Maqs, which extended down to the river and remained the
port of Cairo until the shifting of the Nile in the 13-14th cent. A.D.
gave the opportunity for the building of Bulaq.
The first serious problem with which Jawhar had to deal was the famine
due to the successive bad Niles. Fortunately al-Moʿizz had sent a number
of ships laden with grain as soon as he heard that Jawhar had occupied
the country, and this caused some temporary relief in the city, and
showed the people that they had a ruler anxious to assist them. At the
same time Jawhar established a public corn exchange under an inspector
(_muhtasib_), who had to prevent hoarding and excessive prices, and
several offending millers were flogged. Of course these primitive
expedients produced no serious relief, although they evoked the sympathy
of the people, and a state of famine continued until the end of 360, and
there were still cases of plague. In the following winter, _i.e._, in
the early months of 361 (October, etc., of A.D. 971), the famine came to
an end, and in the course of the next few months the country began to
recover, and as a consequence the plague disappeared.
In the year 361 an Ikhshid officer in the district of Bashmur revolted,
but was put down, chased to Palestine, captured there, and put to death.
So far there had been very little reluctance to the change of government,
in this insignificant revolt as in the first efforts to oppose Jawhar it
is only a few of the Ikhshid officials who seem to feel the slightest
grievance.
Jawhar now felt anxious to raise the prestige of Egypt, which had
suffered greatly since the death of the first Ikhshid governor. In 355
the Nubians had invaded the country, so now in 362 he sent an embassy to
king George of Nubia, inviting him to become a Muslim and to pay tribute.
The Nubians, it must be noted, remained Christians down to the 14th cent.
A.D. The embassy was politely received, tribute was paid, but no further
reference was made to religious differences.
Jawhar found that as ruler of Egypt he was necessarily involved in the
politics of Syria, some portions of which had been, at least nominally,
part of the Ikhshid dominions. Indeed, Egypt never has been free from
Syrian connections, either in ancient, mediaeval, or modern history. At
this time independent Shiʿite princes were ruling at Aleppo, and Husayn
the Ikhshid, who had returned to Syria after plundering the Wazir Ibn
al-Furat, held his own at Ramla. Against him Jawhar sent his lieutenant
Jaʿfar b. Fellah, who attacked and defeated him. Husayn was brought a
prisoner to Fustat, publicly exposed as a proof of the power of the
Fatimids, and viewed with great satisfaction by the inhabitants of the
Egyptian city who remembered his cruelties. He was then sent on to a
prison in Ifrikiya, where he died in 371. After defeating Husayn, Jaʿfar
marched north and occupied Damascus. But this brought the Fatimids
into conflict with the Qarmatians, for Damascus had for some time past
been paying tribute to the Qarmatian leader Hasan b. Ahmad, and this
payment was now stopped. After the death of Abu Saʿid, the _kabir_ of
the Qarmatians, in 301, as we have already noted, the leadership was
held temporarily by Abu l-Kasim Saʿid, and then passed to Abu Tahir
Sulayman who attacked Mecca. Abu Tahir died in 332, as well as a third
son of Abu Saʿid named Abu Mansur Ahmad. Then the eldest brother, Abu
l-Kasim, resumed the leadership. In 360, the date we have now reached,
the chieftain was Hasan b. Ahmad (Abu l-Feda, _Ann. Moslem._ ii. 325,
350, 509). It seems that at this time there had been a complete rupture
between the Shiʿites of Africa and the Asiatic Qarmatians, though we are
quite in the dark as to when or why this took place. It may have arisen
from this attack upon the tribute paying city of Damascus, which the
Qarmatians regarded as aggressive: or it may have had an earlier origin,
perhaps in the relaxation of Ismaʿilian doctrine and practice amongst the
African Shiʿites when they accommodated themselves to the tone generally
current at Kairawan. Now Hasan had no hesitation in proposing an alliance
with the orthodox Khalif of Baghdad against the Fatimids, but this
was rejected by the Khalif with contempt. The Shiʿite Buwayhid prince
who was the real ruler of ʿIraq, however, was more complaisant, and a
third ally was found in the Hamdanid prince of Rabha on the Euphrates,
whilst various Arab tribes, always ready to join in any fighting and
usually as much an embarrassment to their allies as to their enemies,
readily agreed to take part. Thus helped Hasan captured Damascus and
celebrated his achievement by the public cursing of al-Moʿizz in the
great Mosque. Theoretically, the Qarmatians professed to believe in the
divine right of the Fatimid Imam, and so this cursing seems strange. It
may be that the people of Damascus, who were fanatically anti-Shiʿite,
were responsible, or it may be that the Qarmatians no longer troubled to
pretend an attachment to the reputed house of ʿAli, but displayed their
total indifference to all religious considerations without reserve.
After taking Damascus Hasan marched south rapidly and, avoiding Jaffa
where Jaʿfar and his army were stationed, passed through Ramla and made
a lightning descent on Egypt itself. He surprised Kulzum (Suez) and
Farama (al-Arish), and thus commanded the whole Isthmus of Suez, whilst
Tinnis declared in his favour. He then advanced into the country and
encamped at ʿAyn Shams (Heliopolis), and threatened Cairo. Jawhar had
commenced defensive measures as soon as he heard that Hasan had reached
the Isthmus and had made a trench before the city. The real danger lay in
the possible treachery of officials of the old régime, and a spy was told
off to watch Ibn al-Furat. At the same time men were sent to Hasan’s army
who, under the pretence of being discontented citizens, made treacherous
overtures to its officers. After some delay Hasan attempted to storm
the trench, but was driven back with heavy losses, the most surprising
incident being the unexpected courage shewn by the Egyptian volunteers
who were enrolled in Jawhar’s army. A number of Ikhshid officers who were
serving with Hasan were taken prisoner, and Hasan was compelled to retire
to Kulzum, leaving his baggage to be plundered by the Egyptians.
News of the attack on Egypt had been sent to al-Moʿizz, and soon after
the defeat reinforcements arrived from Kairawan under Ibn ʿAmmar. Thus
supported Jawhar advanced on Tinnis, which was now penitent for its
defection and was pardoned. A Qarmatian fleet which had sailed up the
Nile to support Hasan fled hurriedly, and was obliged to abandon seven
vessels and some 500 prisoners.
Jawhar had effectively repelled the Qarmatian invasion, and acted
prudently in following up the retreating enemy and relieving Jaffa. Hasan
fell back upon Damascus, but after some delay there began to recover and
commenced preparations for a new attempt.
At this juncture Jawhar felt that the time had arrived when al-Moʿizz
ought to be commanding in Egypt in person, and wrote earnestly entreating
him to come and take up the reins of government, and this appeal decided
the Khalif to remove from Kairawan to Cairo.
Early in 363 al-Moʿizz appointed Bolukkin b. Ziri of the Sanhaja tribe
as deputy in Ifrikiya, advising him “never cease levying contributions
on the nomadic Arabs, and keeping the sword on the (necks of the)
Berbers; never appoint any of your own brothers or cousins to a place of
authority, for they imagine that they have a better right than you to the
power with which you are invested; and treat with favour the dwellers in
towns” (Ibn Khall. i. 267).
Having thus provided for the government of Ifrikiya al-Moʿizz then
set out. Passing by Qabus, Tripoli, Ajdabiya, and Barqa, he reached
Alexandria in the course of the spring, and there received the Qadi of
Fustat and other officials. At the beginning of the summer he encamped in
the gardens of the monastery at Giza, and there received Jawhar who came
out to welcome him on his arrival. After resting a short time he made
his solemn entry into the capital. Although Fustat was decorated ready
for his coming, he paid it no visit, but marched straight to his palace
in Kahira where he took up his abode. In this solemn entry the coffins
of the three Khalifs who had been his predecessors were carried in the
first ranks, escorted by two state elephants, and the Khalif himself
rode surrounded by his four sons and other kinsmen. He entered the royal
city by the “gate of the arch,” one of the two openings in the Bab
az-Zuwayla. The other opening which no longer existed in Maqrizi’s time
was generally regarded as unlucky. This _bab_ is now commonly regarded
as the mysterious dwelling place of the head of all the darwishes who,
wherever he may be, is supposed to be able to fly in spirit to this
abode, and there the spirit is placated. The legends connected with this
gate seem to have varied from age to age, but it has always been regarded
as haunted by mysterious presences.
Soon after taking up his abode in the royal palace, on the great feast
day which terminates the fast of Ramadan, al-Moʿizz conducted prayers in
the newly finished mosque of al-ʾAzhar which, it will be remembered, lay
within the guarded precincts, and so was not accessible to the public.
The mosque, commenced by Jawhar in 360, had been completed in 361. In 378
the following Khalif, al-ʿAziz, devoted it especially to the learned,
and from this it has gradually become the leading university of Islam.
But al-Moʿizz was not able to remain as a sacred character in the
seclusion of the guarded city, although that perhaps was his first
intention. The Qarmatians were still threatening. Al-Moʿizz wrote to
Hasan proposing negotiations, but the Qarmati chief merely replied, “I
have received thy letter, full of words, but empty of sense: I will bring
my answer.”