For some time he remained in his bath, and then as he left it, suddenly
expired. The historian of Kairawan says that the physician prescribed
a potion which was wrongly made up and that this was the cause of his
death.
X
THE SIXTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-HAKIM
(A.H. 386-411 = A.D. 996-1021)
Al-Mansur Abu-ʿAli al-Hakim bi-amri-llah (“ ... ruling by God’s
command”), commonly known as Al-Hakim, was only eleven years old when
he was saluted as Khalif at Bilbays on Tuesday, the 23rd of Ramadan 386
(October, 996 A.D.). Next day he proceeded to Cairo with all the court.
Before him went his father’s body in a litter borne on a camel, the two
feet protruding. The young prince was clothed in a woollen shirt split
up the front and adorned with buttons and button holes, and on his head
was the jewelled turban which served as the official diadem; in his hand
he bore a lance and a sword depended from his neck (Maqrizi ii. 285). He
reached Cairo and entered the palace a little time before the hour of
evening prayer, and the following night was occupied with the funeral
of the deceased Khalif. Ibn an-Numan washed his late master’s body,
which was then buried in a chamber of the palace beside the tomb of his
predecessor, al-Moʿizz (Maqrizi _loc. cit._, Ibn Khallikan _loc. cit._).
On Thursday morning the whole court attended early at the palace. A
golden throne covered with cushions of cloth of gold was placed in the
great portico which al-ʿAziz had constructed in 369. Al-Hakim started out
from the palace on horseback wearing the jewelled turban. At his approach
all the courtiers kissed the earth, and then walked at his side or before
and behind until he reached the portico, where he dismounted and took his
seat on the throne, the courtiers taking their places according to rank,
and each in turn did homage. Barjawan, the white eunuch whom al-ʿAziz had
appointed to act as _Ustad_ or “tutor,” administered the oath, and the
young Khalif was proclaimed with the title _al-Hakim bi-amri-llah_.
There is no doubt that al-ʿAziz, in appointing Barjawan as tutor intended
him to act as regent until the young prince was old enough to assume
the power himself, although Ibn ʿAmmar and the Qadi Muhammad b. Nuʿman
were associated with him as guardians. But at this point Ibn ʿAmmar, the
acknowledged leader of the Katama party in Cairo, seized the office of
_Wasita_ or chief minister, to which was united the office of _sifara_ or
secretary of state, ejecting Isa b. Nestorius, and assumed the title of
_Amin ad-Dawla_ or “the one trusted in the empire.” This was the first
time that the term “empire” was employed in the Fatimid state and, as De
Sacy points out (_Druses_ i. cclxxxv.), its use shows the appearance of
a new tendency. So far the Fatimids had been the leaders of a sect of
which the Imam was supreme pontiff: circumstances had enabled the sect
to establish a state, first in Ifrikiya, then in Egypt, but it retained,
at least in theory, a quasi-religious character, and its professed duty
was to maintain the divine right of the Mahdi and his descendants. It
seems, however, that by this time there were some who had out-grown this
sectarian point of view and desired the Fatimid state to pose frankly
as a secular power. The Berber tribe of Katama appears to have been the
centre of this change of view; they considered no doubt that they had
been the conquerors of Ifrikiya and of Egypt, and by their conquest had
established a Berber monarchy: why should the fruits of this conquest be
laid at the feet of an Arab dynasty whose supernatural claims they no
longer believed?—the Fatimid Khalifs had given no evidence of miraculous
powers, but were evidently ordinary human beings whose kingdom had been
secured by the ready credulity of their forefathers. Ibn ʿAmmar comes
forward as the leader of what we may term the secular party, and his
programme seems to have been to dispense with the religious claims of
the Fatimids, and to treat Egypt and its subject provinces simply as a
_dawla_ or temporal kingdom. No doubt these views had been gathering
force for some time past, and certainly al-ʿAziz had been more prominent
as the secular ruler and had allowed the sectarian propaganda to drop
into the background, but his death and the accession of a child Khalif
offered exceptional opportunities for modifying the policy of the state.
De Sacy suggests that Ibn ʿAmmar’s party was disposed to get rid of the
young sovereign and to establish a purely Berber government, a suggestion
which has every appearance of probability. With the disappearance of the
divinely appointed Mahdi and the end of the Fatimid line the country
would be set free from the peculiar religious views of the Ismaʿiliya,
which were an actual barrier to the progress of the state and alienated
from it the bulk of the subject population. It seems a very probable
picture of the tendencies prevailing at the moment and rests upon rather
more than simple conjecture, though it must be admitted that none of the
native historians attach this deep significance to the introduction of
the term _dawla_.
It is not necessary to suppose that Barjawan was a devout supporter
of Ismaʿilian views, but he certainly was the decided opponent of Ibn
ʿAmmar who had curtailed his power and thrust him into the background,
leaving him to be no more than the private tutor of the young prince. By
force of circumstances he was compelled to become the champion of the
young Khalif, so that this first period of al-Hakim’s reign centres in
Barjawan’s intrigues to get rid of Ibn ʿAmmar.
Very early in al-Hakim’s reign there came to Egypt as a refugee the
eunuch Shakar, who had been a servant of the Buwayhid prince Adhad
ad-Dawla, but who had been taken prisoner by the rival prince Sharif
ad-Dawla, from whom he had escaped. He was a friend of Manjutakin, the
governor of Syria, and Barjawan, having enlisted his support, used him
as the medium of sending an appeal to Manjutakin to deliver him and
the Khalif from the bondage in which they were kept by Ibn ʿAmmar.
Manjutakin, who was naturally inclined to be a partisan of the Turks and
the Turkish mercenaries whom al-ʿAziz had introduced into Egypt as a
counterpoise against the influence of the Katama and other Berber tribes,
readily espoused Barjawan’s faction and assembled troops preparatory to
an advance upon Egypt. As soon as Ibn ʿAmmar heard of this he treated
it as a revolt, and sent out an army under the command of Sulayman b.
Jaʿfar b. Fallah, a Berber of the Katama tribe and one of his supporters
to check the revolted Manjutakin. Thus the palace intrigue between Ibn
ʿAmmar and Barjawan was fought out by their respective supporters in
Syria.
Sulayman met Manjutakin either at Ascalon or Ramla, and there he
inflicted a defeat upon the Turks in which Manjutakin himself was
taken prisoner and sent captive to Egypt. He was well received by Ibn
ʿAmmar, who wanted to see Berbers and Turks united in resistance to the
established Khalifate, and perceived very clearly that his plans could
not be successful unless he enlisted the sympathy of the Turkish faction
which was very strong in Cairo.
After his victory over Manjutakin Sulayman was made governor of Syria
and proceeded to Tiberias, sending his brother ʿAli to act as his
deputy in Damascus. But the citizens of Damascus, always turbulent and
independent, refused to accept ʿAli as governor or to allow him to enter
the city until they received a threatening letter from Sulayman which
thoroughly frightened them and put an end to their opposition. ʿAli
entered Damascus in no pleasant mood, and made his irritation felt by
turning his soldiers loose, so that many of the citizens were slain and
some parts of the city burned, after which he withdrew and pitched camp
outside. Not long afterwards Sulayman himself arrived and received the
apologies and protestations of loyalty of the citizens and was pleased to
express his pardon. It was his aim at this time to continue the policy of
al-ʿAziz and to hold the sea coast as a check upon the Greeks, and thus
had no desire to be embroiled with a city in his rear which he left to
be dealt with at a more convenient time. The Syrian Tripoli was the most
important coast town held by the Muslims, and this he now handed over to
his brother ʿAli, dismissing the governor Jaysh, although he was a fellow
Berber and a tribesman of the Katama, with the result that Jaysh went
back to Egypt with a grievance and joined himself to Barjawan’s faction.
Barjawan’s intrigues had now so far succeeded that he had a strong
following, and as most of Ibn ʿAmmar’s troops were absent in Syria it
seemed a favourable moment to strike his rival. For some time there were
street riots between Berbers and Turks, indeed, this seems to have been
more or less the normal state of Cairo at the time, for in spite of
the good treatment accorded to Manjutakin, the Turkish mercenaries were
deeply jealous of the favour shown by Ibn ʿAmmar to his fellow Berbers.
When Barjawan felt that the time was ripe he secretly distributed largess
amongst the Turks, and they made an open attack upon Ibn ʿAmmar which
compelled him to conceal himself and to retire from public life.
At Ibn ʿAmmar’s downfall, for this it actually was, Barjawan assumed
the offices of Wasita and Sifara, thus becoming practically regent of
the state, on 28 Ramadan 387, after Ibn ʿAmmar had held office for a
little less than eleven months. He treated the fallen minister as a kind
of usurper who had tried to make the Khalif a prisoner and celebrated
his own accession, or rather restoration to office—for he had certainly
acted as chief minister for the first few days of al-Hakim’s reign—as a
vindication of the Khalif’s rights. He brought forth al-Hakim in public,
had him again proclaimed Khalif, and displayed him as sovereign.
But it was in Syria that the two factions were really fighting out their
quarrel, and Barjawan’s first act of policy was to write to the citizens
of Damascus urging them to resist Sulayman, and assuring them of the
support of the home government as the Katama faction had now fallen from
power. Thus encouraged the people of Damascus pillaged Sulayman’s goods,
slew many of his men at arms, and expelled him from the city.
Neither faction at Cairo was strong enough to proceed to extremities, and
Barjawan had reason to dread the return of the Berber troops from Syria.
For a while Ibn ʿAmmar was treated as a prisoner of state and confined to
his house, but all his fiefs and sources of income were secured to him
and, after an interval, he was allowed to go about as he pleased and to
present himself at court.
In Syria a period of disorder followed the fall of Sulayman, and the
Bedwin phylarch Mufarraj b. Daghtal b. Jarrah broke out in revolt,
established his headquarters at Ramla, and made forays in the Bedwin
fashion through the surrounding country. At the same time Tyre revolted
under the leadership of a peasant named Olaka, and the Greeks, led by
the Emperor Ducas, laid siege to Apamea. It seemed, therefore, that
Barjawan’s success involved the practical loss of control over the
Asiatic provinces. But though Barjawan had encouraged the turbulence of
the Damascenes for his own purpose, and had thus got rid of Ibn ʿAmmar’s
chief supporter Sulayman, he had no intention to lose hold of Syria
permanently, and sent up Jaysh b. Samsama as governor: probably this
appointment was Jaysh’s stipulated fee for assisting Barjawan. At the
head of a large force Jaysh proceeded to Ramla where he found Sulayman
whom he made prisoner and sent to Egypt. He then sent a detachment under
Husayn b. ʿAbdullah against Tyre, and proceeded himself against Mufarraj.
At Husayn’s approach Olaka appealed for help to the Greek Emperor, and
in response a fleet of Greek ships was sent to his assistance. These
ships, however, were met off Tyre by an Egyptian fleet and defeated. The
Tyrians, now thoroughly discouraged, made an unconditional surrender and
Husayn entered their city, pillaged it, and sent Olaka a prisoner to
Egypt where he was flayed and crucified.
Meanwhile Jaysh had been advancing against Mufarraj but, as he approached
with so large an army, Mufarraj became frightened and fled. Jaysh did
not pursue him but passed on to Damascus where the inhabitants received
him with some anxiety, although in their recent revolt against Sulayman
they had been acting with the approval and encouragement of Barjawan’s
faction, and so in alliance with Jaysh. They remembered, however, that
Jaysh was a Berber of the Katama, and that tribal prejudices were
stronger than any temporary association in palace factions. As soon as
Jaysh entered the city he made a reassuring speech to the people, and the
citizens were fully convinced that he intended only friendly relations.
At the moment he was most anxious to be free from any minor troubles
with the cities of Syria in order that he might deal effectually with
the Greek attempts upon the country which, for some years past, had been
growing more serious. He proceeded therefore to Apamea, and before long
joined issue with the Greek forces under Ducas, and received at their
hands a severe defeat. Whilst the Muslims were in full flight and the
Greeks were occupied in plundering their baggage, a young Kurd named
Ahmad ibn ʿAbdu-l-Haqq, with a small band of followers of the tribe
of Bashara advanced to where the Emperor stood surrounded by officers
amongst whom was his son. The Emperor paid no attention to the Kurd,
supposing him to be one of the defeated enemy coming to make formal
surrender, but as Ahmad drew near he fell upon the Emperor with his sword
and killed him instantly. At this the Greeks were thrown into confusion,
the Muslims rallied, and the conflict closed with a victory for the
Muslims.
Jaysh, thus unexpectedly the victor, proceeded to Antioch, but did not
think it worth while to spend time in a siege without which it would have
been impossible to enter the city, and so taking what booty and prisoners
he could get in the neighbourhood, he went back to Damascus. He was now
free to give vent to his long standing grudge against that city. Refusing
all invitations to enter within its walls he pitched camp outside, but
continued his friendly attitude towards the citizens, and frequently
inviting the leaders of the local bands,—whether they should be called
militia or brigands is dubious,—entertained them in his tent. On these
occasions the guests feasted with Jaysh and then, instead of having
water brought round to wash their hands, they used to be conducted to a
separate room and washed there. This went on for some time, and then one
day the door of the room where they had retired was closed, the guests
were trapped and led out one by one to execution. As soon as the citizens
heard of this they were thrown into great alarm. Next day Jaysh entered
the city, executed as many leaders of the local bands as he could find,
seized many of the prominent citizens and sent them prisoners to Egypt,
and then pillaged their houses.
Thus Syria was brought to a condition of comparative order. Meanwhile
Barjawan had sent forces to reduce Barqa and the African Tripoli, and
thus the whole Fatimid Empire was brought to subjection. The Katami Fahl
b. Ismaʿil was appointed governor of Tyre, the eunuch Yanas was put in
charge of Barqa, and the eunuch Maysur was given the African Tripoli,
whilst the frontier posts of Gaza and Asqalon were entrusted to the
eunuch Yaman. But more important than any of these arrangements was
Barjawan’s great achievement in sending an embassy to the Greek Emperor
and concluding with him a truce for five years.
Although Barjawan remained for nearly three years regent of Egypt,
Syria, North Africa, and the Hijaz, his position was far from secure.
His danger came from an unexpected quarter; not from the Katama faction
and Ibn ʿAmmar, but from the young Khalif who was beginning to resent
Barjawan’s conduct as regent. According to one account the feeling was
personal and largely due to Barjawan’s manner towards his ward, whom
he seems to have treated with contempt and active dislike, applying to
him the nick-name of “lizard.” For a long time al-Hakim nourished his
resentment in secret and then, four days before the end of Rabiʿ II., in
the year 390, he sent to him the message, “The little lizard has become
a great dragon and wants you.” Much alarmed, Barjawan presented himself
before the Khalif, and was slain by Abu l-Fadl Raydan, the bearer of
the royal parasol, who stabbed him in the belly with a knife (cf. Ibn
Khallikan, i. 53). Whatever measure of truth there is in this account
it probably hits off some salient features in the way that a caricature
sometimes gives a truer portrait than a photograph. Undoubtedly al-Hakim
was quick to feel resentment, many proofs of this appear in his later
life; and undoubtedly there was already something uncanny in his actions
and manners, the symptoms in all probability of incipient insanity; and
no doubt interested persons were busy in fanning the smouldering embers
of resentment. Other accounts, reported by Nowairi and Bar Hebraeus,
the former always a most weighty authority for this period, represent
al-Hakim as chafing at Barjawan’s control, at his confinement to the
precincts of the palace and at the prohibition against his riding
abroad, the declared reason being the fear of assassination at the hands
of the Katama partisans, which may have been not without good ground.
According to these two historians the whole plot was due to the parasol
bearer Raydan, who had become the Khalif’s confidant, Barjawan being
occupied with matters of state and wasting no time with the youth who
was the titular sovereign and who, it may be supposed, was a moody and
unpleasing personage, and thus the parasol bearer was able to persuade
his master that Barjawan was trying to emulate Kafur, and intended to
make the Khalif a merely ornamental figure kept in the palace, and
brought out from time to time to grace some state function. It lent
colour to this, that Barjawan’s mode of life was strangely reminiscent
of Kafur; after he had secured the command of the government he had
gradually relaxed his attention to public business, until at last his
life was spent entirely in pleasure, but he never attained the literary
interests of the former negro ustad.
Nowairi tells us that al-Hakim, influenced by the suggestions of Raydan,
had consulted Husayn, the son of the great general Jawhar, and that he
frankly advised him to get rid of Barjawan. Although the minister no
longer troubled to supervise the Khalif’s education, it was his custom
to take him from time to time for a walk in the gardens which had been
laid out by Kafur, the gardens of the Pearl Palace, as they were called.
It was decided that some such occasion should be used to dispose of
Barjawan, and so one day as he was thus walking with al-Hakim Raydan
suddenly attacked him and drove a lance into his back, then al-Hakim’s
servants crowding round cut off his head.
Barjawan’s assassination was followed by a riot. The people of Cairo
were not insensible of the general security and peace which his rule had
secured, and feared a return of disorder. But Nowairi tells us that the
report went abroad that Ibn ʿAmmar had made an attempt on the Khalif’s
life. This is likely enough, for Barjawan had constantly kept alive the
idea that the Khalif lived in perpetual danger of Katama attacks. Other
accounts attribute the riot to Barjawan’s popularity and to resentment
at his murder and fear of resulting relaxation of the strong hand which
had guided the country into ways of peace and prosperity. This riot was
al-Hakim’s first lesson of the need of tact in dealing with his subjects.
He was never lacking in personal courage, and on this occasion he went
out to the people and declared, “I have been informed of an intrigue
which Barjawan made against me, and for that I caused him to be executed.
I beg you to take my part and not to be hard on me, for I am yet a
child,” and he burst into tears. The “intrigue” thus referred to was no
doubt the conspiracy which Raydan maintained that Barjawan had formed to
treat the Khalif in the same way as Kafur had treated the later Ikhshid
princes.
Although al-Hakim was now in the fifth year of his reign he had as
yet taken no part in the government, which was of course the result
of his tender years. It is obvious, however, that he had come under
the influence of Barjawan and then of Raydan and Husayn, who had all
endeavoured to develop his self-assertion for their own ends. As yet
his personal character was quite unknown, and the expansion of his
personality lies within the period following Barjawan’s assassination.
Thus the death of Barjawan marks the beginning of the second period of
al-Hakim’s reign, during which he began to assert himself and to display
his own character, although in this we see very distinct graduations
which tend to produce marked differences of policy. The first phase
covers the years 390-395, in which he shows marked peculiarities, and we
note an increasing fanaticism in upholding Shiʿite views, but for the
most part he is inclined to pleasure, and seems to have been popular.
In 395-396 there comes a puritan reaction, associated with a time of
distress and famine in Egypt, which becomes more pronounced as he has to
meet revolt at home and hostile invasion from the west.
After Barjawan’s death al-Hakim chose Husayn, the son of Jawhar, as his
chief minister, the same adviser whom he had consulted about Barjawan,
and who had advised his murder. Husayn received the title of _Qaʾid
al-Quwwad_, “general of generals,” or Commander-in-Chief, and a Christian
named Fahd acted as his lieutenant. Fahl b. Tamim was made governor of
Damascus but, as he died shortly afterwards, he was replaced by ʿAli b.
Fallah. An order was made very early in this period forbidding any person
to address the Khalif as “our lord” or “our master,” and requiring them
to confine themselves to the simpler title “Commander of the Faithful,”
and this order was enforced with the penalty of death.
Now al-Hakim, feeling himself free from restraint, began to show
evidences of peculiarities which caused many of his day and many since
to regard him as a person of disordered intellect. His first peculiarity
was a preference for night over day. He began to hold meetings of the
“council” by night, whether of the council of state or the religious
assembly of the Ismaʿilian sect does not seem quite clear, he rode
abroad in the city by night, and by his orders the streets were brightly
illuminated, the shops opened, and business and pleasure followed by
artificial light. The citizens vied with one another in hanging out
lights and illuminating their houses to win the Khalif’s approval. This
continued for about five years, during which al-Hakim seemed disposed
to encourage every kind of pleasure, and every night saw both Cairo and
the old city of Fustat refulgent with artificial illumination. In his
conduct generally the Khalif was tolerant, as his predecessors had been,
towards the Christians and Jews as well as towards the Muslims who did
not embrace the peculiar tenets of the Shiʿa sect. His mother was a
Christian. Towards his officials his conduct was generous, and he seems
to have been distinctly popular. Thus, when Jaysh died in 390 his son
went to Cairo with a paper on which his father had written his will and a
detailed statement of all his property: all this, he declared, belonged
to the Khalif his master; his children had no rights. The property thus
valued was estimated at 200,000 pieces of gold. The son brought all this
before the Khalif, but al-Hakim said, “I have read your father’s will
and the statement of the money and goods of which he has disposed by
his will: take it, and enjoy it in tranquility and for your happiness.”
Indeed, all through his career the chief charge made against him was
his reckless generosity, which often reduced the government to serious
inconvenience: it was, indeed, a species of megalomania.