inscriptions against the early Khalifs had done something to conciliate
public opinion, he continued to enforce strictly the regulations against
wine, beer, and the various kinds of food disapproved by the Shiʿites,
and many fishmongers were arrested for selling fish without scales.
Indeed the city was thrown into consternation by the extreme severity
with which these and other rules were enforced. It was in this year (399)
that the general Fadl was executed, and many other persons were punished
by having their hands cut off. A decree published this year allowed
the fast of the month of Ramadan to finish at the date as obtained by
astronomical calculations, without waiting for the actual appearance of
the new moon, a Fatimid novelty which was regarded with disapproval and
is still not admitted by the orthodox. New regulations allowed the use
of the Shiʿite formula in the call to prayer, or the Sunni call at the
muezzin’s discretion; no complaint was to be made in either case. No
one was to utter any imprecation against the early Khalifs, and if any
one liked to use the reverent formula “God have mercy on them” in using
their names, thus treating them as saints, they were allowed to do so: if
on the other hand they chose to use the more honourable formula “God be
gracious to him” after the name of ʿAli, there was full liberty to do so.
Every Muslim was free to follow Sunni or Shiʿite usage as he preferred
(Ibn Khall. iii. 451).
Al-Hakim’s more definite anti-Christian and anti-Jewish policy began
in 398. In that year he seized the property of the churches and placed
it under the control of the state treasury. He forbade the public
processions which had generally been observed at the feast of Hosannas
(Palm Sunday), at the feast of the Cross, and at the Epiphany. By his
orders a large number of crosses were publicly burned before the doors of
the Old Mosque, and orders were sent out that the same was to be done in
the provinces. In some of the churches little mosques were constructed,
and from these the usual call to prayer was given. Severus tells us that
the use of bells was now prohibited.
The churches on the road to Maqs were destroyed, as well as the Coptic
church of al-Maghitha in the Street of Rome, and all their contents were
seized. Many other churches were pillaged and destroyed, the sacred
vessels, furniture, and goods being handed over to Muslims, and the
vessels often sold in the public markets. Amongst these were the churches
at Rashida outside Fustat and the convent of Dayr al-Kasr on Mokattam,
all these being given over to the people who plundered them.
Various persons sent in petitions to search churches and monasteries
in the provinces for hoarded wealth, and received permission to do so
(cf. Maq. _Hist. of Copts_). It is clear that this kind of persecution
was generally popular, at least in its earlier stages, for it was
generally believed that the Christians had used their opportunities as
tax collectors to defraud the country to a serious extent. This no doubt
contained a measure of truth, although the Fatimid government kept a
closer and more careful control over its officials than has always been
done by oriental powers. But it must be noted that resentment was felt
towards the Christians and Jews, not for their religious beliefs, but
because they were revenue officials.
In 400 Salih b. ʿAli Rudbari was deprived of his office as chief minister
and replaced by Mansur b. ʿAbdun, a Christian clerk, for at no time
did the persecution take such a form as to prevent the advancement of
Christians and Jews to high and responsible offices in the state. The
new minister was hated by the nobles who made accusations against him
and brought forward his religion as one of the grounds of attack. This
caused a brief but severe outburst against the Christian officials. Many
of them were scourged to death and their bodies thrown to the dogs, and
Mansur himself was beaten and left for dead, but as his friends stood
round they perceived that there were signs of life in him, so they took
him up and carried him home. After some time he recovered and went back
without remark to his duties. Such a state of affairs seems to us almost
incredible, for his duties were practically those of a prime minister,
and that he should have been thus scourged, left to the dogs, as was the
intention, and then when he was well enough go back to the highest office
in the state without any particular remark seems to present al-Hakim’s
court rather in the light of a lunatic asylum: practically it was very
near that, for it can hardly be doubted that the Khalif at this time was
definitely insane.
Orders were sent to Jerusalem for the destruction of the church of
_al-Qayama_ “the resurrection,” the most famous and honoured sanctuary
of Christendom. In accordance with these orders it was plundered and
then pulled down, an act which produced a deep feeling of anger in the
Christian community generally, as well as amongst the subjects of the
Greek Empire as amongst those who lived in Hakim’s dominions. Indirectly
it caused the Christian world to form an idea of Islam as a persecuting
power, and so paved the way to the Crusades. The cause of the destruction
of this sanctuary is said to have been a malicious report which alleged
that the Christians practised a fraud in connection with the “holy fire”
given out at Easter in that church. This blessing and distribution of
new fire is a prominent part of the Easter Eve ceremonies of the Greek
and of the Gallic churches, and from the latter afterwards passed into
the Roman rite where it originally had no place. A common but apparently
unauthorised superstition amongst the Greeks represents this “new fire”
as distributed in the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem as sent
down from heaven, and this superstition was already in existence in the
days of Hakim. A certain chaplain of the church, suffering from some
grievance, declared to the Muslim authorities that the canons of the
church practised a fraud to play upon this superstition. He said that
they used to anoint the iron chain by which the great lamp was suspended
in the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, and that after the Muslim governor
had closed and sealed the door of the church, as was the custom, they
used to get at the chain from the roof and so the fire was passed
along the anointed surface and reached the wick of the lamp which was
thus lighted, whilst the chaplains sang _Kyrie eleison_ and wept, and
pretended that the fire came down from heaven, thus confirming the
Christians in their religious errors (Bar Hebraeus: _Chron._, pp. 215
sqq.).
Severus attributes the outbreak of this persecution to a monk named John
whom the Patriarch steadily refused to ordain bishop and who, on this
account, made his complaint to the Khalif. He waylaid Hakim as he was
walking on the Mokattam hills and called on him for assistance, at the
same time presenting a petition in which he said: “You are the ruler of
this country, but the Christians have a king who is more powerful than
you by reason of the immense wealth he has acquired. He sells bishoprics
for money and acts in a way displeasing to God.” Influenced by this
petition Hakim ordered the churches to be closed and the Patriarch to be
brought before him. The Patriarch Zacharias was a man far advanced in
years and now, by the Khalif’s order, was cast into prison. The very day
after the Patriarch’s arrest Hakim sent the letter to the governor in
Jerusalem ordering the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection, the
clerk who prepared the letter being a Christian named Ibn Sharkin.
Shortly after this Hakim sent out notices to all the provinces that
churches were to be destroyed and their gold and silver vessels
confiscated, that all bishops were to be arrested, and that no one was
to buy from or sell to Christians. At this many Christians conformed to
Islam, whilst in most places they left off the distinctive outward signs
of their religion as laid down in the revived penal laws, and popular
usage evidently connived at this.
The Patriarch remained three months in prison; each day he was threatened
with burning or being cast to wild beasts if he did not conform to Islam,
whilst he was promised that if he did conform he would be made Chief
Qadi and covered with honours, but neither threat nor promises made
any impression on him. His gaoler visited him frequently and treated
him roughly, but this he bore with patience and resignation. A Muslim
fellow-prisoner tried to persuade him to conform, but he only replied,
“All my confidence is in God who is almighty; it is He who will help me”
(Severus).
A certain Christian who had been collector of taxes was in the same
prison suffering the penalty for a deficit of 3,000 pieces of gold in
his accounts. This prisoner was a friend of a noble Arab of the B. Qorra
tribe, named Mahdi b. Mokrab, perhaps the same who had assisted Fadl at
the time of Abu Raqwa’s revolt, and he stood high in the Khalif’s favour.
One day he visited his Christian friend and promised to ask the Khalif
for his release. The prisoner said, “I should not be willing to go out
of this and leave here the Patriarch, the old man whom you see.” Mahdi
enquired why the Patriarch was in prison, and when he heard the reason
he judged that it would not be prudent to speak about him by name to
Hakim, but he asked the Khalif to grant the liberty of all those who were
detained in that prison. The Khalif consented and so the Patriarch was
set free and went to Fustat, a thing which was the cause of great joy
to all the Christians. But as his freedom had been granted only by an
oversight it was judged expedient for him to go away and hide himself,
so he retired to the valley of Habib where he lived in retirement for
nine years. In that particular part the churches had not been destroyed.
Officials and workmen had been sent to do so, but they were afraid of the
Bedwin of the desert near and retired without doing anything.
The Khalif issued orders forbidding the Christians to observe the
“Feast of Baptism,” _i.e._, the Epiphany, on the banks of the Nile,
and prohibited the games and amusements which usually accompanied the
celebration of that feast. He also forbade the observance of the “Feast
of Hosannas,” _i.e._, Palm Sunday, and the Feast of the Cross in the
autumn. At that time it was customary for Muslims and even the Khalifs
themselves, to take part in the public festivities with which the
Christians celebrated their greater festivals.
The destruction of churches was general during the course of this
persecution, especially in the year 403. By 405 some 30,000 had been
pillaged and pulled down in Syria and Egypt, and many of the Jewish
synagogues were treated in a similar manner. Very often mosques were
erected on their sites. The great church of the _Muʿallaqa_ was taken
from the Christians, and the Muslim call to prayer was made in the
Church of Shenuda in Fustat. In many places people presented petitions
asking permission to seize one of the churches or monasteries, and
these petitions were invariably granted. The furniture of the churches
and their vessels of gold and silver were confiscated and sold in the
markets, the price obtained being paid into the treasury or given to some
of the Khalif’s retainers. A special board was established to deal with
the confiscated property and the goods belonging to those who had been
put to death.
We turn now to Hakim’s dealings with the Muslims during the year 400.
In the earlier part of the year many persons who had been detected in
possession of beer, malukhia, etc., were arrested and beaten. There was
a growing disquiet at Hakim’s severity, and a large number of people
thought it well to take out letters of protection. Panic seized Husayn
b. Jawhar the ex-Commander in Chief, ʿAbdu l-ʿAziz b. Nuʿman, and Abu
l-Kasam Husayn b. Maghrabi, and they fled the country. The laws against
intoxicating drinks were executed with great rigour, and a number of
eunuchs, clerks, and footmen were put to death. In the month of Shawal
Salih b. ʿAli Rudbari was put to death. On the 19th of this same month
an order was published dispensing with the payment of the fifth levied
on the Shiʿites, of the sum paid at the end of Ramadan as alms, and
of the _nejwa_, or “voluntary contribution,” all sums collected from
the Ismaʿilian sect. About the same time the “conferences of wisdom,”
the regular meetings of the sect which were held in the palace, were
discontinued. This seems like an anti-Shiʿite change of attitude on the
Khalif’s part, but the only reasonable explanation of the numerous and
arbitrary developments which took place about this time is that which
commended itself to many contemporary observers, namely, that the Khalif
was insane, and the disorder of his mind was growing worse.
Later in the year Hakim abandoned the enforcement of several
distinctively Shiʿite usages. He ordered the restoration of the formula
known as the _tethwib_ in the call to prayer; the muezzins were forbidden
to add “Come to the most excellent work” to the call, and were ordered
party badges. Permission was given for the use of the _salat ad-Duha_
or voluntary fore-noon prayer which had been strictly forbidden in 393,
and also for the use of the prayer known as _kunut_. In the course of
the year Hakim presented lamps and a large candelabrum to the Mosque of
Rashida.
The result of these events was that Hakim fell into ill repute with the
Shiʿites who had come to Cairo from many parts, and now found themselves
in a town veering round to orthodox Muslim customs. Other events,
however, quickly made him even more obnoxious to the orthodox. He had
sent officials to Madina to open the house which had formerly belonged
to Jaʿfar as-Sadiq and to bring away whatever might be found there. When
the house was opened the officials found in it a Qurʾan, a bed, and some
furniture, and the _Daʿi_ Khatkin, who superintended the opening, carried
away these articles, and at the same time helped themselves to the taxes
which the _sharifs_ paid. Khatkin then returned to Egypt accompanied
by a large number of sharifs, all descendants of ʿAli, who were led to
expect generous treatment from Hakim. But when they reached the Khalif’s
presence he gave them only a very small part of the money Khatkin had
brought back and kept the bulk for himself, saying that he deserved
it more than they did, as he, the true heir of ʿAli, was the head of
the _sharifs_. The _sharifs_ at this left Cairo and returned to Madina
cursing him (Abu l-Mahasin).
Hakim then decided to remove the bodies of the two first Khalifs, Abu
Bakr and Umar, who were buried at Madina. His envoys bribed an ʿAlid who
lived in a house close by the burial place, and with his help they began
digging a passage through to the tombs. But a violent storm arose which
so terrified the citizens that many of them sought refuge in the holy
place where the Prophet and the early Khalifs were buried. The storm
still continued until at last the ʿAlid who had assisted Hakim’s envoys
himself became alarmed, and revealed the project on which they were
engaged to the governor who had him punished, and provided that the plan
should not be carried out (Mirkhond on the authority of the _Istidkar_ of
the Qadi Ahmad Damagini).
On the whole Hakim seems at this time to have been endeavouring to
conciliate Sunni opinion, perhaps he had even intended to honour Abu
Bakr and ʿUmar by shrines in one or other of the burial places of Cairo.
Certainly he was trying to please the Sunnis when, in this same year
(400), he founded a college for instruction in the Malikite system of
jurisprudence, the form of canon law in vogue before the arrival of the
Fatimids, and the one to which the Egyptians were most attached. He
presented the college with a library, and appointed Abu Bakr Antaki as
its principal, and bestowed robes of honour on the principal and the
lecturers whom he welcomed at court. For three years Hakim continued to
favour the Sunnis, and then he suddenly changed his attitude. In the
following year indeed the pro-Sunni decrees began to be modified. On the
12th of Rabiʿ II. 401 the call to prayer was again ordered to be made in
the Shiʿite form, the _tethwib_, and the words “Prayer is better than
sleep” were again forbidden, and the formula “Come to the excellent work”
was restored. The fore-noon voluntary prayer was prohibited and so the
_Tarawih_. When Hakim found that the latter form had been used in the Old
Mosque in spite of his prohibition during the whole of Ramadan he had the
leader of the prayer put to death. At the same time the “Conferences of
wisdom” were restored in the palace, and the various subscriptions due
from the initiated of the Ismaʿilian sect were again collected. It is
impossible to follow anything like policy or purpose in these incessant
changes; it can only be supposed that the Khalif’s mental malady was
getting worse.
In the following year (401) new laws were published forbidding all
pleasure parties on the banks of the canal and requiring all doors and
windows opening on the canal to be kept closed: other laws forbade music,
games, or meetings for pleasure at Sahra: and others forbidding loose
entertainments anywhere or the sale of singing girls.
Changes in the personnel of the administration now begin to become more
numerous and capricious. At the beginning of 401 the chief minister,
Mansur b. ʿAbdun, the one who had once been scourged and left for dead,
was deprived of his office, and later in the year was put to death and
his goods confiscated. He was replaced by Ahmad b. Muhammad Kashuri, who
was beheaded after ten days. The next minister was the clerk Zara, son
of Isa b. Nestorius. Husayn b. Jawhar and ʿAbdu l-ʿAziz b. Numan, who
had fled the country in the previous year were invited to return and
were received with honour; only to be put to death and have their goods
confiscated a few months later. The third fugitive, Abu l-Kasam Husayn,
had gone to Syria and declined to come back. We shall find him a little
later stirring up trouble for Hakim.
Turning to Syrian affairs we find similar rapid and frequent changes.
In 400 Abu l-Jaysh Hamid b. Masham was replaced by Muhammad b. Nazae as
governor of Damascus. In 401 Luʿluʿ b. Abdullah was appointed governor,
reaching Damascus in the month of Jumada II. On the 10th of Dhu l-Hijja
at the “Feast of Sacrifice” he was replaced by Dhu l-Karnayn.
The most important event of 401 was the revolt of Hasan b. Mufarraj
b. Daghfal b. Jarrah Taiy (cf. year 387). He was persuaded to this by
Husayn, the one of the three who fled from Egypt in 399 and was not
willing to return. His two sons and two brothers had been put to death
at the request of the minister, Mansur b. ʿAbdun, his mortal enemy, and
it was this which had alarmed him and caused his flight in the first
place. He took refuge with Hasan, and used every persuasion to induce
him to revolt. The rebel faction was headed by Hasan’s father Mufarraj,
and was joined by a number of Arabs, and very soon by the whole of the
tribes of the Hijaz under the leadership of the Sultan of Mecca, Husayn
b. Jaʿfar. Hakim sent Yarakhtakin to Aleppo with a large army to put down
this movement. As soon as he arrived in Syria Mufarraj and his son became
extremely anxious but, between Gaza and Ascalon they managed to get him
into an ambush, and in the ensuing battle the Fatimid general was slain.
The rebels then besieged Ramla and, as new recruits pressed in every day,
they soon took it. Hakim sent them letters of remonstrance, but these
were disregarded, and they invited the Sultan of Mecca to assume the
Khalifate. This he was perfectly ready to do and, leaving a deputy in
the city, joined the army of Mufarraj, and was saluted “Commander of the
Faithful.”
But Hakim wrote again to Hasan and Mufarraj promising them estates and
other gifts if they would cease from rebellion, so they resolved to
abandon the newly proclaimed Khalif and returned to their allegiance.
The result of this was a violent dispute between them and the man they
had just invited to be Khalif. In the end he left them and returned to
Mecca, taking Husayn Maghrabi with him. Not long afterwards Hakim sent
an army under Jaʿfar b. Fallah to Syria, and expelled Hasan and his
followers from Ramla. For two years Hasan remained in exile then, at the
intercession of his father Mufarraj, Hakim pardoned him and gave him
an estate in Egypt. Ultimately Mufarraj was poisoned by the Khalif’s
orders. The anti-Khalifate of Mecca continued until 403, when the prince
requested to be reconciled to Hakim, and when this was granted put
Hakim’s name on his coinage and inserted it in the _khutba_.
In 401 Karwash b. Mukallad, chief of the Arabs of Okayl, revolted against
the ʿAbbasid Khalif and transferred his allegiance to Hakim, whose name
was inserted in the _khutba_ in Mosul, Anbar, Madayn, and other towns. In
Mosul the form commenced: “Praise be to God, by whose light the shadows
of tyranny have been scattered, by whose greatness the foundations of the
heresy of the enemies of ʿAli have been rooted up, by whose power the sun
of truth has risen in the west (_i.e._, in Africa).” Baha d-Dawla, the
ʿAbbasid Khalif’s guardian, ordered the Emir al-Joyush to march against
Karwash, who at once sent his apologies to the Khalif of Baghdad, and the
recognition of the rival Fatimid Khalif ceased.
Next year (402) Hakim made more rigorous decrees against beer, vegetables
disapproved by the Shiʿites, and the use of fish without scales. He
further forbade women to go to funerals or to visit the cemeteries. He
strictly suppressed the playing of chess, and caused chess-boards to be
burned. Gathering the fishermen together he exacted from them a pledge
that they would not take any fish without scales, and further threatened
them with death if they were found selling any such.
He had already forbidden the use of beer, and the usual law against
wine was strictly enforced. Now he forbade the sale of dried raisins
because they were used by some for the making of wine: he forbade their
importation into the country, and ordered all found in stores to be
destroyed, in consequence of which some 2,340 boxes of dried raisins were
burned, the value being put at 500 pieces of gold. He next forbade the
sale of fresh grapes exceeding four pounds at a time; in any case grapes
were not to be exposed for sale in the markets, and strict prohibition
was made against squeezing out the juice. Very many grapes found on
sale were confiscated, and either trodden in the street or thrown into
the Nile. The vines at Gizeh were cut down and oxen employed to tread
the fruit into the mire. Orders were issued that the same was to be
done throughout the provinces. But honey as well as grapes can be used
in preparing fermented liquor, so the Khalif’s seal was affixed to the
stores of honey at Gizeh, and some 5,051 jars of honey were broken and
their contents poured into the Nile, as well as 51 cruises of date honey.
The sale of fresh dates was then forbidden, and many dates were collected
and burned (Maq. ii. 287, Ibn Khall. iii. 450).