as we have seen, was that he was murdered. Of the murder Maqrizi gives
another account which exculpates the Princess. He says: “Masihi relates
that in the year 415 a man of the family of Husayn was arrested after
raising up rebellion in the southern part of Upper Egypt. This man
confessed that it was he who had killed Hakim. He said that there were
four accomplices of the crime, and that they afterwards fled to different
parts. He showed a piece of the skin of Hakim’s head and a fragment of
the piece of cotton with which he had been clothed. He was asked why he
had killed him. He replied: “Out of zeal for the glory of God and of
Islam.” Further questioned as to the way in which he had committed the
crime, he drew out a dagger and striking it to his breast he cried, as he
fell dead, “That is the way I killed him.” His head was cut off and sent
to the Khalif with all that was found in him” (Maq. ii. 290).
The Druses of course believe that he disappeared like others of the Imams
before him, going away in sorrow from a world which was not worthy of his
pure doctrine and that he lives still in concealment to reveal himself in
due time when the world is ready for him. Other persons believed that
he had hidden himself because he was disgusted at the state of affairs
and weary of the throne, and was living contentedly in obscurity. Bar
Hebraeus tells us of a widespread belief in Egypt that Hakim had been
recognised as a Christian monk at Sketis. Severus says that for sixteen
years there were constant rumours of his return. A certain proselyte from
Christianity named Sherut claimed to be the Khalif and called himself Abu
l-ʿArab. In voice and appearance he very closely resembled Hakim and had
many followers. About 427 he was in Lower Egypt, and a certain Arab who
believed in him provided him with a tent where he lived for some time.
Very often he used to give the Arab rich presents of clothes and arms,
but himself lived in the strictest simplicity. At last the government
heard of him and he fled, after some twenty years’ personation of the
ex-Khalif. Abu l-Feda tells us of a pretender named Sikkin who revolted
in 434, and was seized and hanged (_Annal. Moslem_ iii. 119). De Sacy
thinks that this Sikkin was the same as the Sherut of Severus. Strangely
enough every one of these claimants found enthusiastic supporters, as
though Hakim had been the most popular of all the Khalifs of Egypt.
XI
THE SEVENTH FATIMID KHALIF, AZ-ZAHIR
(A.H. 411-427 = A.D. 1021-1035)
On the “Day of Sacrifice,” 411, seven days after Hakim’s disappearance,
his son Abu l-Hasan ʿAli az-Zahir li-ʿizazi-dini-llah (“the triumphant in
strengthening God’s religion”), then a boy of sixteen years of age, was
recognised as Khalif. The heir designated by Hakim, ʿAbdu r-Rahim, was
still in Damascus, but the Princess wrote to him ordering his immediate
return to Egypt. Instead of obeying this summons he declared himself
the independent ruler of Damascus, and made himself popular amongst the
citizens by repealing the many vexatious regulations which Hakim had put
in force. But this popularity did not last long: he soon made himself
odious by his avarice and grasping extortions, and craftily utilising
this, and the discontent of the soldiers who did not receive the
gratuities which they expected, the Princess contrived to gain a party
of supporters, and by their help had him arrested and sent in chains to
Egypt where he was imprisoned for some four years, then fell ill and
died, perhaps poisoned, three days before the Princess herself died.
For the first four years of az-Zahir’s reign the whole power was in the
hands of his aunt, the Princess Royal. According to Ibn Khallikan the
Princess sent for Yusuf b. Dawwas, the noble who the Syrian writers
describe as having conspired with her to arrange the murder of Hakim, and
made him a present of a hundred slaves. After the wazir had gone home she
sent the eunuch Nesim after these slaves, and conveyed her orders to them
that it was their duty to slay Yusuf, as he was the person responsible
for the late Khalif’s assassination. In consequence of this Yusuf was put
to death. Soon afterwards the Princess contrived the death of two of the
wazirs who succeeded him, and throughout the whole four years of her rule
she showed herself cruel and vindictive. She died in 416, and the chief
control then passed into the hands of a committee of three sheikhs who
paid a daily visit to the Khalif, but excluded him from all participation
in the administration.
The year of the Princess’ death saw the beginning of a terrible famine
in Egypt as the result of a series of bad Niles, and the resultant
distress lasted all through 416 and 417. In many cases the starving
villages took to brigandage, an evil to which the country is always more
or less exposed. Sometimes outbreaks are due, as in this case, to dire
distress and consequent recklessness; sometimes it means the revival of
ancient feuds between village and village, or family and family, so that
it is no more than an outlet for intermittent inter-tribal feuds and
private quarrels between villages or families; but in time of distress
these become more acrimonious and turn against strangers and travellers.
Even the pilgrims on their way through Egypt were attacked. Regulations
were passed to prevent the slaughter of cattle for fear that they would
be exterminated altogether; camels were scarce as many were killed
because it was impossible to provide them with food, and poultry could
hardly be procured. Crowds assembled before the palace crying, “Hunger,
hunger. O Commander of the faithful, it was not thus under thy father
and grandfather.” Then the slaves, starving and miserable, revolted and
swelled the numbers of brigands on the roads. In many places the citizens
formed themselves into “Committees of safety,” and the government
allowed them to arm and slay revolted slaves in self defence. The state
treasury was practically empty, for it was impossible to collect taxes,
and even the palace slaves and officials were in a starving condition.
The misery reached its height in 418 when ʿAli b. Ahmad al-Jarjarai,
the same whose hands had been cut off by Hakim, was appointed wazir. As
the year began (in the early part of February) the conditions were such
that barricades were erected across the streets of Cairo to keep out the
brigands and slaves, and the wazir himself was for some time a prisoner
in his official palace. Later in the year, however, there was a good
inundation, and this restored plenty, so that in 419 the country was once
more under normal conditions and order was restored.
A curious event of 416 was a persecution of the Malikite school of
jurists. At that time the Maliki system was the prevailing school of
thought in orthodox Egypt, though now it is for the most part confined
to Upper Egypt, the Shafiʿi system replacing it in Lower Egypt. Neither
of these, of course, was acceptable to the Shiʿites, who demanded that
the problems of canon law should be treated according to the teaching
of Jaʿfar as-Sadiq (cf. p. 96 above). Hakim had, in 400, founded and
endowed a college for instruction in the Malikite system, but in 404 it
was suppressed and its head was put to death. Nothing of this sort was
attempted now, but all the canonists of the Maliki school were banished
from Egypt. No doubt they were regarded as leaders of the Sunni element
as against the Shiʿite Khalifate.
In 418 when there was every prospect of a return to prosperity as the
result of an abundant Nile, the Khalif was able to make a satisfactory
treaty with the Greek Emperor, Constantine III. It was agreed that the
Fatimid Khalif should be prayed for in the _khutba_ in every mosque in
the Byzantine dominions, and permission was given for the restoration of
the mosque at Constantinople, which had been destroyed in retaliation for
the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem; whilst,
on the other side, the Khalif agreed to permit the rebuilding of the
Church at Jerusalem. This freed the Khalifate from one source of anxiety.
At the time of az-Zahir’s accession the authority of the Fatimids was
hardly recognised in Syria, but this was soon altered by the ability
and enterprise of Anushtegin ad-Dizbiri, who was the governor of
Caesarea. His first important action was against Salih b. Mirdas, the
Arab chieftain who had taken Aleppo from Murtada and had now established
himself as an independent prince. In 420 Anushtakin met him at
al-Ochuwana, a village near Tiberias, and defeated and killed him. He had
next to deal with Hasan b. Mufarraj, who was once more in revolt. This
he did so effectually that Hasan was obliged to flee and take refuge
amongst the Greeks. It is worth noting that the old mischief maker,
Husayn al-Maghrabi, who had fled from Egypt in 400, ended a career of
great vicissitudes in 418. After the failure of the revolt under Hakim he
had gone to the court of the Daylamite prince Baha ad-Dawla, and stayed
with his wazir Fakhr al-Mulk. But the Khalif of Baghdad suspected him
of being a Fatimite spy, and ordered Fakhr to get rid of him. Fakhr,
however, pleaded on his behalf, and at length obtained the Khalif’s
favour for the fugitive who was kindly received in Baghdad.
During the latter part of az-Zahir’s reign Fatimid influence had become
supreme in Palestine and Syria, save only in the few northern districts
which remained subject to the Greek Empire. It seemed indeed to be the
triumph of the Fatimids, but the appearance was fallacious. The Fatimid
Empire in Asia was held together only by the genius of Anushtegin, who
was able to avail himself of the favourable conditions which preceded the
great Turkish storm, which was even then gathering in the east.
It was the policy of the Princess Royal and of the committee which held
supreme power after her death to keep the Khalif in the background, and
exclude him from all real part in the work of government. It was as well,
perhaps, that his freedom was rather circumscribed for, as he grew up,
he gave signs of a cruel temperament which in some directions surpassed
that of his father. He was wholly occupied with the pursuit of pleasure,
finding his interest in the company of singing girls, buffoons, and
others of like kind, and showed no desire to take part in public affairs.
In 424 he invited the palace girls to the number of some 2,660 to a
festival: when they came to the feast they were led to one of the mosques
and taken inside; the doors were then bricked up and the unfortunate
girls were left to starve. For six months the mosque was left unopened
and the bodies unburied. Many other instances of wanton cruelty are
related of him.
In 427 az-Zahir fell sick of the plague, and as he grew worse he was
taken to the “Garden of the Strand” at Maqs, then the port of Cairo,
where he died on the 15th of Shaban, leaving the Khalifate to his son
al-Mustansir, then a child seven years of age.
XII
THE EIGHTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-MUSTANSIR
(A.H. 427-487 = A.D. 1035-1095)
Abu Tamin al-Mustansir bi-llah (“the seeker of aid from God”) was
proclaimed Khalif at his father’s death on Sunday, the 15th Shaban, 427
(14 June, 1035). His reign has the distinction of being the longest of
all the Khalifates either in Egypt or elsewhere.
Again we find the influence of a woman of the royal family predominant
in the state, this time of a black ex-slave woman. In Cairo there were
two Jewish merchants, Abu Saʿd Abrahim and his brother Abu Nasr Saʿd
ad-Dahir, sons of Sahl. The Khalif az-Zahir had bought a black Sudani
slave girl from Saʿd ad-Dahir, and she was the mother of al-Mustansir.
During the earlier years of the reign the influence behind the throne
was in the hands of the Sudani Queen Mother and her former master, the
Jewish slave merchant. This influence was restrained so long as the wazir
al-Jarjarai lived, but all check upon it came to an end at his death in
436.
The old faction fights between Turks and Berbers had now long passed
away. Under Hakim we have seen the formation of new parties, Turks
and negroes, rival groups of mercenaries in the Khalif’s employ; the
Arabs and Berbers, so far as they were not absorbed in the mass of the
population, joining with the Turks in opposition to the negro regiments.
The Queen Mother, herself a Sudani negress, threw the whole weight of her
influence on the side of the black troops.
The period of al-Jarjarai’s administration was one of prosperity in Egypt
and, for the most part, of success in Syria. Syrian affairs mainly centre
round Aleppo where Hakim had appointed ʿAziz ad-Dawla governor in 406,
but his subsequent conduct was far from pleasing to the Khalif. After
renewing the fortifications and making his own treaty with the Greeks, he
commenced striking an independent coinage and then ceased to pay tribute
to Egypt. Indeed, at the time of his disappearance Hakim was actually
preparing an army to send against Aleppo. ʿAziz ad-Dawla, however,
managed to make peace with az-Zahir and the Princess Royal, and nothing
of importance transpired until his murder in 413 which popular opinion
ascribed to Badr the governor of the citadel. No doubt Badr expected
that getting rid of ad-Dawla would leave him supreme in the city, but
next year he was expelled by the Fatimid government and two entirely
independent governors were appointed, one for the city, the other for the
citadel.
Within the next few months a formidable rising took place in which all
the Arab tribes of Syria joined. They acted in three bodies, one led
by Salih b. Mirdas, who thought this a good opportunity of recovering
his former fief, attacked Aleppo; a second led by the old agitator
Hasan b. Mufarraj overran Palestine; and a third under Sinan moved
against Damascus. The Khalif sent his general Anushtakin to deal with
these revolts, but he received a serious check, and Salih, after taking
possession of Aleppo, passed on to Hims, Baʿalbak, and Sidon, so that in
416 the Fatimid power in Syria had almost passed away. In 420 Anushtakin
reinforcements had recovered possession of Damascus. Advancing against
Salih he had an engagement at Uqhuwana in which Salih fell, although
Asushtakin was not able to press on to Aleppo. The government of the city
was now divided between Salih’s two sons, Muʿizz ad-Dawla taking the
citadel, his brother Shibl ad-Dawla holding the city. After a short time,
however, Shibl ad-Dawla took command of the citadel as well, compensating
his brother with possessions outside the city. After this he commenced a
series of successful raids against the Greeks, and was able to inflict a
defeat upon the governor of Antioch. These raids became so serious that
the Greek Emperor made an expedition against Aleppo, but was defeated by
Shibl ad-Dawla and forced to retreat.
When al-Mustansir succeeded to the Fatimid throne in 427 Shibl ad-Dawla
thought it prudent to conciliate him by large gifts of booty won from
the Greeks, and the Khalif confirmed him as governor of Aleppo. Two
years later Anushtakin considered that the time had come to make another
attempt on Aleppo, and advanced against the city with a large army. Shibl
ad-Dawla went out against him, and a battle took place near the Orontes
in the month of Shaban 429, in which the forces of Aleppo were defeated,
Shibl ad-Dawla slain, and his brother Muʿizz ad-Dawla compelled to flee.
After this Muʿizz ad-Dawla went to ʿIraq, leaving deputies in charge of
Aleppo under whose rule the city quickly fell into a state of anarchy,
so that Anushtakin was able to take possession and appoint his own
governors, and thus Aleppo once more became part of the Fatimid empire.
This was the zenith of the Fatimid power in Syria and was mainly due to
the capacity of Anushtakin, and after this the Fatimid Empire began a
rapid decline. Anushtakin had himself aroused the jealousy and suspicion
of the wazir al-Jarjarai, and had to meet his most serious opposition
from the court at Cairo. Ill-advised by his wazir, al-Muntasir granted
Aleppo as a fief to Muʿizz ad-Dawla, and Anushtakin was compelled to
conduct him to the city to be invested. On the way Anushtakin, already
ill and much mortified by the deliberate destruction of the work he had
so efficiently executed, died (_A.H._ 433), and his successor Nasir
ad-Dawla, whom we shall see afterwards as a sinister character in Egypt,
placed Muʿizz ad-Dawla in possession of the city.
To survey briefly the subsequent history of Aleppo which now ceased to be
of primary importance to Egyptian history: Muʿizz ad-Dawla was confirmed
in his appointment by the Khalif in 436, and at the same time made good
terms with the Greek Empress Theodora, and with the Saljuk Tughril Beg
who was Sultan at the court of the ʿAbbasid Khalif. In 449 he exchanged
Aleppo for Bairut, ʿAkka, and Jubail, being replaced by two Fatimid
governors at Aleppo. In 452 Mahmud, his nephew, tried to seize the city
and succeeded in occupying it for a short time, after which it was
re-taken by Muʿizz ad-Dawla, who then held it until his death in 453.
Before he expired he appointed his brother ʿAtiya as his successor, but
Mahmud made war against his uncle and, helped by the Greeks, recovered
Aleppo in 457. Soon after this, as Mahmud was convinced that the Fatimid
rule in Syria was in its final decay, he made his submission to the
Khalif of Baghdad and his Sultan Alp Arslan. This change was unpopular
in Aleppo where the people were attached to the Shiʿite sect; there was
no open resistance but clearly expressed discontent. The worshippers
stripped the great mosque of its prayer mats, saying that these had been
bought or given for Shiʿite services; let those who wished to pray in the
Sunni fashion buy others for themselves.
The wazir al-Jarjarai died in 436, the year following the death of
Anushtakin. His disappearance opened the way to an increase of faction
fighting and court intrigue in Cairo. The next wazir was Ibn al-Anbari,
who soon provoked the enmity of the Queen Mother. It seems that Abu Nasr,
Saʿd ad-Dahir’s brother, was insulted by one of the wazir’s servants,
and when Abu Nasr complained he only obtained a rough answer from the
wazir. By the plots of Sʿad ad-Dahir and harim influence, Ibn al-Anbari
was deposed and replaced by the renegade Jew, Abu Mansur Sadaqa, in whom
the Queen expected to find a docile instrument. But Abu Saʿd continued
his intrigues against Ibn al-Anbari, and finally secured his execution
in 440. But this proved his undoing, for Sadaqa began to fear that the
same fate might lie in store for him also, so he bribed the Turkish guard
to assassinate Abu Saʿd, and Abu Nasr was put to death on the same day.
In retaliation the Queen Mother procured the assassination of Sadaqa.
The next wazir was a mere creature of the Queen and imported more negro
troops in large numbers to counterbalance the Turkish guard, whilst
the Khalif and his supporters brought in more Turks and had the wazir
murdered. The next wazir held office only three months and then was
deposed. For the six years following (436-442) the domestic politics of
Egypt centered entirely in the struggle between the Turkish mercenaries
and the negro troops.
Then in 442 there came forward once more a capable wazir in the humble
fisherman’s son al-Yazuri, as his name denotes a native of the coast
village of Yazur, near Jaffa, and he held office more or less firmly for
a period of eight years.
There can be no doubt that he was a perfectly earnest reformer, so far
as his knowledge extended, and that some of his experiments were rash
and unsuccessful does not detract from his personal sincerity. One of
his first measures was to sell the government stores of corn at the
lowest current prices, thus bringing down the price of corn throughout
the country and forcing the merchants to put their stock upon the market
at prices which suited the people. Incidentally this involved a severe
loss to the revenue, and, a more serious result, there was nothing
available when soon afterwards a bad Nile produced general scarcity,
so the country had again an experience of famine and then of plague.
In these circumstances he appealed to the Greek Emperor, Constantine
Monomachos, and arrangements were made for a supply of some two million
bushels which eased the situation. For several seasons when the Niles
were bad this assistance continued until Constantine died in 447. The
next Greek ruler, the Empress Theodora, tried to drive a harder bargain
and stipulated for a full alliance, defensive and offensive, as the
price. To this the wazir was not willing to agree, for shortage in Egypt
might not happen every year, whilst such an alliance would be permanent.
As a result the supplies were stopped and minor hostilities took place in
the neighbourhood of Antioch. The stoppage was not of great importance
as next year there was an exceptionally good Nile and Egypt was filled
with abundance. Taught by experience the wazir bought freely and laid up
stores for next year’s possible requirements. At the same time he took
active measures to prevent money-lenders seizing the standing crops or
merchants buying the unreaped corn as it stood at a low figure, and so
protected the thriftless people from the wrongs which had most preyed
upon them in the past.
In his dealings with the Copts he was harsh. Again as in the
anti-Christian legislation of Hakim we observe the great unpopularity
of those who were hereditary tax-collectors and who were suspected, no
doubt with excellent reason, of defrauding the revenue. The strict
organization introduced under the first Fatimid Khalif had been allowed
to grow slack, its continuance meant constant effort and unceasing
supervision, and this sustained effort hardly lies within the oriental
character. As wazir Yazuri himself amassed great wealth, far beyond
what could possibly have come to him from the regular emoluments of his
office: a certain amount of perquisites, of a kind which the western
would be inclined to describe as bribery, is known and tolerated in
oriental administration and Yazuri, a minister who must be regarded as
a good and beneficent ruler in spite of this, was not the one to take
a high ground of morality in such matters. He imprisoned the Patriarch
Christodoulos whom he accused of persuading the Nubian king to withhold
tribute, a charge which does not seem to have had any foundation; then
laid heavy fines on the whole Coptic community, no less a sum than 70,000
dinars, and closed churches until none were left in use, and imprisoned
the bishops, all it would appear in the attempt to make the Copts pay
up the fine or, as Yazuri would no doubt have described it, to disgorge
some part of their plunder filched from the public revenue. It does not
seem that there was any sectarian motive or feeling in these measures,
although they are sometimes made to figure as religious persecution.
In 450 Yazuri died, poisoned by order of the Queen Mother with the
consent of the Khalif. The ostensible charge was that he had been
detected in treasonable correspondence with the court of Baghdad, but the
real reason seems to have been that his inordinate wealth, which could
only have been attained by defrauding the public revenue on a gigantic
scale, had awakened jealousy and suspicion.