quenched by that of self-interest, by the desire of acquiring feudal
possessions, by the slavish subjection of the vassals under their
lieges, and by the intrigues of the bishops, who intermeddled with all
feudal matters, also reappeared. A great universal society of Christian
knights, bound to the observance of peculiar laws, whose highest aim was
to fight only for God--before long also for the ladies--and who swore
never to make use of dishonorable means for success, but solely to live
and to die for honor, was formed; an innovation which, although merely
military in its origin, speedily became of political importance, for, by
means of this knightly honor, the little vassal of a minor lord was no
longer viewed as a mere underling, but as a confederate in the great
universal chivalric fraternity. There were also many freemen who
sometimes gained their livelihood by offering their services to
different courts, or by robbing on the highways, and who were too proud
to serve on foot; Henry offered them free pardon, and formed them into a
body of light cavalry. In the cities the free citizens, who were
originally intended only to serve as foot soldiery, appear ere long to
have formed themselves into mounted troops, and to have created a fresh
body of infantry out of their artificers and apprentices. It is certain
that every freeman could pretend to knighthood.
Although the chivalric regulations ascribed to the emperor Henry, and to
his most distinguished vassals, may not be genuine, they offer
nevertheless infallible proofs of the most ancient spirit of knighthood.
Henry ordained that no one should be created a knight who either by word
or by deed injured the holy Church; the Pfalzgraf Conrad added, "no one
who either by word or by deed injured the holy German empire"; Hermann
of Swabia, "no one who injured a woman or a maiden"; Berthold, the
brother of Arnulf of Bavaria, "no one who had ever deceived another or
had broken his word"; Conrad of Franconia, "no one who had ever run away
from the field of battle." These appear to have been, in fact, the first
chivalric laws, for they spring from the spirit of the times, while all
the regulations concerning nobility of birth, the number of ancestors,
the exclusion of all those who were engaged in trade, etc., are, it is
evident from their very nature, of a much later origin.
CONQUEST OF EGYPT BY THE FATIMITES
A.D. 969
STANLEY LANE-POOLE
(It was the fate of the religion which Mahomet founded, as it has been
of other great systems, to undergo many sectarian divisions, and to be
used as the instrument of conquest and political power. When Islam had
somewhat departed from the character which it first manifested in moral
sternness and fiery zeal, and had established itself in various parts of
the world on a basis of commerce or of science, rather than that of its
original inspiration, various off shoots of the faith began to assume
prominence. Among the sects which sprang up was one that claimed to
represent the true succession of Mahomet. This sect was itself the
result of a schism among the adherents of one of the two principal
divisions of the Moslems--the Shiahs. They maintained that Ali, a
relation and the adopted son of Mahomet and husband of his daughter
Fatima, was the first legitimate imam or successor of the prophet. They
regarded the other and greater division--the Sunnites, who recognized
the first three caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman--as usurpers. Ali
was the fourth caliph, and the Sunnites in turn looked upon his
followers, the Shiahs, as heretics.
The schism among the Shiahs grew out of the claim of the schismatics
that the legitimate imam or successor of the Prophet must be in the line
of descent from Ali. The sixth imam, Jaffer, upon the death of his
eldest son, Ismail, appointed another son, Moussa or Moses, his heir;
but a large body of the Shiahs denied the right of Jaffer to make a new
nomination, declaring the imamate to be strictly hereditary. They formed
a new party of Ismailians, and in 908 a chief of this sect, Mahomet,
surnamed el-Mahdi, or the Leader--a title of the Shiahs for their
imams--revolted in Africa. He called himself a descendant of Ismail and
claimed to be the legitimate imam. He aimed at the temporal power of a
caliph, and soon established a rival caliphate in Africa, where he had
obtained a considerable sovereignty. The dynasty thus begun assumed the
name of Fatimites in honor of Fatima. The fourth caliph of this line,
El-Moizz, conquered Egypt about 969, founded the modern Cairo, and made
it his capital. The claims of the Egyptian caliphate were heralded
throughout all Islam, and its rule was rapidly extended into Syria and
Arabia. It played an important part in the history of the Crusades, but
in 1171 was abolished by the famous Saladin, and Egypt was restored to
the obedience which it had formerly owned to Bagdad. The Bagdad caliphs,
called Abbassides--claiming descent from Abbas, the uncle of
Mahomet--remained rulers of Egypt until 1517, or until within twenty
years of the death of the last Abbasside.)
Three hundred and thirty years had passed since the Saracens first
invaded the valley of the Nile. The people, with traditional docility,
had liberally adopted the religion of their rulers, and the Moslems now
formed the great majority of the population. Arabs and natives had
blended into much the same race that we now call Egyptians; but so far
the mixture had not produced any conspicuous men. The few commanding
figures among the governors, Ibn-Tulun, the Ikshid, Kafur, were
foreigners, and even these were but a step above the stereotyped
official. They essayed no great extension of their dominions; they did
not try to extinguish their dangerous neighbors the schismatic
Fatimites; and though they possessed and used fleets, they ventured upon
no excursions against Europe.
The great revolution which had swept over North Africa, and now spread
to Egypt, arose out of the old controversy over the legitimacy of the
caliphate. The prophet Mahomet died without definitely naming a
successor, and thereby bequeathed an interminable quarrel to his
followers. The principle of election, thus introduced, raised the first
three caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omar, Othman, to the _cathedra_ at Medina; but
a strong minority held that the "divine right" rested with Ali, the
"Lion of God," first convert to Islam, husband of the prophet's daughter
Fatima, and father of Mahomet's only male descendants. When Ali in turn
became the fourth caliph, he was the mark for jealousy, intrigue, and at
length assassination; his sons, the grandsons of the Prophet, were
excluded from the succession; his family were cruelly persecuted by
their successful rivals, the Ommiad usurpers; and the tragedy of Kerbela
and the murder of Hoseyn set the seal of martyrdom on the holy family
and stirred a passionate enthusiasm which still rouses intense
excitement in the annual representations of the Persian passion play.
The rent thus opened in Islam was never closed. The ostracism of Ali
"laid the foundation of the grand interminable schism which has divided
the Mahometan Church, and equally destroyed the practice of charity
among the members of their common creed and endangered the speculative
truths of doctrine."
The descendants of Ali, though almost universally devoid of the
qualities of great leaders, possessed the persistence and devotion of
martyrs, and their sufferings heightened the fanatical enthusiasm of
their supporters. All attempts to recover the temporal power having
proved vain, the Alides fell back upon the spiritual authority of the
successive candidates of the holy family, whom they proclaimed to be the
imams or spiritual leaders of the faithful. This doctrine of the imamate
gradually acquired a more mystical meaning, supported by an allegorical
interpretation of the _Koran_; and a mysterious influence was ascribed
to the imam, who, though hidden from mortal eye, on account of the
persecution of his enemies, would soon come forward publicly in the
character of the ever-expected _mahdi_, sweep away the corruptions of
the heretical caliphate, and revive the majesty of the pure lineage of
the prophet. All Mahometans believe in a coming mahdi, a messiah, who
shall restore right and prepare for the second advent of Mahomet and the
tribunal of the last day; but the Shiahs turned the expectation to
special account. They taught that the true Imam, though invisible to
mortal sight, is ever living; they predicted the mahdi's speedy
appearance, and kept their adherents on the alert to take up arms in his
service. With a view to his coming they organized a pervasive
conspiracy, instituted a secret society with carefully graduated stages
of initiation, used the doctrines of all religions and sects as weapons
in the propaganda, and sent missionaries throughout the provinces of
Islam to increase the numbers of the initiates and pave the way for the
great revolution. We see their partial success in the ravages of the
Karmathians, who were the true parents of the Fatimites. The leaders and
chief missionaries had really nothing in common with Mahometanism. Among
themselves they were frankly atheists. Their objects were political, and
they used religion in any form, and adapted it in all modes, to secure
proselytes, to whom they imparted only so much of their doctrine as they
were able to bear. These men were furnished with "an armory of
proselytism" as perfect, perhaps, as any known to history: they had
appeals to enthusiasm, and arguments for the reason, and "fuel for the
fiercest passions of the people and times in which they moved." Their
real aim was not religious or constructive, but pure nihilism. They used
the claim of the family of Ali, not because they believed in any divine
right or any caliphate, but because some flag had to be flourished in
order to rouse the people.
One of these missionaries, disguised as a merchant, journeyed back to
Barbary in 893, with some Berber pilgrims who had performed the sacred
ceremonies at Mecca. He was welcomed by the great tribe of the Kitama,
and rapidly acquired an extraordinary influence over the Berbers--a race
prone to superstition, and easily impressed by the mysterious rites of
initiation and the emotional doctrines of the propagandist, the wrongs
of the prophetic house, and the approaching triumph of the Mahdi.
Barbary had never been much attached to the caliphate, and for a century
it had been practically independent under the Aglabite dynasty, the
barbarous excesses of whose later sovereigns had alienated their
subjects. Alides, moreover, had established themselves, in the dynasty
of the Idrisides, in Morocco since the end of the eighth century. The
land was in every respect ripe for revolution, and the success of
Abu-Abdallah esh-Shii, the new missionary, was extraordinarily rapid. In
a few years he had a following of two hundred thousand armed men, and
after a series of battles he drove Ziyadat-Allah, the last Aglabite
prince, out of the country in 908. The missionary then proclaimed the
imam Obeid-Allah as the true caliph and spiritual head of Islam. Whether
this Obeid-Allah was really a descendant of Ali or not, he had been
carefully prepared for the role, and reached Barbary in disguise, with
the greatest mystery and some difficulty, pursued by the suspicions of
the Bagdad caliph, who, in great alarm, sent repeated orders for his
arrest. Indeed, the victorious missionary had to rescue his spiritual
chief from a sordid prison at Sigilmasa. Then humbly prostrating himself
before him, he hailed him as the expected mahdi, and in January, 910, he
was duly prayed for in the mosque of Kayrawan as "the Imam 'Obeid-Allah
el-Mahdi, Commander of the Faithful.'"
The missionary's Berber proselytes were too numerous to encourage
resistance, and the few who indulged the luxury of conscientious
scruples were killed or imprisoned. El-Mahdi, indeed, appeared so secure
in power that he excited the jealousy of his discoverer.
Abu-Abdallah, the missionary, now found himself nobody, where a month
before he had been supreme. The Fatimite restoration was to him only a
means to an end; he had used Obeid-Allah's title as an engine of
revolution, intending to proceed to the furthest lengths of his
philosophy, to a complete social and political anarchy, the destruction
of Islam, community of lands and women, and all the delight of
unshackled license. Instead of this, his creature had absorbed his
power, and all such designs were made void. He began to hatch treason
and to hint doubts as to the genuineness of the Mahdi, who, as he truly
represented, according to prophecy, ought to work miracles and show
other proofs of his divine mission. People began to ask for a "sign." In
reply, the Mahdi had the missionary murdered.
The first Fatimite caliph, though without experience, was so vigorous a
ruler that he could dispense with the dangerous support of his
discoverer. He held the throne for a quarter of a century and
established his authority, more or less continuously, over the Arab and
Berber tribes and settled cities from the frontier of Egypt to the
province of Fez (Fas) in Morocco, received the allegiance of the
Mahometan governor of Sicily, and twice despatched expeditions into
Egypt, which he would probably have permanently conquered if he had not
been hampered by perpetual insurrections in Barbary. Distant governors,
and often whole tribes of Berbers, were constantly in revolt, and the
disastrous famine of 928-929, coupled with the Asiatic plague which his
troops had brought back with them from Egypt, led to general
disturbances and insurrections which fully occupied the later years of
his reign. The western provinces, from Tahart and Nakur to Fez and
beyond, frequently threw off all show of allegiance. His authority was
founded more on fear than on religious enthusiasm, though zeal for the
Alide cause had its share in his original success. The new "Eastern
doctrines," as they were called, were enforced at the sword's point, and
frightful examples were made of those who ventured to tread in the old
paths. Nor were the freethinkers of the large towns, who shared the
missionary's esoteric principles, encouraged; for outwardly, at least,
the Mahdi was strictly a Moslem. When people at Kayrawan began to put in
practice the missionary's advanced theories, to scoff at all the rules
of Islam, to indulge in free love, pig's flesh, and wine, they were
sternly brought to order. The mysterious powers expected of a mahdi were
sedulously rumored among the credulous Berbers, though no miracles were
actually exhibited; and the obedience of the conquered provinces was
secured by horrible outrages and atrocities, of which the terrified
people dared not provoke a repetition at the hands of the Mahdi's savage
generals.
His eldest son Abul-Kasim, who had twice led expeditions into Egypt,
succeeded to the caliphate with the title of El-Kaim, 934-946. He began
his reign with warlike vigor. He sent out a fleet in 934 or 935, which
harried the southern coast of France, blockaded and took Genoa, and
coasted along Calabria, massacring and plundering, burning the shipping,
and carrying off slaves wherever it touched. At the same time he
despatched a third army against Egypt; but the firm hand of the Ikshid
now held the government, and his brother, Obeid-Allah, with fifteen
thousand horse, drove the enemy out of Alexandria and gave them a
crushing defeat on their way home. But for the greater part of his reign
El-Kaim was on the defensive, fighting for existence against the
usurpation of one Abu-Yezid, who repudiated Shiism, cursed the Mahdi and
his successor, stirred up most of Morocco and Barbary against El-Kaim,
drove him out of his capital, and went near to putting an end to the
Fatimite caliphate.
It was only after seven years of uninterrupted civil war that this
formidable insurrection died out, under the firm but politic management
of the third caliph, El-Mansur (946-953), a brave man who knew both when
to strike and when to be generous. Abu-Yezid was at last run to earth,
and his body was skinned and stuffed with straw, and exposed in a cage
with a couple of ludicrous apes as a warning to the disaffected.
The Fatimites so far wear a brutal and barbarous character. They do not
seem to have encouraged literature or learning; but this is partly
explained by the fact that culture belonged chiefly to the orthodox
caliphate; and its learned men could have no dealings with the heretical
pretender. The city of Kayrawan, which dates from the Arab conquest in
the eighth century, preserves the remains of some noble buildings, but
of their other capitals or royal residences no traces of art or
architecture remain to bear witness to the taste of their founders. Each
began to decay as soon as its successor was built.
With the fourth caliph, however, El-Moizz, the conqueror of Egypt,
953-975, the Fatimites entered upon a new phase.
El-Moizz was a man of politic temper, a born statesman, able to grasp
the conditions of success and to take advantage of every point in his
favor. He was also highly educated, and not only wrote Arabic poetry and
delighted in its literature, but studied Greek, mastered Berber and
Sudani dialects, and is even said to have taught himself Slavonic in
order to converse with his slaves from Eastern Europe. His eloquence was
such as to move his audience to tears. To prudent statesmanship he added
a large generosity, and his love of justice was among his noblest
qualities. So far as outward acts could show, he was a strict Moslem of
the Shiah sect, and the statement of his adversaries that he was really
an atheist seems to rest merely upon the belief that all the Fatimites
adopted the esoteric doctrines of the Ismailian missionaries.
When he ascended the throne in April, 953, he had already a policy, and
he lost no time in carrying it into execution. He first made a progress
through his dominions, visiting each town, investigating its needs, and
providing for its peace and prosperity. He bearded the rebels in their
mountain fastnesses, till they laid down their arms and fell at his
feet. He conciliated the chiefs and governors with presents and
appointments, and was rewarded by their loyalty.
At the head of his ministers he set Gawhar "the Roman," a slave from the
Eastern Empire, who had risen to the post of secretary to the late
Caliph, and was now by his son promoted to the rank of _wazir_ commander
of the forces. He was sent in 958 to bring the ever-refractory Maghreb
(Morocco) to allegiance. The expedition was entirely successful,
Sigilmasa and Fez were taken, and Gawhar reached the shore of the
Atlantic.
Jars of live fish and sea-weed reached the capital, and proved to the
Caliph that his empire touched the ocean, the "limitless limit" of the
world. All the African littoral, from the Atlantic to the frontier of
Egypt--with the single exception of Spanish Ceuta--now peaceably
admitted the sway of the Fatimite Caliph.
The result was due partly to the exhaustion caused by the long struggle
during the preceding reigns, partly to the politic concessions and
personal influence of the able young ruler. He was liberal and
conciliatory toward different provinces, but to the Arabs of the capital
he was severe. Kayrawan teemed with disaffected folk, sheiks, and
theologians bitterly hostile to the heretical "orientalism" of the
Fatimites, and always ready to excite a tumult. Moizz was resolved to
give them no chance, and one of his repressive measures was the curfew.
At sunset a trumpet sounded, and anyone found abroad after that was
liable to lose not only his way, but his head. So long as they were
quiet, however, he used the people justly, and sought to impress them in
his favor. In a singular interview, recorded by Makrisi, he exhibited
himself to a deputation of sheiks, dressed in the utmost simplicity, and
seated before his writing materials in a plain room, surrounded by
books. He wished to disabuse them of the idea that he led in private a
life of luxury and self-indulgence.
"You see what employs me when I am alone," he said; "I read letters that
come to me from the lands of the East and the West, and answer them with
my own hand; I deny myself all the pleasures of the world, and I seek
only to protect your lives, multiply your children, shame your rivals,
and daunt your enemies." Then he gave them much good advice, and
especially recommended them to keep to one wife.
"One woman is enough for one man. If you straitly observe what I have
ordained," he concluded, "I trust that God will, through you, procure
our conquest of the East in like manner as he has vouchsafed us the
West."
The conquest of Egypt was indeed the aim of his life. To rule over
tumultuous Arab and Berber tribes in a poor country formed no fit
ambition for a man of his capacity. Egypt, its wealth, its commerce, its
great port, and its docile population--these were his dream.
For two years he had been digging wells and building rest-houses on the
road to Alexandria. The West was now outwardly quiet, and between Egypt
and any hope of succor from the eastern caliphate stood the ravaging
armies of the Karmatis. Egypt itself was in helpless disorder. The great
Kafur was dead, and its nominal ruler was a child. Ibn-Furat, the
_wazir_, had made himself obnoxious to the people by arrests and
extortions. The very soldiery was in revolt, and the Turkish retainers
of the court mutinied, plundered the wazir's palace, and even opened
negotiations with Moizz. Hoseyn, the nephew of the Ikshid, attempted to
restore public order, but after three months of vacillating and
unpopular government he returned to his own province in Palestine to
make terms with the Karmatis. Famine, the result of the exceptionally
low Nile of 967, added to the misery of the country; plague, as usual,
followed in the steps of famine; over six hundred thousand people died
in and around Fustat, and the wretched inhabitants began in despair to
migrate to happier lands.
All these matters were fully reported to Moizz by the renegade Jew Yakub
Killis, a former favorite of Kafur, who had been driven from Egypt by
the jealous exactions of the wazir, Ibn-Furat, and who was perfectly
familiar with the political and financial state of the Nile valley. His
representations confirmed the Fatimite Caliph's resolve; the Arab tribes
were summoned to his standard; an immense treasure was collected, all of
which was spent in the campaign; gratuities were lavishly distributed to
the army, and at the head of over one hundred thousand men, all well
mounted and armed, accompanied by a thousand camels and a mob of horses
carrying money, stores, and ammunition, Gawhar marched from Kayrawan in
February, 969. The Caliph himself reviewed the troops. The marshal
kissed his hand and his horse's shoe. All the princes, emirs, and
courtiers passed reverently on foot before the honored leader of the
conquering army, who, as a last proof of favor, received the gift of his
master's own robes and charger. The governors of all the towns on the
route had orders to come on foot to Gawhar's stirrup, and one of them
vainly offered a large bribe to be excused the indignity.
The approach of this overwhelming force filled the Egyptian ministers
with consternation, and they thought only of obtaining favorable terms.
A deputation of notables, headed by Abu-Giafar Moslem, a _sherif_, or
descendant of the Prophet's family, waited upon Gawhar near Alexandria,
and demanded a capitulation. The general consented without reserve, and
in a conciliatory letter granted all they asked. But they had reckoned
without their host; the troops at Fustat would not listen to such
humiliation, and there was a strong war party among the citizens, to
which some of the ministers leaned. The city prepared for resistance,
and skirmishes took place with Gawhar's army, which had meanwhile
arrived at the opposite town of Giza in July. Forcing the passage of the
river, with the help of some boats supplied by Egyptian soldiers, the
invaders fell upon the imposing army drawn up on the other bank, and
totally defeated them. The troops deserted Fustat in a panic, and the
women of the city, running out of their houses, implored the sherif to
intercede with the conqueror.
Gawhar, like his master, always disposed to a politic leniency, renewed
his former promises, and granted a complete amnesty to all who
submitted. The overjoyed populace cut off the heads of some of the
refractory leaders, in their enthusiasm, and sent them to the camp in
pleasing token of allegiance. A herald, bearing a white flag, rode
through the streets of Fustat proclaiming the amnesty and forbidding
pillage, and on August the 5th the Fatimite army, with full pomp of
drums and banners, entered the capital.