Such was the position when al-Mansur died in 342 and was succeeded by his son Maʿad, who took the name of al-Moʿizz. Al-Mansur’s reign had been occupied entirely in dealing with Abu Yazid’s rebellion, and in the consolidation of the country after this rebellion had been put down. It cannot be said that he left the Fatimid state in a strengthened position when compared with conditions under the Mahdi, for already independent states had begun to be formed in the West, but he had dealt successfully with the emergency existing at the time of his accession.

The Fatimid state was essentially an hereditary one, for the Shiʿite theory implied the legitimate descent of the Imam. The recognition of Ismaʿil, the son of Jaʿfar, clearly showed that the father’s claimed right of disposing of the succession was invalid in the eyes of the sect of Seveners. From that time the succession had been strictly hereditary. But the Fatimids, seated in power, borrowed the constitutional usage of the Khalifs of Baghdad, and secured the succession by obtaining formal recognition of the heir during their lifetime. Thus Maʿad was formally recognised as next in succession on Monday, the 7th of Dhu l-Hijja 341, and came to the throne in the following year. In the ʿAbbasid Khalifate this recognition was a relic of the earlier election, and meant that the next Khalif was formally elected by the princes during his predecessor’s lifetime, the orthodox Khalifate not being professedly hereditary. The case was otherwise with the Fatimids who were legitimist, and could only have as Imam the one chosen by God, and to whom alone the Divine Spirit could pass at the preceding Imam’s death. No doubt the formal recognition during the father’s life was adopted as a measure of precaution; theoretically it might be defended by the supposition that its point was the father’s public recognition of his son and heir, but the real case seems to be that it was simply borrowed from the usages of the court of Baghdad, and marks a relaxation of the theocratic and sectarian character of the Fatimid state which is gradually inclining towards becoming a purely secular one, differing from the Baghdad Khalifate in little more than in that it professed Shiʿism as the established religion.

VIII
THE FOURTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-MOʿIZZ

(A.H. 342-365 = A.D. 953-975)

The new Fatimid Khalif was of a type somewhat different from his predecessors. Like them, indeed, he proved an able and efficient ruler, but unlike them he was a man of cultured tastes and of considerable literary ability. His heart was set on the conquest of Egypt, the great dream ever present before his father and grandfather, which seemed now coming within the bounds of possibility.

To understand this we must turn for a while to the course of events in Egypt. The Ikhshid Muhammad b. Tughj had died in 335, and had been succeeded by his son Abu l-Qasim Unjur, a child of 15, who was kept in a state of pupilage by a black eunuch named Abu l-Misk Kafur, i.e., “Camphor, the father of musk.” This Kafur was an ungainly black slave, of ponderous bulk and mis-shapen legs, who had been purchased as a boy of ten in the year 310 and sent one day with a present to the Ikhshid; the present was returned, but the messenger was retained. Little by little he rose in the service, first of the Ikhshid’s household, then in that of the state, conciliating everyone by his pleasing manners and fair words, and was finally appointed by the Ikhshid atatek, or guardian, to his two sons. At the Ikhshid’s death a riot broke out, and this Kafur put down with such tact that he was regarded with even greater favour and consideration by all the public officials. Soon afterwards news arrived that the Hamdanid Sayf ad-Dawla ʿAli had taken Damascus, and was marching upon Ramla. At once Kafur set out at the head of the army and checked ʿAli, returning home with considerable booty. This greatly increased his reputation, and, although holding no constitutional authority he was able to get all the business of the state into his hands, and was generally conceded the title of ustad or “tutor,” a word often used in the same sense as patron in French, and under this title he was mentioned in the khutba or Friday prayer. As his ward Unjur grew older, however, a more or less veiled hostility arose between them, each on his guard against the other, until the titular prince died in 349, not without suspicion of being poisoned by the ustad, although such suspicions were usual in every case where a death seemed to be timely: the oriental world has always had an obsession for poisoning.

Kafur was now strong enough to control the appointment of the next heir and, as Maqrizi expresses it, appointed the deceased prince’s brother Abu l-Hasan ʿAli to succeed him, paying him an annual pension of 400,000 dinars, and reserving the whole administration in his own hands. The new Emir, though 23 years of age, was kept shut up and was permitted to see no-one. However, the same strained feelings arose between him and the ustad as in the case of his brother, and when he died in 355 there were the same suspicions. For some time Egypt remained without a regular governor,—it must be remembered that the Emir was theoretically no more than a viceroy appointed by the Khalif at Baghdad,—and all the power continued in Kafur’s hands as he declined to proclaim Anujin’s son, saying that he was too young to occupy the position of Emir. About a month after Abu l-Hasan ʿAli’s death he displayed a pelisse of honour sent from Baghdad and a charter nominating himself governor under the title of ustad, and on Tuesday, the 10th of Safar 355 (Feb., 966), he began to wear the pelisse in public (Ibn Khall. ii. 524, etc.).

Before long the Khalif al-Moʿizz made another attempt upon Egypt, and his army advanced to the oases before the western frontier, but Kafur checked the advance and slew several of the invaders, but received at his court some of the Fatimid missionaries whom al-Moʿizz sent as envoys to invite Kafur to recognise his authority. The Ustad received them favourably, and most of his entourage and the chief officials gave their promises of homage to the Fatimid. It seems, indeed, that Kafur had formed the definite plan of transferring allegiance from the ʿAbbasid Khalif to the Fatimid, or rather that such a transference should take place at the next vacancy in the governorship of Egypt.