A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate

by De Lacy O'Leary

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.