A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate

by De Lacy O'Leary

The monk Yamin next procured the exiled Patriarch Zacharias an interview with the Khalif, which took place in the monastery of St. Mercurius at Sahran. In the course of this interview Hakim gave permission to the Christians to re-open their churches, to restore those which had been destroyed, to recover building material removed at the time when churches were being demolished, and to regain possession of gardens and property attached to the churches and monasteries. The Christians were no longer required to wear distinctive badges, or rather the disuse of those badges was tacitly condoned, and were allowed to sound bells. Ibn Khallikan refers this toleration to 411, which agrees with Severus and with Bar Hebraeus, who speaks of this change as taking place shortly before Hakim was killed, and adds that at this time many of the Christians who had gone abroad returned to Egypt. Probably breaches of the persecuting laws began to be condoned in 408 or soon after, and these increased gradually as it was seen that they could be made with impunity.

Meanwhile the extremes to which the followers of Hamza were prepared to go also increased. Some of the courtiers on entering the Khalif’s presence saluted him, “Hail to thee, only and unique one, hail to thee who givest life and death, who bestowest wealth and poverty.” Having in view the peculiar religious tendencies of the extremer Shiʿite sects, it must not surprise us that there were some apparently sincere in their acceptation of the divine character of the Imam, although the bulk of the people remained sober and orthodox Muslims. One of the adherents of Hamza’s doctrines who was at Mecca struck his lance on the sacred Black Stone and said: “Why, O foolish ones, do you adore and kiss that which cannot be of any use to you nor injure you, whilst you neglect him who is in Egypt, who giveth life and death?”

Ibn Khallikan tells us that one day a Qurʾan reader was reading at court the verse: “And they will not—I swear by the Lord—they will not believe, until they have set thee up as judge between them on points where they differ” (Qur. iv. 68), pointing the while towards the Khalif. Ibn al-Mushajjar, a devout man who was present, then recited the verse: “O men, a parable is set forth to you, wherefore hearken to it. Verily, they on whom ye call beside God, cannot create a fly, though they assemble for it; and if the fly carry off aught from them, they cannot take it away from it. Weak the suppliant and the supplicated” (Qur. xxii. 72). At this the Khalif changed countenance; to Ibn al-Mushajjar he presented 100 dinars, to the reader he gave nothing. But afterwards a friend said to Ibn Mushajjar: “You know al-Hakim’s character, and are aware of his frequent prevarications: take heed lest he conceive a hatred for you and punish you later. You would then have much to suffer from him. My advice is that you get out of his sight.” Ibn al-Mushajjar took this advice seriously and set out on the pilgrimage to Mecca, but was ship-wrecked and drowned.

The years 408 to 411 were entirely abnormal in the history of Egypt. It has been suggested that the entire change in Hakim’s conduct during these years was due to his being now initiated into the higher grades of the Ismaʿilian sect, and thus he was now disposed to disregard all forms of religion. But it seems to be very dubious how far the regular Ismaʿilian system had remained in vigour in Fatimid Egypt. The state was professedly Shiʿite, the Chief Daʿi held the regular conferences required by the rules of the brotherhood, and undoubtedly initiates were admitted: but since the sojourn in Egypt it rather seems that the sect as a religious organization had greatly weakened, save in the one respect that it was regarded with loyalty by the extremer Shiʿites in Persia, and that from Persia more especially there was a constant stream of pilgrims, enthusiastic sectaries whose enthusiasm was, if anything, a source of embarrassment to the Egyptian government, whose interests were now plainly political. Hamza, Darazi, and, later on, the originators of the sect of Assassins, were all Persian Shiʿites who came to visit Egypt. It seems more probable that Hakim’s new attitude was entirely due to the influence of these Persian visitors.

In the year 409 Hakim was riding in the streets and saw what he supposed to be a woman standing in the street, a plain breach of the regulations in force. At once Hakim rode over to her and found that she was holding out a petition in her hand. He ordered one of his attendants to take the paper and arrest the woman. When they laid hands on her it turned out that it was only a guy of paper, and the document she held out was full of charges against the chastity of the Princess Hakim’s sister. Hakim went home in a towering rage. He abused his sister for giving ground for such reflections to be made on her honour, and spoke to her many harsh words. More than once before this he had treated her harshly when she had ventured to remonstrate with him on his various cruelties, but this was an attack graver than he had ever made previously.

Next day Hakim turned loose his mercenaries, Arabs, Berbers, Greeks, and negroes, upon the city. For three days they broke open houses, pillaged, slew those who resisted them, violated women, and carried off maidens of the best families, and burned a great part of Fustat. Each day Hakim rode out to the cemetery of Karafa and looked down on the suffering city. Many of the citizens came around him to implore mercy, but he remained unmoved and gave no sign of hearing them. On the fourth day the Sherifs assembled in the mosques lifting Qurʾans to heaven and implored divine assistance. So piteous was the condition of the people that many of the Turkish guards were moved and took their part, and in this they were soon joined by the Berbers, both doing their best to restrain the bestial ferocity of the negroes, until the whole place was raging in civil war. At length some of the Turks went to Hakim, and in no measured terms called on him to interfere and stop this terrible state of affairs. Hakim replied quite coolly deploring the excesses of the soldiery, and agreeing with the Turks that it ought to be stopped. He then rode down into the city on his ass and stopped the conflict. After that he called the Turks and Berbers round him, expressed the greatest regret for the suffering which the city had had to undergo, protested that he did not at all desire such an unhappy event, and that it could not be avoided, and published a general amnesty. As soon as things settled down it was found that about a third of the city had been burned, and about a half pillaged. The citizens had much trouble in recovering their ravished wives, daughters, and sisters, most of whom had been dishonoured by the negro soldiers. Some of the women had committed suicide to avoid this shame. Many of the citizens went to Hakim and asked him to get back their women for them. Hakim told them to ransom them from their captors and promised to reimburse any sums which were laid out in this manner. One of the townsmen reproached him very harshly for this great disgrace to a Muslim community, and expressed the hope that the women of the Khalif’s own family would suffer the same as their wives and daughters. Hakim bore this reproach patiently and made a mild reply.

Although this atrocious deed had made Hakim feel that he had revenged himself on those who had reflected on his sister, he had by no means forgiven her. After upbraiding her in no measured terms he informed her that he would send some women to examine her and find if she really were a virgin or not. The Asiatic historians who make most reference to the Princess describe her as a woman of the noblest character and of the highest chastity, and represent this as a deliberate and insane insult offered by her brother. It is not at all clear that this is a true estimate. Later on we find her as a woman of undoubted ability, but unscrupulous character. At the same time it is extremely probable that the members of Hakim’s family had graver reasons for alarm than anyone else, if indeed it be true that he was now showing plain signs of a disordered brain. At any rate when Hakim made this threat she was greatly alarmed; it may be that she feared such an examination, or it may be that she deeply resented the insult. In her alarm she went to Yusuf b. Dawwas ad-Dawla. Although one of the great nobles of Egypt Yusuf abstained from attending the court and had so abstained for some time, being thoroughly alarmed at Hakim’s conduct, and was careful to meet the Khalif only at public functions which he could not avoid. One time Hakim at such a parade asked him to visit him in his palace, but Yusuf did not make the desired visit. The next time they met in public Hakim reproached him for this, and Yusuf replied plainly that he would rather not go to the palace; if Hakim had any evil intention towards him he would rather wait at home to be summoned to death than to go to the palace, be killed there, and thrown to the dogs. At this reply Hakim only laughed, but Yusuf had serious fears that sooner or later the Khalif would have his revenge, and probably a cruel one.

The Princess sent to Yusuf and asked for an interview with him at night. This was arranged and she went to Yusuf’s house and explained to him the great dangers threatening them both. The best thing to do would be to arrange Hakim’s death: “You,” she said, “will be made general of the armies, minister of the empire, and guardian of the young prince. I shall live quietly in my palace as befits my sex and take no part in business.” Some reports say that she also promised to marry Yusuf. To all this Yusuf agreed. She asked him to supply two absolutely trusty men, and these he provided. A plan of assassination was agreed upon, and the two cut-throats were presented by her with a Maghrabi dagger each. With reference to this account, which is given by Bar Hebraeus, and outlined by al-Makini, Maqrizi says: “No credit should be given to what the Asiatic writers say in their books, that this prince perished by the plots of his sister. But God alone knows the whole truth” (Maq. ii. 289). It is important to note that Severus of Ashmunayn, who wrote only thirty years after these events, makes no mention of the Princess in this connection, though his tendency is to repeat all gossip unfavourable to the Fatimids: he simply states that the details of Hakim’s disappearance were unknown.

According to Ibn Khallikan, Hakim went out late in the night of 27th Shawal 411, and spent the whole night going about on the Mokattam hill. At daybreak he was near the tomb of Fokkai, and thence went east to Hulwan, about five miles from Cairo, accompanied by two attendants. He then met a company of Arabs, nine in number, who had a request to make of him. He told them to go to the palace, and sent one of his attendants with them. For some time he continued with the second attendant, then told him to go back also. At that time he was still near the tomb of Fokkai. The second attendant returned to the palace and left the Khalif alone on Mokattam. Next morning he did not return, and for three days no sign of him was seen; then, on Sunday, the 2nd of Dhu l-Zaʿda, the eunuch Nesim, who was the chamberlain, and a number of other officials, went out on the hills to make a search. At length they reached the monastery known as Dayr al-Kosayr, and near there they found Hakim’s ass with its saddle on but its legs hacked off. Following the footsteps of the ass, which were accompanied by the footprints of two men they came to a hollow where they found the Khalif’s clothes with marks of cuts, but the buttons not undone. No body was ever found. It was assumed that Hakim had been murdered, and that his arms had been cut off before the clothes were removed. After the discovery of the ass and of the clothes had been reported, the Princess considered it expedient to have Hakim’s infant son proclaimed Khalif, thus avoiding the claims of ʿAbdu r-Rahim, the heir designated by Hakim, and it seems that the main evidence for her supposed complicity with the murder rests on this act which assumed that he must be dead, though it is difficult to see how she could have acted differently under the circumstances.

Al-Mahsin is reported as saying that Hakim went out, and that after sending back Nesim and his squire, he had as companions only a page and a young slave: at the time he was filled with apprehensions as he knew from his horoscope that the night was one of great peril to him. When he was on Mokattam he said: “We belong to God and return to him”: then clapping his hands together he added, “Thou hast appeared then, O dismal sign,” referring to the star whose appearance he took as the warning of his death. Going along the hillside he met ten men of the B. Qorra who had a request to make to him, and said that they had often waited in vain at his palace door. Hakim orders them to be paid 10,000 pieces of silver from the treasury, and directs his page to go with them and draw the money for them. They objected that it might be that the Khalif was angry with them for interrupting his walk, and that perhaps the order in the page’s hand might privately direct that they were to be put to punishment, so they requested that he would also give them a safe conduct, and this the Khalif gave. Hakim and the young slave then go on and enter a valley where the two men sent by Yusuf are lying in ambush. They came out and fell upon him just as the day was dawning. At their appearance he cried out, “Wretches, what do you want?” They cut off his two arms, open his stomach, and tear out the entrails, and wrap the body in a robe. They then slew the slave, cut the traces of the ass, and carried off the body to Yusuf. He took it to the Princess, who made presents to him and to the two murderers. She then sent for the wazir, revealed to him what had happened, and made him promise secrecy. She persuaded him to write to ʿAbdu r-Rahim at Damascus, and at the same time sent an officer named ʿAli b. Dawud to Ferma to seize ʿAbdu r-Rahim on his way to Egypt and carry him to Tannis; and also she sent instructions to the governor of Tannis. Next day it was observed that Hakim did not return. Abu Arus would not allow the gates of Kahira to be opened, stating that the Khalif had ordered them to be closed the day before, and no search was made until the following day. The Princess had conferences with the chiefs of the Katama tribe and other leading persons and, with the help of lavish presents, induced them to recognise Hakim’s son as his successor, although they had already given formal recognition to ʿAbdu r-Rahim. On the seventh day she dressed the child in rich robes and sent for Yusuf, whom she declared to be ustad or guardian. Then the child was taken out in state, the wazir proclaimed him as Khalif, and he was generally recognised.