Meanwhile difficult problems had arisen in Syria. The Saljuq Turks, who were now dominant in Baghdad, were fanatically orthodox and set themselves deliberately to root out the Fatimids from Islam. In 461, during the period of disorder in Egypt, they had gained possession of Jerusalem, and in 466 they took Damascus which never again acknowledged a Fatimid ruler. The Saljuq general Atsiz then planned an expedition against Egypt itself, and as this threat came just at the moment when Badr was setting himself to the task of restoring order in Egypt he was not in a position to attempt an expedition against the Saljuk Turks. Ships were made ready to remove the court to Alexandria, and messengers were sent out to attempt to bribe the Turkish general to retire. In fact Atsiz was not well supported and felt himself not in a position to press forward, so that this danger was averted. As soon as Badr had reduced Lower Egypt he sent an expedition to recover Palestine and Syria, and his army was able to gain possession of Jerusalem, where Atsiz had been governor since 468. Hard pressed by the Egyptians Atsiz appealed for help to the Saljuq general Tutush who had entered Syria with large reinforcements, and at length evacuated from Jerusalem and marched out to join with him. He met Tutush at Damascus, but the Saljuq Commander-in-Chief severely rebuked Atsiz for quitting Jerusalem and arrested and executed him (A.H. 471), and then himself took possession of the whole of Syria. In 478 Tutush, now ʿAbbasid viceroy in Syria took Aleppo, but soon after this he found himself opposed by his nephew Barkyaruk, with whom he was compelled to wage war for some time until he was slain in battle by his nephew’s forces in 488. Taking advantage of this civil war Badr made another attempt upon Damascus, but this was unsuccessful, although the Egyptians recovered Tyre and Akka. Shortly after this success, in 487, Badr died and was succeeded as wazir by his son Abu l-Kasim Shahanshah, commonly known as al-Afdal; and the wazir’s death was soon followed by that of the Khalif Mustansir.
The rule of Badr was especially associated with a great development of building, and especially with the construction of new walls and gates round Cairo. In this work Badr employed Syrian architects who introduced Byzantine styles of architecture and of fortification, and made a greater use of stone in place of the brick which predominated in the older constructions. The existing gates known respectively as the Bab an-Nasr, the Bab al-Futuh, and the Bab az-Zuwayla, are specimens of Badr’s work, and show an almost purely Byzantine style in marked contrast to the native Egyptian work, and so the outpost tower called by the unintelligible name of the Burg adh-Dhiffir. All these formed part of the south boundary of the ancient Kahira, but are now included within the area of the modern city. To the same period belongs the restoration of the Nilometer in the island of Roda (A.H. 485).
In 483 Badr made a new assessment and return of taxation for Egypt and Syria. Under his rule the annual revenue had risen from 2,000,000 dinars to 3,100,000, and peace and prosperity reigned in all the land of Egypt, though war prevailed in Syria, the mark of the first waves of Saljuq invasion.
Before closing the narrative of the reign of Mustansir we must take note of a visit to Egypt paid by a Persian missionary in 471, closely connected with the visit of Nasir-i-Khusraw some years before, and important in its bearing upon events which followed soon after Mustansir’s death.
This Persian missionary, Hasan-i-Sabbah by name, was born in Qum whither his father had removed from Kufa. Like his father he was a Shiʿite of the “Twelver” sect, but came under the influence of Nasir-i-Khusraw who was an active propagandist, although at the time Ismaʿilian doctrines were not making much progress in Asia. After considerable hesitation he became a proselyte of the Ismaʿilians and took the oath of allegiance to the Fatimid Khalif. In 464 he came under the notice of the overseer of the mission work in the district (bahr, literally, “sea”), of Isfahan, and was advised by him to make a pilgrimage to Egypt. After spending two years as assistant to the overseer of Isfahan he set out in 467 and reached Cairo in 471 where he was well received by the Chief Daʿi and other leading persons, but was not allowed to have an interview with the Khalif. At the time, it appears, the court was divided into two factions over the question of the succession, the one party holding to the Khalif’s elder son Nizar, the other to a younger son named Mustali. In one place Nasir-i-Khusraw says that the Khalif told him that his elder son Nizar was to be his heir, and the succession of the older son would be in accordance with the doctrines of the sect as already proved by their adherence to Ismaʿil, the son of Jaʿfar as-Sadiq. But Badr and the chief officials were on the side of the younger son Mustali, and it was probably the knowledge that the Persian visitor was opposed to them on this question which stood in the way of a personal interview with Mustansir. After eighteen months in Egypt Hasan-i-Sabbah was forced to leave because, according to his own statement, he had provoked the suspicion of Badr. So in 472 he embarked at Alexandria. His ship was wrecked on the coast of Syria, and after much wandering he at length made his way overland to Isfahan where he arrived in 473. At once he commenced propaganda amongst the Ismaʿilians in favour of Nizar as the chosen heir to the Imamate. In this work he was successful, and in 483 he obtained possession of the castle of Alamut (“the eagle’s teaching”) which he made the headquarters of his branch of the Ismaʿilian sect. As supporters of the claims of Nizar the members of this branch were known as “Nizarites,” but later the name of “Assassins” became their commoner designation. This term represents the Arabic Hashishi, that is to say, user of Indian hemp or the “Faqir’s herb” (cannabis Indica), as this was used as a means of intoxication and exaltation to arouse the members of the sect charged with peculiarly difficult duties. In a later chapter (cf. [pp. 213, etc.]) we shall see that these duties, the acts which are now especially associated with the term assassin, were performed by quite subordinate members of the sect; but these members entrusted with the performance of deeds of violence and daring were prepared by being worked up into a frenzy by the use of this drug whose peculiar influences are well known in the east. From 473 to the date of Mustansir’s death in 487 these “Assassins” were occupied in preaching the claims of the prince Nizar to the Imamate, but they did not definitely separate from the Ismaʿilian body or from their allegiance to the Fatimid Khalif until, at Mustansir’s death, the elder son Nizar was formally excluded from the succession, so that our further consideration of the sect is best deferred to the next reign. A large literature exists on the history of the Assassins. The most important authority is the “Adventures of our master” (i.e., of Hasan-i-Sabbah), a lost work included amongst the books in the great library at Alamut and examined by ʿAta Malik Juwayni before it was burned with other heretical works, and from it he makes important citations.
The longest Khalifate of Muslim history closed with the death of Mustansir on the 18th of Dhu l-Hijja, 487 (A.D. 1094), and at once the wazir al-Afdal announced the accession of the younger son al-Mustali.
XIII
THE NINTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-MUSTALI
(A.H. 487-495 = A.D. 1094-1101)