A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate

by De Lacy O'Leary

In other respects, however, his conduct throws a strange light on the conditions prevailing in the Fatimid state at this period. The Fatimids claimed to be not only rulers of Egypt, but the legitimate Khalifs in true descent from the Prophet, and also Imams divinely appointed as guides and teachers of Islam. The whole Fatimid state was bound up with this religious theory, although it was one which did not command the sympathy of the bulk of the subject population, and a distinct tendency had more than once appeared to discard it for frankly secular claims. Under the wazir Ahmad this theory on which the Fatimid claim rested was formally discarded by the government. Ahmad himself was a Shiʿite, but of the sect of the “Twelvers” and so a follower, not of the Fatimid Imam under whom he held office, but of the hidden and unrevealed Imam who, under the name of Muhammad al-Muntazir, had disappeared in 260. For the present, therefore, the Friday prayer in the mosques was offered for the invisible “al-Kaʾim,” and his name appeared on the coinage. To us such a condition seems almost incredible, even though during the time the titular head was merely regent and not fully recognised as Khalif. When al-Amir’s wife was delivered her child was a daughter, but for all that al-Hafiz remained simply regent until 526.

Dissatisfied with his dubious position and the restrictions imposed by the wazir Hafiz plotted against him, and Ahmad was assassinated in the “Great Garden” as he was on his way to play polo on the 15th of Muharram 526 (Dec., 1131). At his death Hafiz received the oath of allegiance as Khalif, and was acclaimed by his bodyguard, the “Young Guard,” although his reign is usually dated from the date of his cousin’s death. At this time al-Hafiz was fifty-seven years of age.

He appointed as wazir an Armenian named Yanis who had been a slave of al-Afdal, one of the Armenian mercenaries whom he had brought from Syria. Yanis turned out to be a severe and hard ruler, and in the following year he was poisoned by the Khalif’s order. In spite of the warning of al-Amir’s reign al-Hafiz then resolved to act as his own wazir, and in this he did well and was generally regarded with respect and attachment. His court was, however, divided into factions as the result of quarrels about the heirship between his two sons Hasan and Faʿiz, each supported by one of the two great bodies of negro mercenaries, the elder Hasan by the Rayhaniya regiment, the younger by the Juyushiya. At length these quarrels resulted in open warfare, and the victorious Juyushiya to the number of 10,000 assembled before the royal palace and demanded the head of the prince Hasan. The Khalif was not in a position to refuse this demand and sent for one of the court physicians, a Jew named Abu Mansur, and asked him to poison Hasan, but the Jew prudently declined the dangerous task. He then sent for a Christian physician named Ibn Kirfa who performed it, and the dead prince’s head was given to the rebels. But the Khalif never forgave Ibn Kirfa for what he had done, and before long an excuse was found to imprison the Christian physician, and in due course he was executed.

After their successful revolt the troops elected as wazir the Armenian Bahram. But he very soon made himself unpopular by showing marked favouritism towards his fellow countrymen who, for the most part, had entered the country in the company of the Armenian Badr al-Jamali. As a result he was deposed and most of the Armenians expelled from the country. Bahram ended his life as a monk.

In 532 Rudwan was appointed wazir and was the first official in Egypt to assume the title of “king.” But he held office only for a few months, and in 534 was cast into prison.

Meanwhile the Franks had met with several checks. The Turks under Zengi defeated them at Atharib in 525, and in 539 took Edessa from them. Thus the Franks began to be threatened from the north-east, and their opponents were consciously making plans for their final subjugation or expulsion. In 541 Zengi died and was succeeded by his son Nur ad-Din, who becomes the decisive factor in the affairs of western Asia and Egypt within the course of the next few years. At this time the Franks were distinctly on the decline, and the hopes built on the foundation of Jerusalem and other Latin kingdoms in Palestine and Syria were not being realised. The West began to feel that the First Crusade had failed in its effort, and so the Second Crusade, mainly the work of St. Bernard whose aims and intentions were above question, set out in 542 and attacked Damascus in the following year, the Crusaders then marching on Jerusalem. But the Second Crusade was an immediate and marked failure. Conditions were greatly changed from what they had been when the former Crusade arrived: there was now a strong Turkish power in Syria, and this was inclined and prepared to be aggressive. The Second Crusade was necessarily a failure. The only important result of Frankish invasion was the kingdom of Jerusalem which had been the work of the First Crusade.

At this period of Egyptian history we are able to avail ourselves of the very interesting record which Osama has left of his own experiences in Syria and Egypt, a record which has been rendered accessible in the French translation of Derenbourg (Vie d’Ousama, Paris, 1886-93). Osama left Damascus in 538 and went to Cairo, where he was well received by al-Hafiz, who gave him a robe of honour and a house and other gifts. So long as Hafiz ruled Osama took no part in the public affairs of Egypt, but has left observations upon the course of events, but in the next reign he comes forward prominently as an adviser, and usually as an adviser of evil.

When the ex-wazir Rudwan had been ten years in prison he contrived to bore his way out through the prison walls by the help, it is said, of a rusty nail, and, joined by many of his friends, went to Gizeh intending to seize the wazirate by force. There was a great ferment in Cairo; many persons went out to join themselves with him, whilst the Khalif’s guards prepared for defence. At the head of a large band of followers he forced his way across the Nile, defeated the Khalif’s army, and marched into Cairo where he made his headquarters in the Grey Mosque. There he was joined by many of the emirs who brought supplies of men, arms, and money. The Khalif assembled his negro troops, treated them to wine and then, in a half intoxicated state, they marched out and demanded the head of Rudwan. A great tumult ensued in which the emirs, frightened by the apparent ferocity of the negro guard, left Rudwan, and his supporters were scattered. Rudwan himself was alarmed and went out of the mosque intending to escape, but his horse which should have been at the gate was missing. A young guard offered his horse, and as the ex-wazir approached to avail himself of this offer, he cut him down. Very soon the negroes came up and finished him, then “the people of Misr share the morsels of his flesh which they eat to give themselves courage” (Derenbourg: Vie d’Ousama, p. 212).

This took place in 543 and led to a period of general disorder, for the negro troops called out by the Khalif soon passed beyond his control, the streets became unsafe, and faction fights between the Rayhamites who were loyal to the Khalif and the Juyushites, Alexandrians, and Farhites once more broke out just as sixteen years before. Again the Juyushites were victorious, greatly to the annoyance of al-Hafiz who determined to revenge himself upon them. But this resolve he was not able to carry out as he died in 544.

Al-Hafiz was an old man at the time of his decease, fully seventy-six years, and for some time had been in failing health suffering from colic. It is said that Shirmah the Daylamite, or else Musa an-Nasran, made for him a drum of seven metals, each welded at the moment when the appropriate planet was in the ascendant, and that this drum when beaten relieved the wind from which the Khalif suffered. After his death this drum was preserved in the treasury, but was incautiously tapped by a Turkish soldier at the time of Sala d-Din’s conquest, and that he, astonished at the surprising result produced, dropped it and it broke to pieces.