A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate

by De Lacy O'Leary

The expedition, though led by Shirkuh, had professedly been to restore Shawar to the wazirate, and now established in office Shawar only desired to get rid of the Turks. He kept Shirkuh out of the royal city, entirely refused to allow him any share in the results of the conquest, and declined to pay the expected indemnity. He felt, no doubt, that the decisive factor had been the revolt against Dirgham rather than the help of the Turks. But Shirkuh was not a likely person to suffer this conduct with impunity, and sent his nephew Saladin to occupy Bilbays and thus hold the Sharqiya or eastern province, one of the four great divisions of Egypt, the other three being Gharbiya or the western province, Qus or Upper Egypt, and Alexandria or Lower Egypt. This move on the part of Shirkuh moved Shawar to appeal to Amalric, and an army of Franks marched down to besiege Bilbays. The siege lasted three months and then Amalric was obliged to retire and call an armistice as the Turkish hosts of Nur ad-Din were proceeding south to the relief of Saladin. It was agreed that the body of Syrians occupying Bilbays should be allowed to evacuate without interference, and they marched out between the armies of the Egyptians and the Franks. For the moment matters had produced a stale-mate, but Shirkuh was fully convinced that Egypt could be conquered without much difficulty, and that this would be the right way to check the Franks effectually. Nur ad-Din, with characteristic caution, hesitated over so great an undertaking which would necessitate the employment of his forces in the far south and leave the Frankish kingdom of Jerusalem between his capital and the bulk of his army, but the project was warmly espoused by the Khalif of Baghdad, and at length Nur ad-Din acquiesced and a new expedition started from Damascus in the early part of 562.

This new force was under the command of Shirkuh who had his nephew Saladin with him as before, but this time he was free from the presence of the treacherous Shawar. They took the desert route so as to avoid the Franks by a long detour and thus reached the Nile at Atfih some forty miles south of Cairo, the ancient Aphroditopolis just north of Wasta, and there crossed the river and commenced the journey down along the west side. Hardly had Shirkuh crossed than the Franks who had heard of the expedition and followed close after appeared on the other side of the Nile and, not venturing to cross in face of the enemy marched along the east side, the two armies keeping pace one with the other, the river between. Both pushed on to Cairo where Amalric encamped near Fustat, Shirkuh at Gizeh. The Frankish king took advantage of these circumstances to insist on a clearer understanding with Shawar, and to see that the terms of the agreement made with him were duly ratified by the Khalif. It was contrary to all precedent for a foreign and non-Muslim prince to pay a personal visit to the Imam, but Amalric insisted, and at length the wazir assented. William of Tyre has left a graphic description of that visit, and of the astonishing splendours of the palace to which Amalric and his companions were admitted. There he had an interview with the Khalif, a young Egyptian of dark colour, the terms of the treaty were recited, that Egypt was to pay 200,000 pieces of gold at once, and 200,000 pieces later, whilst Amalric on his side was to expel the Syrians. Both parties assented and then Amalric held out his right hand to grasp that of the Khalif whilst a shudder passed round the court at this apparent profanity. After a brief hesitation the Khalif also held out his hand covered with a glove. But Amalric exclaimed that as an honest man he preferred to take the prince’s bare hand; at this again the court suffered a shock of horror, but the Khalif drew off his glove and grasped the rough hand of the Frankish king.

Amalric desired now to come to grips with the Syrians immediately and began constructing a bridge of boats across the Nile, but this was easily prevented by the Syrians. Amalric then marched his men by night down the river to where it divided at the commencement of the Delta, and there he managed to cross without great difficulty, appearing next morning on the west or left side. At once Shirkuh began retreating southwards towards Upper Egypt closely followed by the Franks. Amalric overtook the enemy at al-Babayn near Oshmunayn about ten miles south of Minia, and there Shirkuh halted and made ready for battle. In the middle he placed his baggage and on the flank he stationed Salah ad-Din with orders to retreat as soon as the Franks commenced the attack, so that they might be drawn off and the Egyptians dealt with alone whilst the Franks were separated from them. These tactics were followed, and whilst Saladin was leading away the Franks and skilfully evading them, the Egyptians were completely routed by the main body of Syrians. As soon as the Franks perceived that their allies were defeated they began to retreat and abandoned their baggage to the Syrians, so this was a definite victory for Shirkuh.

The Syrian leader now began marching back along the left bank of the river but did not continue to follow that route, breaking westwards along the desert route to Alexandria which in due time he reached and took, appointing Saladin governor and leaving an adequate body to support him whilst he retired towards Upper Egypt which he began to lay waste. The Franks had followed as soon as they could, and the allied Franks and Egyptians laid siege to Alexandria. For some time Saladin defended the city with vigour, but the citizens of Alexandria were very soon in revolt against the military occupation and the inconveniences inevitable from a state of siege. Alexandria was then, as now, a cosmopolitan town, largely Levantine in population, and essentially a community of merchants, the type least likely to be patient in enduring the restrictions and dangers of a siege. When their discontent broke out in open revolt Salah ad-Din sent to his uncle Shirkuh for relief, and in response he laid siege to Cairo. The news of this counter move induced Amalric to raise the siege of Alexandria and march to the relief of Cairo, first making terms with Salah ad-Din. It is very difficult to discover the real nature of the terms under which Alexandria was abandoned by the Franks as both sides claimed that the operations ended in a victory for themselves. It seems clear that Alexandria was handed over to Shawar which was a score for the Franks: at the same time Amalric paid 50,000 pieces of gold. So far it probably was a bargain struck between the two forces in which we may regard the city as ransomed for 50,000 pieces of gold. But it seems that the Franks left a garrison there and increased the subsidy paid by the Egyptians to 100,000 pieces of gold. No doubt the right interpretation is that, after the bargain had been made between Amalric and Saladin, the Syrians made these new terms with Shawar to his disadvantage.

After this, in the latter part of the year, Shirkuh retired to Damascus. This seems to suggest that the Turks and Syrians had abandoned the projected conquest of Egypt. But Amalric saw quite clearly that the possession of Egypt was the crucial point in the struggle between the Franks and the Muslims, and himself planned to steal a march on Nur ad-Din and conquer Egypt for himself. With this end in view he raised new forces and again entered Egypt in 564, taking Bilbays and slaughtering the inhabitants. This was a more serious danger to the Egyptians than anything which had happened before, and at once the grouping of parties was changed by new alliances. Now Shawar made alliance with Nur ad-Din and invited the Turkish-Syrian army to come to the rescue. Before any result could be arranged the Franks had pressed on and were threatening Cairo. To save the city from falling into the hands of the enemy the Egyptians determined to set fire to the ancient Fustat and abandon it, the newer Kahira was strongly fortified and could hold out on its own account. This plan was carried out. For fifty-four days the fire raged in Fustat abandoned by all its population, and nothing lay before the invaders but charred ruins and the Old Mosque, and a few other buildings which more or less resisted the conflagration.

Meanwhile Amalric obtained possession of the country and encamped before Cairo. The crafty Shawar managed to deceive him and induced him to consider suggested terms which served to delay operations whilst Shirkuh was collecting a new force and preparing to come to the relief of the Egyptians, nor was Amalric undeceived until Shirkuh arrived and joined the Egyptians. At this the Franks retired and Shirkuh entered Cairo and then made camp outside. Day by day visits of compliment were exchanged between Shawar and the Turkish leader, but Shawar constantly postponed the payment of the money expected and promised for Shirkuh’s help and, judging from his knowledge of the man Shirkuh was convinced that he was trying to play off the Frank and the Syrian against one another. At a conference of his generals Shirkuh announced that it was of primary importance to put an end to this state of affairs and recommended that Shawar should be seized and held prisoner. No one was ready to take the first step in the execution of this proposal until Saladin volunteered to do it with his own hands. Soon afterwards Shawar was seen coming with a train of attendants to pay one of his customary visits. Salah ad-Din with his guard rode out to meet him, and as they rode side by side he suddenly grasped Shawar’s collar and pulled him off his horse, at the same time ordering his men to fall on the attendants of the wazir. Shawar was then taken to a tent and held prisoner. For some time Shirkuh was doubtful what the result of this measure would be, then an embassy came from the Khalif bringing the official pelisse, the outward badge of the wazirate, to Shirkuh and asking for the head of Shawar. This was equivalent to appointing Shirkuh as ruler of Egypt, and was a final and definite step in ending the independent existence of the Fatimid Khalifate and establishing the suzerainty of Nur ad-Din, whose servant Shirkuh was. On Wednesday, the 17th of Rabiʿ II. 565, Shirkuh was formally invested as wazir, and aroused popular enthusiasm by permitting a general looting of Shawar’s palace. Shirkuh, however, held office only two months and died on Saturday, 28th of Jumada II., being succeeded in his office by his nephew Saladin. Soon afterwards Aiyub, Saladin’s father arrived in Egypt, and his son offered to resign his appointment to his father, but Aiyub refused to accept this sacrifice and urged his son to continue in the exercise of the functions which he had received as the most trusty and efficient lieutenant of his uncle Shirkuh.

Two years later (567) a message was received from Nur ad-Din ordering the khutba in Egypt to be changed and the name of the ʿAbbasid Khalif to be used in place of the Fatimid. Saladin hesitated fearing a revolt of the people at this termination of the Egyptian Khalifate and proclamation of their being incorporated in the Khalifate of Baghdad. But fresh orders from Damascus insisted. In Cairo there was much reluctance amongst Saladin’s officers to venture on this change, but at length a Persian visitor named al-Amir al-Aahin offered to ascend the pulpit next Friday and pronounce the new khutba, and this was accepted. On the following Friday the Persian did so, and no single word of protest was uttered: the Fatimid dynasty fell without being the object of more than private comment, and Egypt acquiesced in the change without discussion or even taking any particular notice. At the moment the Khalif al-ʿAdid was ill and confined to his rooms. The members of Saladin’s suite debated whether he ought to be informed of the change, but it was agreed that if he recovered it would then be time enough to tell him, and if he did not recover he might as well die in peace without knowing that his dynasty had fallen. Shortly afterwards he died in this peaceful ignorance.

This surprisingly commonplace end of the Fatimids is a striking comment on their history. As organised by ʿAbdullah b. Maymun the Ismaʿilian sect was a secret society, and this society had established an empire in which it ruled over subjects who, though loyal to their rulers as political sovereigns, were totally out of sympathy with the society’s known or supposed aims. So far as these had become prominent from time to time they had only produced difficulties and friction, most pronounced in the incidents connected with al-Hakim; the wiser and saner advisers of the throne undoubtedly made it their aim to push the sectarian element into the background, or get rid of it altogether. Yet all through the history of Egypt, at least up to the time of al-Mustansir, that sectarian element was very distinctly present and the Fatimid Khalif as the pontiff of the Ismaʿilians was visited by pilgrims from Persia, Arabia, and other parts. As a sectarian movement the Fatimid adventure had two off-shoots which are still to some extent living forces. The Druses of the Lebanon still form a vigorous and flourishing community of no small political importance. Their religious tenets have been long a secret, though many details have leaked forth; but now there is a “modernist” party, chiefly of the younger men, amongst the Druses, and these desire to reveal their religious beliefs more fully feeling that secrecy has only tended to misrepresentation of their community, and believing that the moral ideals which they hold together with their combination of agnostic and pantheistic doctrine furnishes a religious system likely to gain many converts at the present time. How far these modernists will succeed in divulging their beliefs, and how far their movement will receive the sympathy of the heads of the sect remains to be seen. It is understood that Dr. Bliss of Beirut will be the probable intermediary of communication with the western world if this disclosure takes place.

The second important off-shoot is that of the Assassins. The Syrian branch of the Assassins was completely exterminated, and the great headquarters at Alamut was destroyed by the Turks, but besides these two greater branches there were many minor groups of the sect which have lived out a secluded existence scattered in various parts of central Asia and India, and undoubtedly exist at the present day. As late as 1866 an English judge in Bombay was called upon to decide a succession case according to the jurisprudence of the Assassins. Prof. Browne states, “remnants of the sect, as I was informed by a very intelligent and observant Babi dervish of Kirman, of whom I saw a great deal when I was in Cairo in the early part of the year 1903, still exist in Persia, while in India (under the name of ‘Khojas’ or ‘Khwajas’) and Chitral (under the name of ‘Mullas’), as well as in Zanzibar, Syria, and elsewhere, they still enjoy a certain influence and importance, though it requires a great effort of imagination to associate their present pontiff, the genial and polished Agha Khan, with the once redoubtable Grand Masters of Alamut and the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’—‘Le Vieux’ of Marco Polo’s quaint narrative” (Browne: Literary Hist. of Persia, p. 460).

As a political force the Fatimids rapidly vanished. In the great struggle between Franks and Turks they had for a while hindered the co-operation of the Muslims under Turkish leadership, and perhaps had contributed to the weakness which had allowed the establishment of a Frankish kingdom in Jerusalem, though this weakness would be sufficiently explained by the fact that the earlier Turkish migration westwards had just ceased, and the greater movement which followed had not yet begun. When Saladin swept aside the remnants of the Fatimid Khalifate it disappeared without leaving any appreciable mark on contemporary history.