(3) Al-Manṣūr succeeded his father in A.D. 946, when the kingdom was in a state of the greatest confusion. By his valour and prudence he regained the greater part of the dominions of his grandfather ʿUbaidu ʾllāh, defeated the usurper Abū Yazīd, and laid the foundation of that power which enabled his son al-Muʿizz to conquer Egypt.
(4) Al-Muʿizz (A.D. 955) was the most powerful of the Fatimide K͟halīfahs. He was successful in a naval war with Spain, and took the island of Sicily; but his most celebrated conquest was that of Egypt, which was subdued in A.D. 972. Two years afterwards he removed his court to Egypt, and founded Cairo. The name of the Abasside K͟halīfah was omitted in the Friday prayers, and his own substituted in its place; from which time the great schism of the Fatimide and Abasside K͟halīfahs is more frequently dated than from the assumption of the title by ʿUbaidu ʾllāh. The armies of al-Muʿizz conquered the whole of Palestine and Syria as far as Damascus.
(5) Al-ʿAzīz (A.D. 978). The dominions recently acquired by al-Muʿizz were secured to the Fatimide K͟halīfahs by the wise government of his son, al-ʿAzīz, who took several towns in Syria. He married a Christian woman, whose brothers he made patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem.
(6) Al-Ḥākim was only eleven years of age when he succeeded his father in A.D. 996. He is distinguished even among Oriental despots by his cruelty and folly. His tyranny caused frequent insurrections in Cairo. He persecuted the Jews and Christians, and burnt their places of worship. By his order the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem was destroyed (A.D. 1009). His persecutions of the Christians induced them to appeal to their brethren in the West, and was one of the causes that led to the crusades. He carried his folly so far as to seek to become the founder of a new religion, and to assert that he was the express image of God. He was assassinated in A.D. 1021, and was succeeded by his son.
(7) Az̤-Z̤āhir (A.D. 1021) was not so cruel as his father, but was addicted to pleasure, and resigned all the cares of government to his Vizirs. In his reign the power of the Fatimide K͟halīfahs began to decline. They possessed nothing but the external show of royalty; secluded in the harem, they were the slaves of their vizirs whom they could not remove, and dared not disobey. In addition to the evils of misgovernment, Egypt was afflicted in the reign of az̤-Z̤āhir with one of the most dreadful famines that ever visited the country.
(8) Al-Mustanṣir (A.D. 1037) was only nine years old when he succeeded his father. The Turks invaded Syria and Palestine in his reign, took Damascus and Jerusalem (1076), where the princes of the house of Ortok, a Turkish family, established an independent kingdom. They advanced to the Nile with the intention of conquering Egypt, but were repulsed.
(9) Al-Mustaʿlī (A.D. 1094), the second son of al-Mustanṣir, was seated on the throne by the all-powerful Vizir Afẓal, in whose hands the entire power rested during the whole of al-Mustaʿlī’s reign. The invasion of Asia Minor by the Crusaders in 1097 appeared to Afẓal a favourable opportunity for the recovery of Jerusalem. Refusing to assist the Turks against the Crusaders, he marched against Jerusalem, took it (1098), and deprived the Ortok princes of the sovereignty which they had exercised for twenty years. His possession of Jerusalem was, however, of very short duration, for it was taken in the following year (1099) by the Crusaders. Anxious to recover his loss, he led an immense army in the same year against Jerusalem, but was entirely defeated by the Crusaders near Ascalon.
(10) Al-Āmir (A.D. 1101).
(11) Al-Ḥāfiẕ (A.D. 1129).
(12) Az̤-Z̤āfir (A.D. 1149).