Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate (also Caliphate of Egypt or Fatimid Empire; in Arabic, الفاطميون al-Fāṭimiyyūn) was the fourth Islamic caliphate, the only Shiite in all of history —Ismailite, specifically—. It dominated North Africa from the year 909 to 1171. Initially based in Tunisia, the dynasty controlled the Mediterranean coast of Africa and made Egypt the center of its caliphate in the second half of the x century. At its height, the caliphate included, in addition to Egypt, part of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Mediterranean Levant and the Hijaz region.
History
Origins: the rebellion of the Fatimids
The religious ideology of the Fatimid Caliphate had its origins in an Ismaili Shia movement. The dynasty's rise was due to the successful preaching of a Shia proselytizer in the late 9th century, Abu Abd Allah, who established himself among the Kutama Berbers in 893, some of whom he had met in Mecca. The Kutama, highlanders of Little Kabylia, were the nucleus of the early Fatimid military forces, and the mainstay of the dynasty until its demise.
The Fatimids claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad's daughter, Fatima, and her cousin, son-in-law, and Islam's fourth Caliph, Ali. Both by ancestry and by divine grace, they claimed to be Imams, infallible rulers guided by Allah. As such, they intended to put an end to the Abbasid dynasty, which they branded as an impostor and as wanting to impose their authority on the entire world. They were also enemies of the Umayyads, who still reigned in the Iberian Peninsula.
Algeria produced the native dynasty of the Fatimids, among the tribe of the Kutama, in 899 Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah, the eleventh imam, became the leader of the movement. His supporters began to weaken the decaying Aghlabid emirate in 893. That year Shi'a propagandist Abu Abd Allah settled among the Kutamas in the town of Ikchan, where the authority of the Aghlabids was hardly recognized anymore. Al-Mahdi obtained the support of Abu Abdallah al-Shiite. The Kutamas boasted of their country, located in western Ifriqiya (now part of Algeria), of its hostility towards the Abbasids and of its complete independence from the Aghlabid emirs. The Berber peasants, who had been oppressed for decades by the corrupt Aghlabid government, proved to be a perfect base for sedition. Al-Shiite raised Little Kabylia against the Aghlabids within a few years of beginning his preaching. conquest of cities in the region, defeating Aghlabid forces: first Mila, then Setif, Kairouan (March 909), and finally Raqqada, the Aghlabid capital. The former Byzantine fortresses of Tobna, Belezna, Bagay and Tebessa, who should have protected Ifriqiya from the Fatimid advance, were unable to prevent the conquest.
Ubaid Allah was summoned by Abu Abd Allah after the first victories over the Aghlabids. He left the Near East and crossed Egypt, Libya and Ifriqiya and instead of meeting Abu Abd Allah, went to Siyilmasa, capital of the Midrarid lordship of the oases of Tafilete. He began to proselytize under the pretext of being a merchant, but the emir was imprisoned, who considered him a subversive. Ubaid Allah and his son had made their way to Siyilmasa, fleeing the persecution of the Abbasids, that they found their Ismaili beliefs not only unorthodox, but also a threat to the status of their caliphate. According to legend, Ubaid Allah and his son were fulfilling a prophecy that the Mahdi would come from Mesopotamia to Siyilmasa.
Al-Shiite sent an army to the west, seized the Rustumid capital of Tiaret and then Siyilmasa, where Ubayd Allah was held captive. The Midrari lord of Siyilmasa was defeated before his city walls. After gaining freedom, Ubaid Allah became the head of the new state and took office as imam and caliph in Kairouan on January 5, 910 and proclaimed himself mahdi. Meanwhile, the people of Siyilmasa murdered the Kutama garrison that had been left to guard the city and restored power to the Midrarids.
Ubaidalah crushed the attempted revolts of the Kutami and, in January 911, executed al-Shiite himself, to whom he owed his freedom. His execution aroused the disgust of the Kutami. Ubayd Allah had to send in 912 an army against the Cenetes of the central Maghreb, who had rebelled, and recapture Tahart, which had been temporarily lost.
A new capital was established at Mahdia (al-Mahdiyya) in 916, as Ubaidalah did not feel very secure in Kairouan. Work on the strategic new city, of great naval importance, had begun three years earlier Mahdia had warehouses for the fleet - inherited from the Aghlabids and reinforced - and shipyards, as well as a castle that protected it.
In the Maghreb and in Egypt
Maghrebi period
Al-Mahdi
The execution of Al-Shiite generated intense discontent among the Kutama. The following year (912), a rebellion broke out in Tripoli, which had its own squadron, which defeated the fifteen ships sent by Al-Mahdi to quell the uprising. A year later, the bulk of the fleet was destroyed by the governor of Sicily, who had also rebelled against Al-Mahdi. The Sicilian made a surprise attack on the caliph's ships at Lamta and set them on fire Later, however, the Fatimids managed to defeat the Sicilians. These setbacks prevented the army from participating with large forces in the first invasion of Egypt, undertaken in 914 despite the opposition of the heir Al-Qa' im, who believed the undertaking was precipitated given the crisis situation in which the caliphate found itself.
Attempts at expansion to the east began early: at the end of January 914 the first Fatimid army set out for Egypt to conquer it. The leader of the expedition, Habasa ibn Yusuf, seized Sirte, Ajdabiya and Barca, in Cyrenaica. In the latter he inflicted the first defeat on the Egyptian Abbasid forces that came to the rescue of the place in March. That same year, before the arrival of new forces under the command of the heir and future caliph, Al-Qa&# 39;im, Ibn Yusuf conquered Alexandria. He suffered two defeats, partly due to Ibn Yusuf's temerity, which forced him to end the campaign, abandon the conquered Egyptian territories, and return to the Maghreb. the unruly general was executed by Al-Mahdi on his return. Fatimid authority was plunged into crisis: Cyrenaica was in rebellion like Sicily and Tripoli also tried to rise up; the Kharijites continued to agitate against the new caliph. The second attempt at conquest was undertaken in May 919, with various Berber and Bedouin groups; in July–August, the Fatimid vanguard reached Alexandria, which had been abandoned by its garrison. The campaign was again led by Al-Qa'im, who advanced once more towards Fayum. Soon, however, an army arrived. Abbasid relief efforts, and in March the Al-Qa'im fleet was destroyed by an Abbasid squadron coming from Tarsus near Rosetta, which then recaptured Alexandria, threatening Al-Qa'im's position. The latter, whose army was weakened by the plague, chose to withdraw to the Maghreb. The failure of this second expedition meant that the undertaking was not attempted again until much later, in 969.
In the western Maghreb, the Miknasi lieutenant of the Fatimids, Masala ibn Habus, was tasked with extending the caliph's authority. He conquered the Emirate of Nekor in 917, which his Salihi lords recaptured two years later. to the Idrisid Yahya IV in 922 and 923, depriving him of Fez and then conquering Siyilmasa. In 924 and 925, on the contrary, fate was contrary to the Fatimid arms in the region: they were defeated by the Idrisid al-Hayam at -Hasan ben Muhammad ben al-Qasim and by a Magrawa chief and lost Fez and Tahart. From 927 their fortunes improved again: they recovered Fez from the hands of the Idrisids, whom they expelled to the Moroccan north, they recovered and razed Nekor, a vassal of the Cordovan Umayyads. When the Umayyads seized Ceuta in 931, Musa ibn Abi l-Afiya changed sides and went over to them; The Fatimid caliph reacted by sending the Vali of Tahart against him, who defeated him and took Fez from him.
Meanwhile, in 918, the Fatimids had wrested Regius from the Byzantines by night assault, although they did not continue their conquest of Calabria, instead concentrating on spreading eastward into Egypt. from Italy they resumed after the failure of the second Egyptian expedition: in 922-923 they conquered a fortress near Reggio; the following year, they transported a large army to Sicily, in April 924 they ran the region of Taranto. The agreements between the Byzantines and Fatimids, which included the payment of a tribute by the latter to the former from 917, did they put an end to the forays. In 927-28, there was a new Fatimid raid on Calabria. In May–June 928, a Fatimid fleet sacked Tarentum, but was unable to hold it due to an epidemic that spread among the forces. invaders. Despite the Byzantine-Fatimid truce that followed the looting, in 928 another Fatimid fleet sailed the Tyrrhenian Sea and held Salerno and Naples for ransom; In 929, the first major naval battle in the area took place, which ended with the victory of the Fatimid admiral over the Byzantine military governor of Calabria. The following years, however, saw no further confrontation between the two states.
The next Fatimid naval expedition was aimed at Genoa, which was sacked in 934, and Corsica and Sardinia, whose coasts the caliph's squadron ran.
Al-Qa'im
His forces recaptured Fez, lost for some months, in 935. Another army of his recaptured Nekor in September of the same year. The Idrisids recognized his authority. of the Cenetes, increasingly closer to their Umayyad enemy.
After the revolt of the Kutama in 912, the second caliph, Al-Qa'im, had to face a new internal threat, the Khariji rebellion of Abu Yazid (known as "the man with the donkey") in 943, which received the support of the dynasty's western enemies, the Cordovan Umayyads. The uprising was the greatest threat faced by the Fatimids during their Maghreb period and lasted until 947. The conflict between the Caliph and Abu Yazid developed on land, since he lacked ships, but the Fatimids did use their navy, mainly to supply the capital from Sicily and Tripoli when the rebels surrounded it, but also to harass the ports dominated by Abu Yazid.. This, who had been preaching since 928-929, rose up against the Fatimids with great Berber support in 943 and quickly seized the most important cities of Ifriqiya (Beja, Tunis, Raqqada and Kairouan) and in January 945 he besieged Mahdia, where the caliph h He had sought refuge, he repeatedly defeated the Fatimid armies.
As the Fatimids were busy crushing Abu Yazid's dangerous uprising, the Byzantines took advantage of their predicament to foment another rebellion in Sicily. This was put down after the failure of Abu Yazid's uprising. Al-Qa& #39;im passed away before this happened, in 946.
Al Mansur
It was the third caliph of the dynasty—Ismail al-Mansur Bi-Nasrillah, who reigned from 946 to 953—who succeeded in crushing Abu Yazid's uprising, a feat for which he took the title of al-mansur bi-nasr allah ("the Victorious by the Victory of God"). Ismail ascended the throne at a time of crisis, but managed to defeat Abu Yazid, partly because of the Umayyad's delay in hold this one; by the time the Cordovan fleet reached the eastern Maghreb in 947, the Fatimids had already crushed the rebellion and put Abu Yazid to flight. The Berber tribes who had joined the rebel largely abandoned him when the siege of Mahdia failed. The ringleader was captured by Fatimid forces in March 947 and died a few months later. Ismail proclaimed himself caliph the day he had Abu Yazid executed and humiliated—he was flayed, and his stuffed skin paraded around to vex him in public, harassed by monkeys The dynasty presented this victory as proof of the legitimacy of both the dynasty and its religious doctrine, and Abu Yazid as the Antichrist, a figure whose misdeeds were to precede the appearance of the messiah and who was to be defeated by him. In his campaign of territorial recovery, he first conquered Tiaret and in January 948 retook Kairouan.
In 950-951, the Fatimids made another raid against Reggio, perhaps in retaliation for Byzantine machinations in Sicily in previous years. In 951 they seized the enemy fleet commander and several of his ships, but they could not exploit this advantage and soon after peace was signed between the two powers.
Ismail also began the construction of a new capital —circular, in imitation of the Abbasid of Samarra—, Al-Mansuriya. He also changed the coinage that, from then on, was carried out leaving a central inscription surrounded by three concentric bands.
Al-Muizz (Maghrebi stage)
The fourth caliph, Ma'ad al-Muizz Li-Dinillah, who reigned from 953 to 975, reduced the messianic propaganda on which the dynasty had relied in its early years. messiah was no longer considered imminent. This caliph continued the construction of Al-Mansuriya, which his father had begun in 946-947. He modified once again the shape of the coins that were minted in the Fatimid territory, changing the central inscription by a dot with a Shiite inscription around it, keeping the characteristic three concentric bands.
In 955-956 there was one of the few direct confrontations between the Fatimids and the Umayyads, who made war through the use of their respective petty vassal kings. A Fatimid ship carrying mail from Sicily was seized by another belonging to Abderramán III, which provoked the rapid retaliation of the Fatimid squadron, which devastated the enemy naval base in Almería by surprise. The Umayyads reacted by sending a large fleet against the port of La Calle and Susa.
Attempts by the Byzantines to take advantage of the rivalry between the two caliphates to weaken the Fatimids through a league with the Umayyads led to a new series of naval skirmishes around Sicily, which ended with a new truce agreed in 957- 958. The new truce was maintained despite the Byzantine invasion of Crete in 960; Although the Cretans requested the help of the Fatimid caliph - and of the Egyptians - he limited himself to threatening the emperor in vain and did not send forces to help the island, which fell into the hands of the invaders after a ten-month campaign. In 964, hostilities resumed due to the Byzantine invasion of Sicily. Byzantine ships were set on fire by divers, and the following year the land troops were defeated by the Fatimids; this prompted the Byzantines to request a new peace in 966-967, which the caliph granted so that he could concentrate on the conquest of Egypt.
In the western Maghreb, a large campaign by several of Al-Muizz's vassals and one of his generals ended in 959 with the conquest of all the territory except for Ceuta and Tangier, which the Umayyads held.
From 965 and anticipating the death without heirs of the ruler of Egypt, the Ikhshidi Kafur, a black eunuch, Al-Muizz began preparations to take over the region. When Kafur finally died in April 968, he presented himself the desired opportunity: Egypt was easily conquered, with the collaboration of a large part of its notables. Unlike the two previous attempts at conquest at the beginning of the century, this time the Abbasids could not intervene to prevent their Maghrebi enemies from taking over of the territory. By then the Fatimid armies were also much more powerful than at the beginning of the century, thanks at least in part to their control of part of the trans-Saharan gold trade. On 5 July 969, the general in charge of the conquest, Chauhar al-Siqili entered Fustat. The caliph's transfer to the new conquered territory took place much later: al-Muizz arrived in Egypt on June 10, 973.
Two years earlier, in 971, the Fatimid armies had already begun the conquest of the Levant, in which the Byzantines were recovering territory (they reconquered Cyprus and Tarsus in 965 and Antioch shortly after). The main clashes between the two Mediterranean powers occurred in the north of the disputed region. The main installations of the Fatimid Navy, however, were not in the Levant or on the Egyptian coast, but near Fustat, to prevent Byzantine incursions. For the next four reigns, naval operations were limited mainly to supporting land troops in the Levant and northern Mesopotamia. Dominance of the western Mediterranean passed in the second half of the X to the Byzantines.
Dispute for control of the Maghreb
The Fatimid Caliphate grew to include Sicily and stretch across North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to Libya. Abdullah al-Mahdi's control soon extended over the entire central Maghreb, an area consisting of the present-day countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, which he ruled from Mahdia, his newly built capital in Tunis. Al-Mansuriya, or Mansuriyya (Arabic: المنصوريه), near Kairouan, Tunisia, was the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate during the reigns of Imams Isma'il al-Mansur Bi-Nasrillah (r. 946-953) and Ma& #39;ad al-Muizz Li-Dinillah (r. 953-975).
In their westward expansion, the Fatimids threatened the trade routes that brought gold and slaves to al-Andalus from the center of the Sahara, one of the reasons —besides religious differences— that made them confront the Umayyads andalusíes. In 921, the Fatimids temporarily seized Siyilmasa, one of the centers of trans-Saharan trade and which, even after ceasing to govern it directly, contributed a large part of the income of the caliphate (half of the tax income in 951). Fighting between the two dynasties continued until the transfer of the Fatimid capital to Egypt in 969.
In 955, the Fatimid fleet raided the Umayyad at Almería, inflicting heavy damage.
Egyptian Period
Conquest of Egypt
Under Ma'ad al-Muizz Li-Dinillah, Chauhar al-Siqilí conquered Egypt from the Ikhshidi dynasty, and founded a new capital north of Fustat, Al-Qahira (Cairo) in 969. The name was a reference to the planet Mars, "the Undefeated", which was visible in the sky at the time the construction of the city began. Cairo was intended as a royal compound for the Fatimid caliph and his army, although the actual administrative and economic capital of Egypt was the city of Fustat until 1169. After Egypt, the Fatimids continued their conquest of the surrounding area until they ruled from Tunis. to Syria, as well as Sicily. Once Cairo was founded, the political interest of the Fatimids shifted to the Near East, where they were the dominant Muslim power until the arrival of the Seljuk Turks a century later. The conquest, prepared for years, had been facilitated. by the activity of Fatimid propagandists, who had infiltrated the country.
With the conquest of 969, the long Fatimid rule of Egypt began, which lasted 202 years. The Fatimids imposed their Ismailism as the state religion, but failed to convert the bulk of the Egyptian population, which remained faithful to the Sunni variant of Islam. The official faith especially influenced the application of justice and public festivals.
Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the center of an empire that included at its height North Africa, Sicily, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Red Sea coast of Africa, Tihamah, Hejaz, and Yemen. Egypt flourished, and the Fatimids developed an extensive trading network in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Their trade and diplomatic relations extended to China and its Song dynasty, eventually determining the economic course of Egypt during the Early Middle Ages. The Fatimid focus on long-distance trade was accompanied by a lack of interest in agriculture and an abandonment of the Nile irrigation system.
Al-Muizz (Egyptian stage)
Immediately after seizing Egypt, the Fatimids began to extend their rule along the Levantine coast as well. Between 970 and 975, they seized Ashkelon, Jaffa, Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Tripoli. At the same time, they tried to seize major cities in the interior, such as Damascus. The Byzantines in turn invaded the region in 975, temporarily taking Beirut from them, though they were unable to do the same with Tripoli.
Shortly after taking over Egypt, a Fatimid emissary traveled south to claim the benefits of the Bakt from the Nubian rulers for his lord.
Al-Aziz
During his reign (975-996), the army was reformed, which began to integrate Turkish soldiers, both free and slaves. They fought mainly as archers and horsemen, unlike the Berbers who had until then made up part of the army. army. The origin of the increase in Turkish soldiers in the Fatimid armies dated from their victory over Alptakin in 978, who in 975 had collaborated in the rebellion of Damascus against the caliph. The rebel, subdued after his defeat to al-Aziz, he was in charge of introducing the new soldiers of eastern origin - Turks but also Persians - into the forces of his new lord. These were both free men and slaves (ghilman).
In 991, his armies captured Damascus, which they held despite defeat by the Byzantines in late 995 during the siege of Aleppo.
At the end of his reign, in 996, he sent a fleet to support the governor of Damascus, whom the Byzantines had defeated in September-October of the previous year.
Al-Hakim
He succeeded his father very young, just over eleven years old, for which reason he was left in charge of a notable Kutami who tried to re-establish the pre-eminence of his Berber compatriots, which triggered the reaction of the new Turkish troops, who they succeeded in removing him from power. The government passed to a white eunuch from Al-Aziz until he was assassinated in the year 1000, at which time the caliph seized the reins of power. The caliph's reign was characterized by fighting and terror. The Kutami chiefs were executed and the repression to which the Berbers were subjected led to a rebellion (1005-1006).
The Berber revival of the early years of his reign led to the rebellion in Damascus, which was ruled by a Turk. The army sent from Egypt to crush the uprising defeated the Damascenes near Ashkelon in 997 and reached the Meanwhile, a new rebellion broke out in Tyre, which the Fatimids put down in May–June 998, before defeating a Byzantine army that had penetrated the region near the Orontes River. The same army then recaptured Damascus and eliminated the rebels, although the Caliphate's control of the city was precarious thereafter. Despite this, Fatimid military power in the Levant waned in the early 20th century XI and a rebellion that swept through the area between 1010 and 1014 left Palestine at the mercy of Bedouin raids.
In 1005 a Libyan warlord rebelled against the caliph, and after defeating several armies that were sent against him, he besieged Cairo for some time, until he could be defeated the following year.
Al-Hakim finally lost power as a result of a conspiracy by his sister Sitt al-Mulk, in which she enjoyed the collaboration of some Berbers, enemies with the caliph. The sovereign disappeared between January and February 1021.
Al-Mustansir
Al-Mustánsir, whose mother was a black slave, obtained the throne in 1036 thanks to the skill of his vizier for eighteen years, who bribed the soldiers. The rivalry between the merchant who had sold to his mother to Az-Zahir, his progenitor and his third vizier, in theory a creature of the first two but determined to reduce the power of his protectors, unleashed a serious political-military crisis in the caliphate, which the weak Al-Mustánsir was unable to to resolve. Rivals for power used the tensions between Berber and Turkish soldiers to seize power, triggering clashes between them.
In 1048-1049, the Caliphate lost control of Ifriqiya for good. In the Levant, the expeditions of 1045-1046 and 1048-149 were costly and unsuccessful.
In 1059 one of the military chiefs of Baghdad proclaimed his submission to the Fatimid caliph. Faced with the impossibility of helping him by sending an army to finally impose the long-awaited authority in Mesopotamia, a Fatimid preacher was sent with a a fabulous sum, which notably reduced the Caliphate's treasury. floods of the Nile. The crisis produced copious deaths and reduced tax revenues. The caliph's predicaments culminated in 1058–1049, when the removal of the vizier, who had been in office for some eight years and was accused of dealing with Tugrïl Beg, plunged the Public Administration into chaos. The central government began to lose control of the provinces and with them, part of their income. From then on, there was a frequent and continuous replacement in the position of vizier and be multiplied icated the clashes between black and Turkish troops (1062-1067). In these internal struggles, the Turks took the best part and began to clearly favor their interests; attempts by the blacks to prevent this failed and eventually, defeated, they fled to Upper Egypt. The Turks, growing in power, began to seize state revenue directly and set about eliminating their rivals for good. In Alexandria they succeeded, but not in Upper Egypt, where the black forces resisted the attacks.
Fighting between different Turkish groups allowed the caliph to ally with some of them and expel the main faction from the capital, but at the price of completely losing power and being plundered by his allies. After further fighting, the Caliph was submitted to his rival in 1071-1072; only new dissensions between the victors, who feared a foreign intervention in the caliphate, allowed him to get rid of it, who was assassinated in March-April 1073 by his former associates. Al-Mustánsir called Badr al-Jamali to his aid, the most powerful Fatimid governor of the Levant, who in 1073-1074 came to his aid and restored order thanks to his own army and the collaboration of part of the population, fed up with the disorder in which Egypt had plunged. -Jamali imposed the caliph's authority by force and bloodily, but he managed to disrupt Al-Mustánsir's various adversaries: the Bedouins, the black troops from Upper Egypt and the different Turkish groups that were fighting for power. In 1077, he crushed a Seljuk army that had invaded the country in December of the previous year at the instigation of exiles who had fled his purges. Black troops, who had made a pact with Al-Jamali, participated in the disruption. or the Seljuk invasion.
Civil War and Decline
Although the army was generally victorious on the battlefield, its internal divisions over the culture of its components began to have negative effects on internal Fatimid politics. Traditionally, the Berber element of the army had enjoyed supremacy in the political affairs of the caliphate but, as the Turkish element grew more powerful, it began to question this situation; In addition, by 1020 serious disturbances had begun to break out among the black African troops, who were facing a Berber-Turkish alliance within the Fatimid armed forces. The caliph Al-Hakim had promoted the rise of black soldiers to put an end to the excesses of the Turks. In the following reign, that of Al-Zahir, the mutinies of the black troops multiplied, mainly due to the hardships they were going through at a time of internal crisis of the State.
Between 1065 and 1072, famine made its appearance in Egypt. Meanwhile, in 1062 and again in 1067, the fighting between the Turkish and Sudanese troops ended in open warfare, concluding in a victory for the Turks and their Berber allies. The Berbers in Egypt deliberately aggravated the country's problems, destroying the embankments and canals, and seeking ways to reduce the capitals and neighboring districts by starvation. Makrizi sees in this incident the beginning of the crisis in Egypt, which he refers to as the disorder (fitna), the civil war (al-shidda al-mashhura), the corruption of the state (fasad ad-dawla) and the days of calamity and hardship (ayyam al-shidda wal ghala).
In 1072, the Fatimid caliph Al-Mustansir, in a desperate attempt to save Egypt, summoned the general Badr al-Jamali, who was at the time governor of Acre. Badr al-Jamali led his troops into Egypt and was able to successfully suppress the different rebel army groups, largely purging the Turks in the process. Although the Caliphate was spared immediate destruction, the decade-long rebellion devastated Egypt and it was never able to regain its former power. As a result, Badr al-Jamali also became the vizier of the Fatimid caliph, becoming one of the first military viziers ('Amir al Juyush', Arabic: امير الجيوش, commander of the Fatimid forces). that would later dominate Fatimid politics. The Al-Jam`e Al-Juyushi Mosque (Arabic: الجامع الجيوشي, The Mosque of the Armies), or Juyushi Mosque, was built by Badr al-Jamali. The mosque was completed in AH 478 / AD 1085. C. under the patronage of the then caliph and imam Ma'ad al-Mustánsir. It was built at one end of the Mokattam, ensuring a view of the city of Cairo. This Mosque/mashhad was also known as a victory monument commemorating the restoration of the Badr vizier and the end for Imam Mustansir. As military viziers effectively became heads of state, the caliph himself was reduced to the role of a figurehead. Badr al-Jamali's son, Al-Afdal Shahanshah, succeeded him in power as vizier.
After Caliph Al-Mustansir died, the Nizari sect makes his son Nizar his successor, while another Ismaili branch known as the Mustaali (from whom the Dawoodi Bohra ultimately descends), supports his other son, Al -Musta'li. The Fatimid dynasty continued with Al-Musta'li as both Imam and Caliph, and joint position until the 20th Imam, Al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah (1132 AD). On Imam Amir's death, a branch of the Mustaali faith claimed that they had transferred the Imamate to his son Al-Tayyib Abi l-Qasim, then two years old. Another faction claimed that Amir died without an heir, and supported Amir al-Hafiz's cousin as he proclaimed himself the legitimate caliph and imam. al-Hafiz's faction became the Hafizi Ismailis. Tayyeb's supporters became the Tayyib Ismailis. Tayyeb's claim to the Imamate was accepted by Hurratu l-Malika ('The Noble Queen') Arwa al-Sulayhi, the Queen of Yemen. Arwa was designated hujjah (or, pious holy lady), the highest rank in the Yemeni Dawat, by Al-Mustansir in 1084. Under Queen Arwa, the Dai al-Balagh (intermediary between the imam of Cairo and the local headquarters) Lamak ibn Malik and later Yahya ibn Lamak worked for the cause of the Fatimids. After Imam Taiyab Dai's imprisonment, he was given an independent position by Queen Arwa, and they were called Dai al-Mutlaq. The first Dai Mutlaq was Syedna Zoib, the common Dai of all Taybians.
Decline and Fall
In 1042, the Zirid Berbers (rulers of North Africa within the Fatimid state) abandoned the Shia confession and recognized the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad, prompting the Fatimids to send the Banu Hilal to punish them. After about 1060, the Fatimids held only the Levant coast and parts of Syria, but their rule of those territories ended with invasions by Seljuk Turks in 1073 and Crusaders during the First Crusade in 1099; Fatimid territory shrank until it was barely made up of Egypt. The Fatimids gradually lost the Emirate of Sicily under the Italo-Norman Roger I, who already had full control over the island in 1091.
Reliance on the iqta system also weakened Fatimid central authority, as more and more military officers received land at the far ends of the empire and became semi-independent, and were often a source of trouble.
After the decline of the Fatimid political system in the 1160s, the Zangid ruler Nur al-Din sent his general Shirkuh to seize Egypt, a goal he achieved by overthrowing the vizier Shawar in 1169. Shirkuh died two months after assuming power, and the state chose his nephew, Saladin, as his successor. This started the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt and Syria.
Administration and culture
Unlike other governments in the area, Fatimid promotion to state posts depended more on merit than lineage, bribery and intrigue. Members of other branches of Islam, such as Sunnis, were just as likely to be appointed to government posts as Shiites. Tolerance extended to non-Muslims, such as Christians and Jews who held the highest levels of government solely by virtue of their ability. Tolerance also facilitated the monetary contributions that served to finance the great Caliphate army in which the Mamluks abounded, brought from Circassia by Genoese traders. There were exceptions to this general attitude of tolerance, among which the attitude of al-Hakim bi-Amrillah, a controversial figure, stood out.
Fatimid Caliphs
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The caliphs of this dynasty became known as bibliophiles, protectors of knowledge, and some of them authors of writings. Their patronage of studies included philosophy and pre-Islamic history of the territories they ruled.
The Fatimids were also known for their exquisite arts. One type of pottery, gilded earthenware, was common during the Fatimid era. Metalworking Glassware was also popular. Fatimid architecture used stone ashlars and different types of columns, vaults (groined), muqarnas and a multitude of niches. Many vestiges of Fatimid architecture exist today in Cairo; prominent examples include Al-Azhar University and Al-Hakim Mosque. Al-Azhar University was the first university in the east and perhaps the oldest in history. The madrasa is one of the relics of the dynasty in the Fatimid era of Egypt, the descendants of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad. Fatima was called Az-Zahra (The Luminous One), and the madrasa was named in her honor. It was founded as a mosque by the Fatimid commander Jawhar under Caliph Al-Muizz when he founded the city of Cairo. It was (probably Saturday) Jamadi al-Awwal in the year 359 AH. Its construction was completed on Ramadan 9 of the year 361 AH. Both Al-Aziz Billah and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah expanded on it. It was repaired, renovated and enlarged by Al-Mustánsir and Al-Hafiz li-Din Illah. The Fatimid Caliphs always encouraged scholars and jurists to have their study circles and meetings in this mosque and thus it became a university that has the right to be considered as the oldest still functioning University.
The Fatimid Caliphs gave prominent positions to scholars in their courtyards, encouraging students, and established libraries in their palaces, so scholars could expand their knowledge and profit from the work of their predecessors.
Perhaps the most important characteristic of the Fatimid rule was the freedom of thought and reason extended to the people, who could believe whatever they wanted, as long as they did not infringe the rights of others. The Fatimids reserved separate pulpits for different Islamic sects, where scholars expressed their ideas in whatever way they liked. They sponsored scholars and invited them from every place, spending money on them, even when their beliefs conflicted with theirs. The history of the Fatimids, from this point of view, is really the history of knowledge, literature and philosophy. It is the story of sacred freedom of expression.
Military System
The Fatimid army was largely made up of warriors from the Kutama Berber tribes brought to conquer Egypt, and they remained a significant part of the armies even after Ifriqiya began to become independent. in Egypt, part of the local Egyptian forces were also incorporated into the army, which was thus made up of North African soldiers whose origin stretched from Algeria to Egypt. In the Maghrebi stage of the dynasty, there were also elements of Christian and black origin in the armies of the caliph, partly inherited from the Aghlabids. During the early reigns of the Egyptian period, the Kutami continued to play a central role in the caliph's armies, bearing the brunt of the fight against the Carmatian invasions of Egypt in the 971 and 973-974. Its loss of pre-eminence began with the conquest of the Levant in 968, in which its limitations became clear. This, the The entry of new forces of eastern origin from 978 and the failure to recruit more Kutami in 978-988 accentuated the decline of their status, until then main, in the Fatimid armies.
Black troops had existed since the early days of the caliphate, but increased significantly during the reign of Caliph Al-Hakim.
A fundamental change occurred when the Fatimid caliph tried to penetrate Syria —a stage prior to the long-awaited conquest of Baghdad— in the second half of the 10th century. The Fatimids clashed with the Turkish forces that now dominated the Abbasid caliph and they began to realize the limits of their military power. Thus, during the reign of Abu Mansur Nizar al-Aziz Billah and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the caliph began to recruit Turkish and later black African contingents (later troops of other origins, such as Armenians, were even used as well.) Army units were generally formed according to cultural criteria; thus, the Berbers generally formed the bulk of the cavalry and scout infantry units, while the Turks (known as 'Mamluks') concentrated in the horse archers and heavy cavalry units. Black Africans, Syrians, and Arabs were generally employed in the heavy infantry corps and infantry archers. Both this division by cultural groups and the slave origin of many of the troops survived the disappearance of the Fatimid state.
The Fatimids put all their military power towards the defense of the empire whenever it was threatened by dangers and threats, which they were able to repel, especially during the rule of Al-Muizz li-Din Illah. During his reign, the Byzantine Empire, ruled by Nikephoros II, destroyed the Muslim Emirate of Chandax in 961 and conquered Tartus, Al-Masaisah, 'Ain Zarbah, and other places, to gain complete control of Iraq and its borders. Syrians as well as earning the nickname of "Death Seals of the Saracens". But Nikephoros was less successful in his wars in the West. After refusing to pay tribute to the Fatimid caliphs, he sent an expedition to Sicily under Nicetas (964-965), but was forced to abandon the island entirely after defeats at sea and on land. In 967 he made peace with the Kairouan Muslims and turned against their common enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, who had attacked Byzantine possessions in Italy; but after some initial successes his generals were defeated and confined to the southern coast.