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The Fatimid CaliphateorFatimid Empire (/ˈfætɪmɪd/; Arabic: ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْفَاطِمِيَّة, romanized: al-Khilāfa al-Fāṭimiyya) was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shia dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids trace their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, the first Shia imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma‘ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of the caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb, Sicily, the Levant, and the Hejaz.
Between 902 and 909, the foundation of the Fatimid state was realized under the leadership of da'i (missionary) Abu Abdallah, whose conquest of Aghlabid Ifriqiya with the help of Kutama forces paved the way for the establishment of the Caliphate. After the conquest, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah was retrieved from Sijilmasa and then accepted as the Imam of the movement, becoming the first Caliph and founder of the dynasty in 909. In 921, the city of al-Mahdiyya was established as the capital. In 948, they shifted their capital to al-Mansuriyya, near Kairouan. In 969, during the reign of al-Mu'izz, they conquered Egypt, and in 973, the caliphate was moved to the newly founded Fatimid capital of Cairo. Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of the empire and it developed a new and "indigenous Arabic culture". After its initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Shia sects of Islam, as well as to Jews and Christians. However, its leaders made little headway in persuading the Egyptian population to adopt its religious beliefs. (Full article...)
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Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Iyadi al-Tunisi (Arabic: علي بن محمد الإيادي, romanized: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Iyādī; died 976) was a 10th-century Maghrebi Arabic poet in the service of the Fatimid caliphs al-Qa'im, al-Mansur, and al-Mu'izz.
His exact origin is unknown. The nisba "al-Tunisi" has led to suggestions that he was born in Tunis, but his other nisba of "al-Iyadi" suggests ties to the Iyad, a clan of the Arab Banu Hilal tribe settled near Msila. Pro-Shi'ite, he was court poet of the Isma'ili Shi'a caliphs al-Qa'im, al-Mansur, and al-Mu'izz. His reputation during his lifetime was considerable, and he was highly regarded by later critics. However, possibly due to his pro-Shi'a partisanship, which may have led to an attempted damnatio memoriae after the Zirid dynasty turned to Sunni Islam, or due to shifting literary tastes, none of his works survives in complete form. His work survives mostly in fragments that were appreciated and gathered together by later anthologists for their vivid and evocative language, such as descriptions of the Fatimid navy, a galloping horse, or the so-called Lake Palace in the palace city of Mansuriya. The only evidently pro-Shi'a works surviving are a eulogy for al-Mansur, and a moving description of the end of the famous anti-Fatimid rebel Abu Yazid. Al-Iyadi died in 976, probably in Cairo, where he had followed the Fatimid court following the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969. (Full article...)
The Druze (/ˈdruːz/ DROOZ; Arabic: دَرْزِيّ, darzīorدُرْزِيّ durzī, pl. دُرُوز, durūz), who call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (lit. 'the monotheists' or 'the unitarians'), are an Arab and Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion whose main tenets assert the unity of God, reincarnation, and the eternity of the soul.
Most Druze religious practices are kept secret. The Druze do not permit outsiders to convert to their religion. Marriage outside the Druze faith is rare and strongly discouraged. The Druze maintain Arabic language and culture as integral parts of their identity, and Arabic is their primary language. (Full article...)
Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (Arabic: أبو القاسم محمد ابن عبد الله; March/April 893 – 17 May 946), better known by his regnal name al-Qāʾim (القائم) or al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh (القائم بأمر الله), was the second caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, ruling in Ifriqiya from 934 to 946. He was the twelfth Isma'ili Imam, succeeding his father Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah (r. 909–934). (Full article...)
Hafizi Isma'ilism (Arabic: الحافظية, romanized: al-Ḥāfiẓiyya), also known as Majidi Isma'ilism (Arabic: المجيدية, romanized: al-Majīdiyya), was a branch of Musta'li Isma'ilism that emerged as a result of a split in 1132. The Hafizis accepted the Fatimid caliph Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz li-Din Allah (r. 1132–1149) and his successors as imams, while the rival Tayyibi branch rejected them as usurpers, favouring the succession of the imamate along the line of al-Hafiz's nephew, al-Tayyib.
The Hafizi sect lost state backing and gradually disappeared after the abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171 and the conquest of the Fatimid-aligned dynasties of Yemen by the Ayyubid dynasty shortly after. The last remnants of the Hafizi branch are attested in the 14th century in Egypt and Syria, but had died out by the 15th century. (Full article...)
Fatimid art refers to artifacts and architecture from the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), an empire based in Egypt and North Africa. The Fatimid Caliphate was initially established in the Maghreb, with its roots in a ninth-century Shia Ismailist uprising. Many monuments survive in the Fatimid cities founded in North Africa, starting with Mahdia, on the Tunisian coast, the principal city prior to the conquest of Egypt in 969 and the building of al-Qahira, the "City Victorious", now part of modern-day Cairo. The period was marked by a prosperity amongst the upper echelons, manifested in the creation of opulent and finely wrought objects in the decorative arts, including carved rock crystal, lustreware and other ceramics, wood and ivory carving, gold jewelry and other metalware, textiles, books and coinage. These items not only reflected personal wealth, but were used as gifts to curry favour abroad. The most precious and valuable objects were amassed in the caliphal palacesinal-Qahira. In the 1060s, following several years of drought during which the armies received no payment, the palaces were systematically looted. The libraries were largely destroyed and precious gold objects were melted down, with a few of the treasures dispersed across the medieval Christian world. Afterwards, Fatimid artifacts continued to be made in the same style, but were adapted to a larger populace, using less precious materials. (Full article...)
Mahdia (Arabic: المهدية Mahdia.wav) is a Tunisian coastal city with 62,189 inhabitants, south of Monastir and southeast of Sousse.
Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as weaving. It is the capital of Mahdia Governorate. (Full article...)
Tala'i ibn Ruzzik (Arabic: طلائع ﺑﻦ ﺭﺯﻳﻚ, romanized: Ṭalāʾīʿ ibn Ruzzīk, with his full titles and surnames Abū'l-Gharāt Fāris al-Muslimīn al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ṭalāʾīʿ ibn Ruzzīk al-Ghassānī al-Armanī) was a military commander and official of the Fatimid Caliphate, serving as its vizier from 1154 until his assassination in 1161, when he was succeeded by his son, Ruzzik ibn Tala'i. He is generally acknowledged as the last of the powerful and capable viziers of the Fatimid state. During his tenure the Fatimid Caliphate regained a measure of stability, and was once again able to project its power abroad and pursue its political interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. (Full article...)
Al-Mu'ayyad fid-din Abu Nasr Hibat Allah b. Abi 'Imran Musa b. Da'ud ash-Shirazi (c. 1000 CE/390 AH – 1078 CE/470 AH) was an 11th-century Isma'ili scholar, philosopher-poet, preacher and theologian of Persian origin. He served the Fatimid Caliph-Imām al-Mustansir Billah as a Da'i in varying capacities, eventually attaining the highest rank of Bab al-Abwab "The Gate of Gates" and Da'i al-du'at "Chief Missionary" in the Fatimid Da‘wah. In his theological and philosophical writings he brought the Isma'ili spiritual heritage to its pinnacle. (Full article...)
Al-Qaid Jawhar ibn Abdallah (Arabic: جوهر بن عبد الله, romanized: Jawhar ibn ʿAbd Allāh, better known as Jawhar al Siqilli, al-Qaid al-Siqilli, "The Sicilian General", or al-Saqlabi, "The Slav"; born in the Byzantine empire and died 28 April 992) was a Shia Muslim Fatimid general who led the conquest of Maghreb, and subsequently the conquest of Egypt, for the 4th Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah. He served as viceroy of Egypt until al-Mu'izz's arrival in 973, consolidating Fatimid control over the country and laying the foundations for the city of Cairo. After that, he retired from public life until his death.
He is variously known with the nisbasal-Siqilli (Arabic: الصقلي, romanized: al-Ṣiqillī, lit. 'The Sicilian'), al-Saqlabi (Arabic: الصقلبي, lit. The Slav), al-Rumi (Arabic: الرومي, romanized: al-Rūmī, lit. 'the Roman'); and with the titles al-Katib (Arabic: الكَاتِب, romanized: al-Kātib, lit. 'the Secretary') and al-Qa'id (Arabic: القائد, romanized: al-Qāʾid, lit. 'the General'). (Full article...)
Abu'l-Hasan Ali al-Adil ibn al-Sallaroral-Salar (Arabic: أبو ﺍﻟﺤﺴﻦ ﻋﻠﻲ ﺍﻟﻌﺎﺩﻝ ﺍﺑﻦ ﺍﻟﺴﻠﺎﺭ, romanized: Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-ʿĀdil ibn al-Sallār; born c. 1098 in Jerusalem - died 3 April 1154), usually known simply as Ibn al-Sal[l]ar, was a Fatimid commander and official, who served as the vizierofCaliph al-Zafir from 1149 to 1154.
A capable and brave soldier, Ibn al-Sallar assumed senior gubernatorial positions, culminating in the governorship of Alexandria. From this position in 1149 he launched a revolt, along with his stepson Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh. Defeating the army of the then vizier, Ibn Masal, he occupied Cairo and forced the young Caliph al-Zafir to appoint him vizier instead. A mutual disdain and hatred bound the two men thereafter, and the Caliph even conspired to have Ibn al-Sallar assassinated. During this tenure, Ibn al-Sallar restored order in the army and strove to halt Crusader attacks on Egypt, but with limited success. He was assassinated at the behest of his ambitious stepson Abbas, who succeeded him as vizier. (Full article...)
The Battle of the BlacksorBattle of the Slaves was a conflict in Cairo, on 21–23 August 1169, between the black African units of the Fatimid army and other pro-Fatimid elements, and Sunni Syrian troops loyal to the Fatimid vizier, Saladin. Saladin's rise to the vizierate, and his sidelining of the Fatimid caliph, al-Adid, antagonized the traditional Fatimid elites, including the army regiments, as Saladin relied chiefly on Kurdish troops that had come with him from Syria. According to the medieval sources, which are biased towards Saladin, this conflict led to an attempt by the palace majordomo, Mu'tamin al-Khilafa, to enter into an agreement with the Crusaders and jointly attack Saladin's forces to get rid of him. Saladin learned of this conspiracy and had Mu'tamin executed on 20 August. Modern historians have questioned the veracity of this report, suspecting that it may have been invented to justify Saladin's subsequent move against the Fatimid troops.
This event provoked the uprising of the black African troops of the Fatimid army, numbering some 50,000 men, who were joined by Armenian soldiers and the populace of Cairo the next day. The clashes lasted for two days, as the Fatimid troops initially attacked the vizier's palace, but were driven back to the large square between the Fatimid Great Palaces. There the black African troops and their allies appeared to be gaining the upper hand until al-Adid came out publicly against them, and Saladin ordered the burning of their settlements, located south of Cairo outside the city wall, where the black Africans' families had been left behind. The black Africans then broke and retreated in disorder to the south, until they were encircled near the Bab Zuwayla gate, where they surrendered and were allowed to cross the NiletoGiza. Despite promises of safety, they were attacked and almost annihilated there by Saladin's brother Turan-Shah. (Full article...)
Abu'l-Qāsim al-Ḥasan ibn Faraj ibn Ḥawshab ibn Zādān al-Najjār al-Kūfī (Arabic: أبو القاسم الحسن ابن فرج بن حوشب زاذان النجار الكوفي; died 31 December 914), better known simply as Ibn Ḥawshab, or by his honorificofManṣūr al-Yaman (Arabic: منصور اليمن, lit. 'Conqueror of Yemen'), was a senior Isma'ili missionary (dāʿī) from the environs of Kufa. In cooperation with Ali ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani, he established the Isma'ili creed in Yemen and conquered much of that country in the 890s and 900s in the name of the Isma'ili imam, Abdallah al-Mahdi, who at the time was still in hiding. After al-Mahdi proclaimed himself publicly in Ifriqiya in 909 and established the Fatimid Caliphate, Ibn al-Fadl turned against him and forced Ibn Hawshab to a subordinate position. Ibn Hawshab's life is known from an autobiography he wrote, while later Isma'ili tradition ascribes two theological treatises to him. (Full article...)
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥākim (Arabic: أبو الحسن علي ابن الحاكم; 20 June 1005 – 13 June 1036), better known with his regnal name al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh (Arabic: الظاهر لإعزاز دين الله, lit. 'He Who Appears Openly to Strengthen the Religion of God'), was the seventh caliph of the Fatimid dynasty (1021–1036). Al-Zahir assumed the caliphate after the disappearance of his father al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. (Full article...)
Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Fatak, better known as al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi (Arabic: المأمون البطائحي), was a senior official of the Fatimid Caliphate in the early 12th century, during the reign of al-Amir.
His origin is obscure, but his father had held high military office, and thus al-Bata'ihi belonged to the Fatimid Egyptian elite. In 1107, at the age of about 21, he was chosen as chief of staff of the vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah, the de facto ruler of the state. In this capacity al-Bata'ihi carried out tax reforms which raised revenue and ensured the payment of the military. Al-Afdal was assassinated in 1121, officially by agents of the rival Nizari branch of Isma'ilism, which opposed the official Fatimid Musta'li Isma'ilism and did not recognize al-Amir as caliph and imam. However, both Caliph al-Amir and al-Bata'ihi are suspected to have been involved in the murder by some sources. Al-Amir appointed al-Bata'ihi to the vacant vizierate, establishing a partnership between caliph and vizier that brought the former once again into the public view, while retaining for the latter the de facto governance of the state. (Full article...)
Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas ibn Ahmad ibn al-Mahdi (Arabic: عبد الرحيم ابن إلياس ابن احمد بن المهدي) was a member of the Fatimid dynasty who was named heir-apparent by the caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1013. When al-Hakim was murdered in 1021, he was sidelined in favour of al-Hakim's son, Ali al-Zahir, arrested and imprisoned. He died in captivity, officially by his own hands, or assassinated by the real power behind al-Zahir's throne, the princess Sitt al-Mulk. (Full article...)
Sayf al-Dawla Khalaf ibn Mulāʿib al-Ashhabī al-Kilābī (Arabic: سيف الدولة خلف بن ملاعب الأشهبي الكلابي; died 3 February 1106) was the emirofHoms and Apamea between 1082 and 1090. He later seized Apamea again in 490 A.H./1096 from Ridwan and held the city, under the suzerainty of the Fatimid Caliphate, until his assassination by the Assassins. (Full article...)
The navy of the Fatimid Caliphate was one of the most developed early Muslim navies and a major force in the central and eastern Mediterranean in the 10th–12th centuries. As with the dynasty it served, its history is in two phases. The first was c. 909 to 969, when the Fatimids were based in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia); the second lasted until the end of the dynasty in 1171, when they were based in Egypt. During the first period, the navy was employed mainly against the Byzantine EmpireinSicily and southern Italy, where it enjoyed mixed success. It was also in the initially unsuccessful attempts to conquer Egypt from the Abbasids and brief clashes with the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba.
During the first decades after the eventual Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969, the main naval enemy remained the Byzantines, but the war was fought mostly on land over control of Syria, and naval operations were limited to maintaining Fatimid control over the coastal cities of the Levant. Warfare with the Byzantines ended after 1000 with a series of truces, and the navy became once more important with the arrival of the Crusaders in the Holy Land in the late 1090s. (Full article...)
El-MansuriyaorMansuriya (Arabic: المنصورية), also known as SabraorSabra al-Mansuriyya, near Kairouan, Tunisia, was the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate during the rule of the Ismaili Imams al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah (r. 946–953) and al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah (r. 953–975).
Built between 946 and 972, el-Mansuriya was a walled city holding elaborate palaces surrounded by gardens, artificial pools and water channels. It was briefly the centre of a powerful state that encompassed most of North Africa and Sicily. It continued to serve as provincial capital of the Zirids until 1057, when it was destroyed by the invading Banu Hilal tribes. Any useful objects or relics were scavenged during the centuries that followed. Today, only faint traces remain. (Full article...)
The Great Palaces of the Fatimid Caliphs (orGreat Fatimid Palaces, among other name variants) were a vast and lavish palace complex built in the late 10th century in Cairo, Egypt, to house the Fatimid caliphs, their households, and the administration of their state. There were two main palace complexes, the Eastern and the Western Palace. They were located in the center of the walled city of Cairo around the area still known today as Bayn al-Qasrayn ("Between the Two Palaces"). (Full article...)
The Battle of Apamea was fought on 19 July 998 between the forces of the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate. The battle was part of a series of military confrontations between the two powers over control of northern Syria and the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo, which in turn were part of the larger series of regional conflicts known as the Arab–Byzantine wars. The Byzantine regional commander, Damian Dalassenos, had been besieging Apamea, until the arrival of the Fatimid relief army from Damascus, under Jaysh ibn Samsama. In the subsequent battle, the Byzantines were initially victorious, but a lone Kurdish rider managed to kill Dalassenos, throwing the Byzantine army into panic. The fleeing Byzantines were then pursued, with much loss of life, by the Fatimid troops. This defeat forced the Byzantine emperor Basil II to personally campaign in the region the next year, and was followed in 1001 by the conclusion of a ten-year truce between the two states.
The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim-Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 11th century. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century. (Full article...)
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule. While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in western Europe. Mobs of predominantly poor Christians numbering in the thousands, led by Peter the Hermit, a French priest, were the first to respond. What has become known as the People's Crusade passed through Germany and indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities, including the Rhineland massacres. On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia, they were annihilated in a Turkish ambush led by the Seljuk Kilij Arslan I at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096. (Full article...)
Abu Ali al-Mansur (Arabic: أبو علي المنصور, romanized: Abū ʿAlī al-Manṣūr; 13 August 985 – 13 February 1021), better known by his regnal name al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (Arabic: الحاكم بأمر الله, romanized: al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh, lit. 'The Ruler by the Order of God'), was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam (996–1021). Al-Hakim is an important figure in a number of Shia Ismaili sects, such as the world's 15 million Nizaris and 1–2 million Musta'lis, in addition to 2 million Druze.
Histories of al-Hakim can prove controversial, as diverse views of his life and legacy exist. Historian Paul Walker writes "Ultimately, both views of him, the mad and despotic tyrant (like Germanic and Roman despots) irrationally given to killing those around him on a whim, and the ideal supreme ruler, divinely ordained and chosen, whose every action was just and righteous, were to persist, the one among his enemies and those who rebelled against him, and the other in the hearts of true believers, who, while perhaps perplexed by events, nonetheless remained avidly loyal to him to the end." Critics misname him as "Nero of Egypt". (Full article...)
Daʿwah (Arabic: دعوة, Arabic: [ˈdæʕwæ], "invitation", also spelt dâvah, daawa, dawah, daawahordakwah) is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is daʿwāt (دَعْوات) or daʿawāt (دَعَوات). (Full article...)
Abu’l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Jarjarāʾī was a Fatimid official of Iraqi origin, who served as the Fatimid vizier from 1027 until his death on 27 March 1045.
As his nisba shows, he came from the locality of Jarjaraya, south of Baghdad. He came to Egypt along with his brother Abu'l-Barakat al-Husayn al-Jarjara'i, and held a succession of offices in the Fatimid bureaucracy. He entered the service of Sitt al-Mulk, before becoming secretary to the police chief of Cairo. He was convicted of disloyalty when he opened letters of the secret services in 1013, as a result of which his hands were cut off. However the Caliph al-Hakim soon regretted this harsh punishment, and took him back into the palace and promoted him to high office. (Full article...)
Abu'l-Faraj Ya'qub ibn Yusuf ibn Killis (Arabic: يعقوب ابن كلس, romanized: Abu’l-Faraj Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf ibn Killis, Hebrew: יעקוב אבן כיליס), (930 in Baghdad – 991), commonly known simply by his patronymic surnameasIbn Killis, was a high-ranking official of the Ikhshidids who went on to serve as vizier under the Fatimids from 979 until his death in 991.
Ya'qub ibn Yusuf ibn Killis was born in Baghdad in 930 in a Jewish family. After his family moved to Syria he came to Egypt in 943 and entered the service of the Regent Kafur. As soon as he became the household and property administrator, he was in charge of the Egyptian state's finances. Despite converting to Islam in 967, he was imprisoned by Kafur's successors after losing their favor. He was able however to purchase his freedom and went to Ifriqiya, where he put himself at the service of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mu'izz. (Full article...)
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