A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate by De Lacy O'Leary

Author:De Lacy O'Leary [O'Leary, De Lacy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781297319501
Google: 1CJErgEACAAJ
Publisher: Creative Media Partners, LLC
Published: 2015-02-19T04:49:16+00:00

XI

The Seventh Fatimid Khalif, Az-Zahir

(A.H 411–427 = A.D. 1021, 1035)

ON the “Day of Sacrifice,” 411, seven days after Hakim’s disappearance, his son Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali az-Zahir li-’izazi-dini-llah (“the triumphant in strengthening God’s religion”), then a boy of sixteen years of age, was recognised as Khalif. The heir designated by Hakim, ‘Abdu r-Rahim, was still in Damascus, but the Princess wrote to him ordering his immediate retum to Egypt. Instead of obeying this summons he declared himself the independent ruler of Damascus, and made himself popular amongst the citizens by repealing the many vexatious regulations which Hakim had put in force. But this popularity did not last long : the soon made himself odious by his avarice and grasping extortions, and craftily utilising this, and the discontent of the soldiers who did not receive the gratuities which they expected, the Princess contrived to gain a party of supporters, and by their help had him arrested and sent in chains to Egypt where he was imprisoned for some four years, then fell ill and died, perhaps poisoned, three days before the Princess herself died.

For the first four years of az-Zahir’s reign the whole power was in the hands of his aunt, the Princess Royal. According to Ibn Khallikan the Princess sent for Yusuf b. Dawwas, the noble who the Syrian writers describe as having conspired with her to arrange the murder of Hakim, and made him a present of a hundred slaves. After the wazir had gone home she sent the eunuch Nesim after these slaves, and conveyed her orders to them that it was their duty to slay Yusuf, as he was the person responsible for the late Khalif’s assassination. In consequence of this Yusuf was put to death. Soon afterwards the Princess contrived the death of two of the wazirs who succeeded him, and throughout the whole four years of her rule she showed herself cruel and vindictive. She died in 416, and the chief control then passed into the hands of a committee of three sheikhs who paid a daily visit to the Khalif, but excluded him from all participation in the administration.

The year of the Princess’ death saw the beginning of a terrible famine in Egypt as the result of a series of bad Niles, and the resultant distress lasted all through 416 and 417. In many cases the starving villages took to brigandage, an evil to which the country is always more or less exposed. Sometimes outbreaks are due, as in this case, to dire distress and consequent recklessness ; sometimes it means the revival of ancient feuds between village and village, or family and family, so that it is no more than an outlet for intermittent intertribal feuds and private quarrels between villages or families ; but in time of distress these become more acrimonious and turn against strangers and travellers. Even the pilgrims on their way through Egypt were attacked. Regulations were passed to prevent the slaughter of cattle for fear that they would be

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