Chapter VI: Part 6

Al-ʿAziz entrusted the problem of Syria to the general Jawhar who was put at the head of a large army. The news of his approach found the Qarmatians at Ramla, and Haftakin encamped before Acca. The Qarmatians fell into panic when they heard of Jawhar’s coming, fled from Ramla and allowed him to take possession of the town. Some of the Qarmatians retired to their own territory of al-ʾAhsa in the Bahrayn, whilst others dispersed in all directions. Haftakin heard of this and saw himself deprived of his allies, and so retired to Tiberias where he rallied round him some of the scattered Qarmatians and then, helped by his own Turkish levies, prepared to give battle to Jawhar. First he raised supplies from the Hauran and from Bathniyya, one of the districts near Damascus and then, having provisioned the city for a siege, determined to wait the Egyptian general there. Towards the end of the month of Dhu l-Kaada Jawhar arrived and pitched camp before Damascus, surrounding his camp with a deep trench and making regular openings for his men to pass in and out. Haftakin entrusted one Qassam Sharrab a leader of the local irregular force which had evidently been revived in the city, with the task of arranging sorties and attacks on Jawhar’s camp, and these went on until the 11th of Rabiʿ II. of 366, when the local captain became disheartened as these sorties did not produce any favourable results, and Haftakin himself was beginning to consider the expediency of attempting to escape from the city. Before abandoning Damascus, however, he made every effort to obtain assistance, and at last was cheered by the news that the Qarmatian Hasan b. Ahmad was marching to his relief. When Jawhar heard this he thought it prudent to propose terms to Haftakin, the more so because his own supplies were running short and, to Haftakin’s great delight, proposed to retire if he would refrain from pursuit. As this offer was at once assented to, Jawhar withdrew on the 3rd of Jumada I. and went to Tiberias. As soon as the Qarmatians heard of this they followed to Tiberias, but found that Jawhar had passed on to Ramla. They pursued as fast as they could, and a small engagement took place. The Qarmatian leader Hasan b. Ahmad died at Ramla, and the office of _kabir_ passed to his cousin Jaʿfar, the army being under the command of Yusuf, the last survivor of the six sons of Abu Saʿid (Abu l-Feda: _Ann. Moslem_, ii. 535). After this it became the custom for the Qarmatians to put their forces under the control of six _saʿids_, who formed a kind of elective military council. Very soon after Hasan’s death they quarrelled with Haftakin and deserted him. Although the retirement of the Qarmatians left Haftakin in a less favourable position he decided to give battle to Jawhar, with the result that he defeated him, and Jawhar was obliged to flee to Ascalon, leaving a vast booty in the victor’s hands (Maqrizi, ii. 9-10).

Elated by this success Haftakin advanced to besiege Ascalon, but the Khalif al-ʿAziz had heard of the late reverse and prepared to march to his general’s relief. The preparations in Egypt seem to have been delayed for some reason, and so Jawhar sent to Haftakin proposing terms of peace. It was agreed that Jawhar should pay a compensation to Haftakin and then both he and his men should be allowed to go away in peace, but should pass under Haftakin’s sword. This was agreed and Haftakin’s sword was suspended over one of the gates of Ascalon, and the Egyptian army moved out through this gate and marched homewards by the road through Ramla. On the way they met al-ʿAziz marching to their relief, and the two forces joined together and turned back upon Haftakin. He was at Tiberias when he heard of this meeting and at once set out, and before long came into contact with the Fatimite army, with the result that the Turks were put to flight after an engagement lasting only a few minutes. This took place on Thursday, seven days before the end of the month of Muharram 368. Haftakin’s body was sought amongst the many slain but was not found: later on he was brought in a prisoner by some Arabs who had taken him in flight. He was led before al-ʿAziz, who ordered him to be paraded through the troops, during which he had his beard pulled, and had to endure blows and insults of all sorts. The Fatimite then returned to Egypt carrying with it Haftakin and many other prisoners.

When the Khalif reached Cairo he treated Haftakin with every consideration, supplying him with garments and presents, and assigned him a residence. In after times Haftakin, admitted to the Fatimid court as an honoured guest, used to say: “I blush to mount my horse in the presence of our lord ʿAziz bi-llah, and dare not look at him because of the gifts and favours with which he overwhelms me.” When al-ʿAziz heard this he said to his uncle Haydara: “By God, my uncle. I love to see men covered with favours, shining with gold and silver and precious stones, and to think that all their fortune comes from me.” The Khalif heard that some people found fault with his conduct towards Haftakin, and ordered him to be escorted through the city in magnificent apparel, and on his return presented him with a large sum of money, a number of robes of state, and ordered the chief men of the court to show him hospitality. After the courtiers had feasted him the Khalif asked him how he approved of their banquets, and Haftakin replied that they were magnificent and that his hosts had loaded him with presents and compliments. It was the Khalif’s project to form a Turkish faction of military capacity which would counterpoise the weight of the Berber element which he regarded with some distrust. He put the Turks and Daylamites who were in Cairo as prisoners under Haftakin’s command, and thus formed a bodyguard which was independent of the Berbers, on whom he and his predecessors had hitherto relied. Haftakin enjoyed the Khalif’s favour until his death in 372. Al-ʿAziz suspected the wazir Ibn Killis of having caused him to be poisoned, as it was said that Haftakin had behaved scornfully towards him, and cast the wazir into prison, but after a short confinement the wazir was set at liberty as the Khalif found that he could not dispense with his services.

Ibn Killis served as wazir in all for fifteen years (d. 368), and it was largely due to him that the country enjoyed internal peace and that the public revenue was largely increased. For the next two years the wazir was the Christian ʿIsa b. Nestorius, who was supported by harim influence. In fact the only efficient administrators were to be found amongst the non-Muslims and renegades: the Turks and Berbers were all right as fighting men, but could never learn to act efficiently as civil servants. But these appointments were not popular, and evidences of resentment appear from time to time. When, towards the end of the reign, preparations were being made against the Greeks, and a fleet of 600 ships lay ready at Maqs to support the army in an expedition to Syria, eleven of these ships were set on fire, and popular feeling ascribed this disaster to the Greek inhabitants living in the neighbourhood, with the result that there was a riot in which many Greeks were murdered and their houses pillaged. It is not fair, however, to represent this as an anti-Christian movement, although no doubt most of those who suffered were Christians. The riot was soon put down, for al-ʿAziz brought out his bodyguard of Turks and Berbers, and within six months the energy of Ibn Nestorius produced six new vessels of the newest type.

Al-ʿAziz shared the besetting weakness of all the Fatimids in his uncontrolled love of ostentatious display. In his case this not only took the form of magnificent dresses and lavish generosity, but he showed a marked passion for rarities of every sort. At his table there were the most curious and foreign dainties, strange animals were imported to grace his public processions, and robes of costly and hitherto unknown materials were procured from the most distant lands. At the same time al-ʿAziz was an expert in precious stones and articles of _vertu_, and formed a collection of such things in his palace. On the other hand he was a strict reformer in matters of finance, putting down the taking of bribes and presents with severity, and introducing the custom of paying every official and household servant a fixed salary.

Syria still remained subject to Fatimid rule, but was held only by force of arms. In 368 al-ʿAziz judged it expedient to visit the country where hostile movements were taking place on the part both of the Turks and of the Greeks. At the beginning of the journey, however, he was taken ill at Bilbays. For some time he lay in a dubious state, then rallied, and then became worse again. On Sunday, the 23rd of Ramadan, he rode to the bath, and thence to the lodgings of Barjawan his treasurer with whom he stayed, but next morning was very seriously worse. The complaint was stone with pains in the bowels. On the following Tuesday he felt that his end was near and sent for the Qadi Muhammad b. an-Numan, and the general Abu Muhammad al-Hasan Ibn ʿAmmar, to whom he commended the care of his son, then only eleven years old. After this he sent for his son, al-Hakim, and of that interview al-Musabbihi said: “In a conversation I had with al-Hakim, we happened to speak of the death of al-ʿAziz, on which he said to me: ‘O Mukhtar, my father sent for me before he breathed his last, and I found him with nothing on his body but rags and bandages.’ I kissed him, and he pressed me to his bosom, exclaiming: ‘How I grieve for thee, beloved of my heart,’ and tears flowed from his eyes. He then said: ‘Go, my master, and play, for I am very well.’ I obeyed and began to amuse myself with sports such as are usual with boys, and soon after God took him to himself. Barjawan then hastened to me, and seeing me on the top of a sycamore tree, exclaimed: ‘Come down, my boy; may God protect you and us all.’ When I descended he placed on my head the turban adorned with jewels, kissed the ground before me, and said: ‘Hail to the Commander of the faithful, with the mercy of God and his blessing.’ He then led me out in that attire and showed me to all the people, who kissed the ground before me and saluted me with the title of Khalif” (Ibn Khali, iii. 529).

Al-Musabbihi says that after this interview with his son he became worse. For some time he remained in his bath, and then as he left it, suddenly expired. The historian of Kairawan says that the physician prescribed a potion which was wrongly made up and that this was the cause of his death.

X

THE SIXTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-HAKIM

(A.H. 386-411 = A.D. 996-1021)

Al-Mansur Abu-ʿAli al-Hakim bi-amri-llah (“ ... ruling by God’s command”), commonly known as Al-Hakim, was only eleven years old when he was saluted as Khalif at Bilbays on Tuesday, the 23rd of Ramadan 386 (October, 996 A.D.). Next day he proceeded to Cairo with all the court. Before him went his father’s body in a litter borne on a camel, the two feet protruding. The young prince was clothed in a woollen shirt split up the front and adorned with buttons and button holes, and on his head was the jewelled turban which served as the official diadem; in his hand he bore a lance and a sword depended from his neck (Maqrizi ii. 285). He reached Cairo and entered the palace a little time before the hour of evening prayer, and the following night was occupied with the funeral of the deceased Khalif. Ibn an-Numan washed his late master’s body, which was then buried in a chamber of the palace beside the tomb of his predecessor, al-Moʿizz (Maqrizi _loc. cit._, Ibn Khallikan _loc. cit._).

On Thursday morning the whole court attended early at the palace. A golden throne covered with cushions of cloth of gold was placed in the great portico which al-ʿAziz had constructed in 369. Al-Hakim started out from the palace on horseback wearing the jewelled turban. At his approach all the courtiers kissed the earth, and then walked at his side or before and behind until he reached the portico, where he dismounted and took his seat on the throne, the courtiers taking their places according to rank, and each in turn did homage. Barjawan, the white eunuch whom al-ʿAziz had appointed to act as _Ustad_ or “tutor,” administered the oath, and the young Khalif was proclaimed with the title _al-Hakim bi-amri-llah_.

There is no doubt that al-ʿAziz, in appointing Barjawan as tutor intended him to act as regent until the young prince was old enough to assume the power himself, although Ibn ʿAmmar and the Qadi Muhammad b. Nuʿman were associated with him as guardians. But at this point Ibn ʿAmmar, the acknowledged leader of the Katama party in Cairo, seized the office of _Wasita_ or chief minister, to which was united the office of _sifara_ or secretary of state, ejecting Isa b. Nestorius, and assumed the title of _Amin ad-Dawla_ or “the one trusted in the empire.” This was the first time that the term “empire” was employed in the Fatimid state and, as De Sacy points out (_Druses_ i. cclxxxv.), its use shows the appearance of a new tendency. So far the Fatimids had been the leaders of a sect of which the Imam was supreme pontiff: circumstances had enabled the sect to establish a state, first in Ifrikiya, then in Egypt, but it retained, at least in theory, a quasi-religious character, and its professed duty was to maintain the divine right of the Mahdi and his descendants. It seems, however, that by this time there were some who had out-grown this sectarian point of view and desired the Fatimid state to pose frankly as a secular power. The Berber tribe of Katama appears to have been the centre of this change of view; they considered no doubt that they had been the conquerors of Ifrikiya and of Egypt, and by their conquest had established a Berber monarchy: why should the fruits of this conquest be laid at the feet of an Arab dynasty whose supernatural claims they no longer believed?—the Fatimid Khalifs had given no evidence of miraculous powers, but were evidently ordinary human beings whose kingdom had been secured by the ready credulity of their forefathers. Ibn ʿAmmar comes forward as the leader of what we may term the secular party, and his programme seems to have been to dispense with the religious claims of the Fatimids, and to treat Egypt and its subject provinces simply as a _dawla_ or temporal kingdom. No doubt these views had been gathering force for some time past, and certainly al-ʿAziz had been more prominent as the secular ruler and had allowed the sectarian propaganda to drop into the background, but his death and the accession of a child Khalif offered exceptional opportunities for modifying the policy of the state. De Sacy suggests that Ibn ʿAmmar’s party was disposed to get rid of the young sovereign and to establish a purely Berber government, a suggestion which has every appearance of probability. With the disappearance of the divinely appointed Mahdi and the end of the Fatimid line the country would be set free from the peculiar religious views of the Ismaʿiliya, which were an actual barrier to the progress of the state and alienated from it the bulk of the subject population. It seems a very probable picture of the tendencies prevailing at the moment and rests upon rather more than simple conjecture, though it must be admitted that none of the native historians attach this deep significance to the introduction of the term _dawla_.

It is not necessary to suppose that Barjawan was a devout supporter of Ismaʿilian views, but he certainly was the decided opponent of Ibn ʿAmmar who had curtailed his power and thrust him into the background, leaving him to be no more than the private tutor of the young prince. By force of circumstances he was compelled to become the champion of the young Khalif, so that this first period of al-Hakim’s reign centres in Barjawan’s intrigues to get rid of Ibn ʿAmmar.

Very early in al-Hakim’s reign there came to Egypt as a refugee the eunuch Shakar, who had been a servant of the Buwayhid prince Adhad ad-Dawla, but who had been taken prisoner by the rival prince Sharif ad-Dawla, from whom he had escaped. He was a friend of Manjutakin, the governor of Syria, and Barjawan, having enlisted his support, used him as the medium of sending an appeal to Manjutakin to deliver him and the Khalif from the bondage in which they were kept by Ibn ʿAmmar. Manjutakin, who was naturally inclined to be a partisan of the Turks and the Turkish mercenaries whom al-ʿAziz had introduced into Egypt as a counterpoise against the influence of the Katama and other Berber tribes, readily espoused Barjawan’s faction and assembled troops preparatory to an advance upon Egypt. As soon as Ibn ʿAmmar heard of this he treated it as a revolt, and sent out an army under the command of Sulayman b. Jaʿfar b. Fallah, a Berber of the Katama tribe and one of his supporters to check the revolted Manjutakin. Thus the palace intrigue between Ibn ʿAmmar and Barjawan was fought out by their respective supporters in Syria.

Sulayman met Manjutakin either at Ascalon or Ramla, and there he inflicted a defeat upon the Turks in which Manjutakin himself was taken prisoner and sent captive to Egypt. He was well received by Ibn ʿAmmar, who wanted to see Berbers and Turks united in resistance to the established Khalifate, and perceived very clearly that his plans could not be successful unless he enlisted the sympathy of the Turkish faction which was very strong in Cairo.

After his victory over Manjutakin Sulayman was made governor of Syria and proceeded to Tiberias, sending his brother ʿAli to act as his deputy in Damascus. But the citizens of Damascus, always turbulent and independent, refused to accept ʿAli as governor or to allow him to enter the city until they received a threatening letter from Sulayman which thoroughly frightened them and put an end to their opposition. ʿAli entered Damascus in no pleasant mood, and made his irritation felt by turning his soldiers loose, so that many of the citizens were slain and some parts of the city burned, after which he withdrew and pitched camp outside. Not long afterwards Sulayman himself arrived and received the apologies and protestations of loyalty of the citizens and was pleased to express his pardon. It was his aim at this time to continue the policy of al-ʿAziz and to hold the sea coast as a check upon the Greeks, and thus had no desire to be embroiled with a city in his rear which he left to be dealt with at a more convenient time. The Syrian Tripoli was the most important coast town held by the Muslims, and this he now handed over to his brother ʿAli, dismissing the governor Jaysh, although he was a fellow Berber and a tribesman of the Katama, with the result that Jaysh went back to Egypt with a grievance and joined himself to Barjawan’s faction.

Barjawan’s intrigues had now so far succeeded that he had a strong following, and as most of Ibn ʿAmmar’s troops were absent in Syria it seemed a favourable moment to strike his rival. For some time there were street riots between Berbers and Turks, indeed, this seems to have been more or less the normal state of Cairo at the time, for in spite of the good treatment accorded to Manjutakin, the Turkish mercenaries were deeply jealous of the favour shown by Ibn ʿAmmar to his fellow Berbers. When Barjawan felt that the time was ripe he secretly distributed largess amongst the Turks, and they made an open attack upon Ibn ʿAmmar which compelled him to conceal himself and to retire from public life.

At Ibn ʿAmmar’s downfall, for this it actually was, Barjawan assumed the offices of Wasita and Sifara, thus becoming practically regent of the state, on 28 Ramadan 387, after Ibn ʿAmmar had held office for a little less than eleven months. He treated the fallen minister as a kind of usurper who had tried to make the Khalif a prisoner and celebrated his own accession, or rather restoration to office—for he had certainly acted as chief minister for the first few days of al-Hakim’s reign—as a vindication of the Khalif’s rights. He brought forth al-Hakim in public, had him again proclaimed Khalif, and displayed him as sovereign.

But it was in Syria that the two factions were really fighting out their quarrel, and Barjawan’s first act of policy was to write to the citizens of Damascus urging them to resist Sulayman, and assuring them of the support of the home government as the Katama faction had now fallen from power. Thus encouraged the people of Damascus pillaged Sulayman’s goods, slew many of his men at arms, and expelled him from the city.

Neither faction at Cairo was strong enough to proceed to extremities, and Barjawan had reason to dread the return of the Berber troops from Syria. For a while Ibn ʿAmmar was treated as a prisoner of state and confined to his house, but all his fiefs and sources of income were secured to him and, after an interval, he was allowed to go about as he pleased and to present himself at court.

In Syria a period of disorder followed the fall of Sulayman, and the Bedwin phylarch Mufarraj b. Daghtal b. Jarrah broke out in revolt, established his headquarters at Ramla, and made forays in the Bedwin fashion through the surrounding country. At the same time Tyre revolted under the leadership of a peasant named Olaka, and the Greeks, led by the Emperor Ducas, laid siege to Apamea. It seemed, therefore, that Barjawan’s success involved the practical loss of control over the Asiatic provinces. But though Barjawan had encouraged the turbulence of the Damascenes for his own purpose, and had thus got rid of Ibn ʿAmmar’s chief supporter Sulayman, he had no intention to lose hold of Syria permanently, and sent up Jaysh b. Samsama as governor: probably this appointment was Jaysh’s stipulated fee for assisting Barjawan. At the head of a large force Jaysh proceeded to Ramla where he found Sulayman whom he made prisoner and sent to Egypt. He then sent a detachment under Husayn b. ʿAbdullah against Tyre, and proceeded himself against Mufarraj.

At Husayn’s approach Olaka appealed for help to the Greek Emperor, and in response a fleet of Greek ships was sent to his assistance. These ships, however, were met off Tyre by an Egyptian fleet and defeated. The Tyrians, now thoroughly discouraged, made an unconditional surrender and Husayn entered their city, pillaged it, and sent Olaka a prisoner to Egypt where he was flayed and crucified.

Meanwhile Jaysh had been advancing against Mufarraj but, as he approached with so large an army, Mufarraj became frightened and fled. Jaysh did not pursue him but passed on to Damascus where the inhabitants received him with some anxiety, although in their recent revolt against Sulayman they had been acting with the approval and encouragement of Barjawan’s faction, and so in alliance with Jaysh. They remembered, however, that Jaysh was a Berber of the Katama, and that tribal prejudices were stronger than any temporary association in palace factions. As soon as Jaysh entered the city he made a reassuring speech to the people, and the citizens were fully convinced that he intended only friendly relations. At the moment he was most anxious to be free from any minor troubles with the cities of Syria in order that he might deal effectually with the Greek attempts upon the country which, for some years past, had been growing more serious. He proceeded therefore to Apamea, and before long joined issue with the Greek forces under Ducas, and received at their hands a severe defeat. Whilst the Muslims were in full flight and the Greeks were occupied in plundering their baggage, a young Kurd named Ahmad ibn ʿAbdu-l-Haqq, with a small band of followers of the tribe of Bashara advanced to where the Emperor stood surrounded by officers amongst whom was his son. The Emperor paid no attention to the Kurd, supposing him to be one of the defeated enemy coming to make formal surrender, but as Ahmad drew near he fell upon the Emperor with his sword and killed him instantly. At this the Greeks were thrown into confusion, the Muslims rallied, and the conflict closed with a victory for the Muslims.

Jaysh, thus unexpectedly the victor, proceeded to Antioch, but did not think it worth while to spend time in a siege without which it would have been impossible to enter the city, and so taking what booty and prisoners he could get in the neighbourhood, he went back to Damascus. He was now free to give vent to his long standing grudge against that city. Refusing all invitations to enter within its walls he pitched camp outside, but continued his friendly attitude towards the citizens, and frequently inviting the leaders of the local bands,—whether they should be called militia or brigands is dubious,—entertained them in his tent. On these occasions the guests feasted with Jaysh and then, instead of having water brought round to wash their hands, they used to be conducted to a separate room and washed there. This went on for some time, and then one day the door of the room where they had retired was closed, the guests were trapped and led out one by one to execution. As soon as the citizens heard of this they were thrown into great alarm. Next day Jaysh entered the city, executed as many leaders of the local bands as he could find, seized many of the prominent citizens and sent them prisoners to Egypt, and then pillaged their houses.

Thus Syria was brought to a condition of comparative order. Meanwhile Barjawan had sent forces to reduce Barqa and the African Tripoli, and thus the whole Fatimid Empire was brought to subjection. The Katami Fahl b. Ismaʿil was appointed governor of Tyre, the eunuch Yanas was put in charge of Barqa, and the eunuch Maysur was given the African Tripoli, whilst the frontier posts of Gaza and Asqalon were entrusted to the eunuch Yaman. But more important than any of these arrangements was Barjawan’s great achievement in sending an embassy to the Greek Emperor and concluding with him a truce for five years.

Although Barjawan remained for nearly three years regent of Egypt, Syria, North Africa, and the Hijaz, his position was far from secure. His danger came from an unexpected quarter; not from the Katama faction and Ibn ʿAmmar, but from the young Khalif who was beginning to resent Barjawan’s conduct as regent. According to one account the feeling was personal and largely due to Barjawan’s manner towards his ward, whom he seems to have treated with contempt and active dislike, applying to him the nick-name of “lizard.” For a long time al-Hakim nourished his resentment in secret and then, four days before the end of Rabiʿ II., in the year 390, he sent to him the message, “The little lizard has become a great dragon and wants you.” Much alarmed, Barjawan presented himself before the Khalif, and was slain by Abu l-Fadl Raydan, the bearer of the royal parasol, who stabbed him in the belly with a knife (cf. Ibn Khallikan, i. 53). Whatever measure of truth there is in this account it probably hits off some salient features in the way that a caricature sometimes gives a truer portrait than a photograph. Undoubtedly al-Hakim was quick to feel resentment, many proofs of this appear in his later life; and undoubtedly there was already something uncanny in his actions and manners, the symptoms in all probability of incipient insanity; and no doubt interested persons were busy in fanning the smouldering embers of resentment. Other accounts, reported by Nowairi and Bar Hebraeus, the former always a most weighty authority for this period, represent al-Hakim as chafing at Barjawan’s control, at his confinement to the precincts of the palace and at the prohibition against his riding abroad, the declared reason being the fear of assassination at the hands of the Katama partisans, which may have been not without good ground. According to these two historians the whole plot was due to the parasol bearer Raydan, who had become the Khalif’s confidant, Barjawan being occupied with matters of state and wasting no time with the youth who was the titular sovereign and who, it may be supposed, was a moody and unpleasing personage, and thus the parasol bearer was able to persuade his master that Barjawan was trying to emulate Kafur, and intended to make the Khalif a merely ornamental figure kept in the palace, and brought out from time to time to grace some state function. It lent colour to this, that Barjawan’s mode of life was strangely reminiscent of Kafur; after he had secured the command of the government he had gradually relaxed his attention to public business, until at last his life was spent entirely in pleasure, but he never attained the literary interests of the former negro ustad.

Nowairi tells us that al-Hakim, influenced by the suggestions of Raydan, had consulted Husayn, the son of the great general Jawhar, and that he frankly advised him to get rid of Barjawan. Although the minister no longer troubled to supervise the Khalif’s education, it was his custom to take him from time to time for a walk in the gardens which had been laid out by Kafur, the gardens of the Pearl Palace, as they were called. It was decided that some such occasion should be used to dispose of Barjawan, and so one day as he was thus walking with al-Hakim Raydan suddenly attacked him and drove a lance into his back, then al-Hakim’s servants crowding round cut off his head.

Barjawan’s assassination was followed by a riot. The people of Cairo were not insensible of the general security and peace which his rule had secured, and feared a return of disorder. But Nowairi tells us that the report went abroad that Ibn ʿAmmar had made an attempt on the Khalif’s life. This is likely enough, for Barjawan had constantly kept alive the idea that the Khalif lived in perpetual danger of Katama attacks. Other accounts attribute the riot to Barjawan’s popularity and to resentment at his murder and fear of resulting relaxation of the strong hand which had guided the country into ways of peace and prosperity. This riot was al-Hakim’s first lesson of the need of tact in dealing with his subjects. He was never lacking in personal courage, and on this occasion he went out to the people and declared, “I have been informed of an intrigue which Barjawan made against me, and for that I caused him to be executed. I beg you to take my part and not to be hard on me, for I am yet a child,” and he burst into tears. The “intrigue” thus referred to was no doubt the conspiracy which Raydan maintained that Barjawan had formed to treat the Khalif in the same way as Kafur had treated the later Ikhshid princes.

Although al-Hakim was now in the fifth year of his reign he had as yet taken no part in the government, which was of course the result of his tender years. It is obvious, however, that he had come under the influence of Barjawan and then of Raydan and Husayn, who had all endeavoured to develop his self-assertion for their own ends. As yet his personal character was quite unknown, and the expansion of his personality lies within the period following Barjawan’s assassination.

Thus the death of Barjawan marks the beginning of the second period of al-Hakim’s reign, during which he began to assert himself and to display his own character, although in this we see very distinct graduations which tend to produce marked differences of policy. The first phase covers the years 390-395, in which he shows marked peculiarities, and we note an increasing fanaticism in upholding Shiʿite views, but for the most part he is inclined to pleasure, and seems to have been popular. In 395-396 there comes a puritan reaction, associated with a time of distress and famine in Egypt, which becomes more pronounced as he has to meet revolt at home and hostile invasion from the west.

After Barjawan’s death al-Hakim chose Husayn, the son of Jawhar, as his chief minister, the same adviser whom he had consulted about Barjawan, and who had advised his murder. Husayn received the title of _Qaʾid al-Quwwad_, “general of generals,” or Commander-in-Chief, and a Christian named Fahd acted as his lieutenant. Fahl b. Tamim was made governor of Damascus but, as he died shortly afterwards, he was replaced by ʿAli b. Fallah. An order was made very early in this period forbidding any person to address the Khalif as “our lord” or “our master,” and requiring them to confine themselves to the simpler title “Commander of the Faithful,” and this order was enforced with the penalty of death.

Now al-Hakim, feeling himself free from restraint, began to show evidences of peculiarities which caused many of his day and many since to regard him as a person of disordered intellect. His first peculiarity was a preference for night over day. He began to hold meetings of the “council” by night, whether of the council of state or the religious assembly of the Ismaʿilian sect does not seem quite clear, he rode abroad in the city by night, and by his orders the streets were brightly illuminated, the shops opened, and business and pleasure followed by artificial light. The citizens vied with one another in hanging out lights and illuminating their houses to win the Khalif’s approval. This continued for about five years, during which al-Hakim seemed disposed to encourage every kind of pleasure, and every night saw both Cairo and the old city of Fustat refulgent with artificial illumination. In his conduct generally the Khalif was tolerant, as his predecessors had been, towards the Christians and Jews as well as towards the Muslims who did not embrace the peculiar tenets of the Shiʿa sect. His mother was a Christian. Towards his officials his conduct was generous, and he seems to have been distinctly popular. Thus, when Jaysh died in 390 his son went to Cairo with a paper on which his father had written his will and a detailed statement of all his property: all this, he declared, belonged to the Khalif his master; his children had no rights. The property thus valued was estimated at 200,000 pieces of gold. The son brought all this before the Khalif, but al-Hakim said, “I have read your father’s will and the statement of the money and goods of which he has disposed by his will: take it, and enjoy it in tranquility and for your happiness.” Indeed, all through his career the chief charge made against him was his reckless generosity, which often reduced the government to serious inconvenience: it was, indeed, a species of megalomania.

No doubt the nocturnal festivities of Cairo, well suited to the pleasure loving character of the Egyptians, led to many abuses, and so in 391 a strict order was issued forbidding women to go out of doors by night, and a little later this was followed by a general order prohibiting the opening of the shops by night (Maq. ii. 286). Al-Hakim himself continued his nocturnal tastes and nightly wanderings in the city until 393, when he entirely ceased riding about by night and forbade any person to be out after sunset.

In 393 al-Hakim began to show other curious developments in his conduct, the external signs, it would appear, of a growing disorder of the mind. We do not know what grounds Barjawan had for calling him a lizard; very possibly there was something furtive and uncanny in him even in his boyhood. In the early years following the death of Barjawan he seems to have been genial and generous, but all this changed in 393, when his character began to show a rigorous puritanism and signs of religious fanaticism, which indeed need be no sign of a disordered intellect, but which, suddenly developed, might very well accompany such a thing. It was in this year also that he began to be active as a mosque builder and as a generous benefactor of existing mosques, though this again is no evidence of disordered mentality. At the same time he became fanatical in his support of the peculiar tenets of the Shiʿite sect to which he belonged, and began to show great severities towards Christians and Jews, although in this last item he seems to have acted under the pressure of public opinion, which was very decidedly irritated by the favouritism which the Fatimids had so far shown to non-Muslims. But side by side with this sudden puritanism and fanaticism appeared a vein of capricious cruelty which has a very sinister bearing. Such cruelty begins to be prominent in 393 when many persons were put to death, some on religious grounds, others it would appear merely by a passing caprice of the Khalif. Amongst these was the Ustad Raydan, the royal parasol bearer who had counselled the murder of Barjawan.

In 394 the Chief Qadi Husayn b. Nuʿman was deprived of his office and replaced by ʿAbdu l-ʿAziz b. Muhammad b. Numan, who had been acting as Inspector of Complaints. In every Muslim country the Qadi who administers the sacred law is a person of very great importance, but under the Fatimids the Chief Qadi very often also held the office of Chief Daʿi or Supreme Missionary, as was the case with Husayn. If the two offices were held by different persons the Chief Daʿi ranked next after the Chief Qadi, and wore a similar official costume. It was the duty of the Chief Daʿi, who had under him twelve assistants as well as subordinate daʿis in the different provinces, to receive the conversions of those who joined the Ismaʿilian fraternity, and to deliver regular courses of instruction to those who were members, according to their grades in the society. His official income was derived from a fee of three and a half pieces of silver from each member. In earlier times, as we have seen, the daʿis were chosen from the most earnest proselytes, but at this period the office of Chief Daʿi was hereditary in the family of the B. ʿAbdu l-Kawi, and in them we may be disposed, perhaps, to recognise “the power behind the throne.” Still it does not seem that this hereditary right was treated as essential for the office, but only that it was usually regarded as giving a normal qualification.

The appointment of a new Chief Daʿi brings us to the period of al-Hakim’s puritanism. It was a time of great dissatisfaction. Even a people so habitually patient as the Egyptians were beginning to feel irritation at the expense involved in the nightly illuminations so long continued. A more serious cause of discontent was that which usually lies behind every disaffection in Egypt, a failure of the inundation of the Nile. For three years in succession the Nile flood had been exceptionally low, and so food was scarce and dear.

In 395, when a great number of people were executed, the ex-Qadi Husayn b. Nuʿman was put to death and his body burned. We note elsewhere the peculiar pro-Ismaʿilian legislation of 394 against various vegetables which were traditionally associated with persons who appeared in history as hostile to the house of ʿAli (cf. p. 141 below). At the same time a prohibition was issued against the slaying of oxen, other than those injured or diseased, save at the Feast of Sacrifice (Maq. ii. 286, Ibn Khallik. iii. 450), a prohibition perhaps connected with the scarcity due to the bad Niles.

We have already seen that strict laws against going out at night were made as the result, no doubt, of abuses arising from the nightly illuminations and merry-making. Now, in 395, more stringent regulations were made. It was enacted that no women were to appear in the street unveiled, and that no persons were to use the baths without wearing wrappers. In Jumada II. of this year, a general prohibition was issued against any persons going out of doors after sunset, so that the streets were deserted by night. In accordance with another law all vessels containing wine were seized, the vessels broken, and the wine poured out (Maq. ii. 286). Another law dealt with the dogs which roam about most eastern cities and who, in Muslim lands are savage because they lack human intercourse, for the religion of Islam has placed the dog and the pig apart as animals who are in all circumstances unclean, so that no one who has touched either of these is able to pray or eat without formal ablution. Now al-Hakim commenced a war of extermination against dogs, with the result that in Cairo many were slain and very few could be seen in the streets. Severus says that this rule was made because al-Hakim’s ass had taken fright at a dog barking at it: in strict accuracy the Khalif had not at this time adopted the custom of riding an ass, but this is a minor detail.

Stricter rules also were made excluding ordinary civilians from Kahira, from which it appears that the seclusion of the guarded city had been somewhat relaxed. In future no one was to be allowed to ride into it, but must dismount and proceed on foot, and all those who let out asses for hire were to be excluded from its precincts, whilst no one was to be allowed to pass in front of the royal palace even on foot.

We must now turn to consider conditions in Syria, for it is always impossible to understand Egyptian history unless the course of events in Syria is kept in view. At the time of Barjawan’s death Syria was under the governorship of Jaysh, but when he died in 390 it became necessary for al-Hakim to nominate a successor for this important post. He chose Fahl of the B. Tamim, but Fahl died after only a few months. The Khalif then appointed ʿAli b. Fallah of the Katama. In 392 the Hamdanid prince of Aleppo, Saʿid ad-Dawla, and his wife, were poisoned by his father-in-law Luʿluʿ, who desired to obtain the throne for himself. He did not seize the supreme power immediately, but proclaimed Saʿid’s two sons ʿAli and Sharif as joint rulers, retaining the real control in his own hands. This continued for two years, then in 394 he sent them together, with the whole of the harim of the Hamdanids to Cairo, and assumed to himself the office and title of Emir in conjunction with his son Mansur, and these two ruled as Emirs under the protection of the Fatimid Khalif until Luʿluʿ’s death in 399. Then Mansur became sole ruler under the title of _Murtada l-Dawla_ which was conferred on him by al-Hakim, and he had the name of the Fatimid Khalif inserted in the Friday prayer and inscribed on the coinage so that by 399 Aleppo was fully admitted as a part of the Fatimid empire, having been a protected district for the previous five years, before which it had for forty years been included in the Byzantine Empire.

The first evidence of al-Hakim’s strong religious interest appears in his diligence as a builder of mosques, and in the completion or adornment of those already erected.

A mosque near the Bab al-Futuh, the second congregational mosque of Kahira, had been commenced by al-ʿAziz and the Wazir Ibn Killis in 380, and was sufficiently advanced to allow the Friday prayers to be held there in 381. In 394 al-Hakim added the minarets and the decorations so that Maqrizi describes him as reconstructing the building. The work was not completed until 404. At first known as the “New Mosque” or as _al-Anwar_ “the brilliant,” it afterwards generally bore the name of Hakim’s Mosque. Desecrated by the Crusaders, severely injured by an earthquake in 703, it was in a semi-ruinous condition by fire and neglect with its roof falling to pieces when Maqrizi wrote his description of it about A.H. 823 (= A.D. 1420. Cf. Maqrizi ii. 277, sqq.). After even worse decay in later days it was temporarily converted in recent times to a museum of Arabic art, the collection being removed to its present quarters in 1903. The mosque is now abandoned and in ruins. Its general plan follows that of the mosque of Ibn Tulun, a square courtyard surrounded with arcades, the centre open to the sky. A considerable part of the east _liwan_ remains, with a few fragments of the north _liwan_, of the other two sides only portions of the exterior walls survive. Two towers can be seen standing at the ends of the west wall, but the open-work minarets which crown these towers are additions made some three centuries later and alien to the style prevailing in the time of the Fatimids.

In the year 393 al-Hakim also began to rebuild the mosque in the district of Rashida to the south of Kataiʿ near the Mukattam hills, on a ground where a Christian church had once stood. The mosque had been built of brick; this al-Hakim destroyed and reconstructed on a larger scale and of more imposing appearance. It was known as the mosque of Rashida from its position, the ground being so called after a person of that name who had once been its owner. This mosque was commenced in Rabiʿ I. 393, and the position of the _mihrab_ was carefully adjusted by the astronomer ʿAli b. Yunus. Two years later the Khalif made this mosque a present of carpets, curtains, and lamps.

Besides this building al-Hakim made many gifts to various mosques, especially to those he purchased for the special purposes of the Shiʿite sect, presenting them with copies of the Qurʾan, silver lamps, curtains, Samanide mats, etc.

The earlier Fatimids in North Africa present rather a brutal appearance and, so far as we can see, their one ideal was the establishment of political power. But that was not the original character of the movement which had distinct intellectual tendencies, and to this earlier type al-Moʿizz had reverted. Since the dynasty had been established in Egypt the humane side had been more prominently in evidence, and especially in the encouragement of medicine and natural science. The Khalif al-Moʿizz employed the Jewish physician Musa b. al-Ghazzan and his two sons Ishaq and Ismaʿil: these were not only eminent practitioners but Musa was distinguished as a writer on the pharmacopoeia, and all three were regarded as leading authorities on medicine. Another distinguished physician was the Christian Eutychius or Saʿid b. Batriq, patriarch of the Malkite church of Alexandria who died in 328 (= A.D. 943), the author of a history of which an edition in Arabic and Latin was published at Oxford in 1654.

Al-Hakim himself was anxious to encourage scholarship in accordance with the traditions of the sect of which he was the head. The mosque of al-ʾAzhar had been especially devoted to the learned by his father, and now in Jumada II. 395 he founded an academy on the lines of similar institutions already existing at Baghdad and elsewhere. This new foundation was named the _Dar al-Hikma_ or “house of wisdom.” To it were attached a number of professors, both of the traditional sciences and Qurʾan and canon law, and also of the natural sciences. A library was connected with it and was filled with books transferred from the royal palace near by. All who came to it were supplied with ink, pens, paper, and rests for books.

It seems probable that the intellectual efforts of the Fatimids should be connected with the _Ikhwanu s-Safa_, “the brotherhood of purity” and with the Assassins. The former began as a kind of masonic society at Basra soon after the capture of Baghdad by the Buwayhids in 334. Undoubtedly it had some connection with the sect established by ʿAbdullah the son of Maymun, but it is not possible to specify accurately what that connection was. It may have been a more cultured off-shoot, just as the Qarmatians were a cruder branch; but the more probable explanation is that it was a descendant of the movement which produced ʿAbdullah, but free from the Shiʿite elements which he inherited from the sect founded by his father Maymun. To a large extent it seems that the “Brotherhood” displayed the true principles adopted by the Ismaʿilians free from the Shiʿite ideas and free from the political opportunism which marked the development of the Fatimids in Africa and Egypt. To the Assassins we shall have occasion to return at a later stage. The “Brethren of purity” were disposed in four grades, the highest of which was composed of those who desired the union of their souls with the world-spirit, so that their final doctrine was a species of pantheism. They were a body of religious and ethical reformers, a purified and gentle society, at the opposite pole to the fierce Qarmatians. On the literary side they are best known as the producers of the fifty-one “Epistles of the Brethren of Purity,” an encyclopaedia of philosophy and science as known in the Arabic speaking world of the fourth century. These “Epistles” were edited and translated by Prof. Dieterici between 1858 and 1879, and show a general scheme of education in grammar, theology, philosophy, and physics, the latter including mineralogy, chemistry, botany, and zoology. It is in no sense an original work, but simply an encyclopaedic compilation of all the material then available.

The whole Fatimid movement took place in an atmosphere saturated with Hellenistic thought, and the revived study of the Greek material was the direct inspiration both of the Ismaʿilian sect as organised by ʿAbdullah and of the “Brethren.” But the influence of these latter was checked by the strong tendency towards reaction in Muslim theology and thought generally which was gathering even in the fourth century in Asiatic Islam. The future of the philosophers lay in the far west: Ibn Sina (d. 428) was the last of the Muslim philosophers in the east, and he was associated with Shiʿite circles, whilst al-Farabi had lived under the shelter of the Shiʿite Hamdanids, and the “Brethren” flourished under the Buwayhids who also were Shiʿites. For the most part the study of Greek philosophy, therefore, progressed under Shiʿite influences.

The “House of Wisdom” continued until 513 when the reactionary wave of orthodoxy had reached even Fatimid Egypt, and in that year it was closed as a home of heresy by the Wazir Afdal. Four years later a new academy near the great palace was founded by the Wazir Maʾmun, but this adhered more strictly to the traditional lines of Muslim study.

In the line of philosophers strictly so-called, that is to say, of those who worked from the basis of Greek science, one is associated with al-Hakim and the Cairo of the Fatimids, namely, Ibn al-Haytsam, known to the mediaeval Latin writers as Alhazen. He was born at Basra in 354, and became distinguished as a student of the Greek philosophers. At that time the path of philosophy was beset with many difficulties owing to the orthodox reaction.

Ibn Sina was a wanderer in many lands, and Ibn al-Haytsam found it more prudent to seek a refuge in Cairo where he made his home amongst the learned of the al-ʾAzhar mosque. He died in 430. We have a long list of the works he produced, all of the type usually associated with the Arabic philosophers, manuals, commentaries, and discussions of questions arising from the teaching of the ancients. In his case these deal chiefly with mathematics, physics, the Aristotelian logic, and the medical works of Galen. The Bodleian contains a MS. of his commentary on Euclid. To the mediaeval west he was best known as the author of a treatise on optics which was translated into Latin and used by Roger Bacon. Occasionally this optical work of “Alhazen” appears in the curricula of the mediaeval universities.

Various evidences of a fanatical spirit in maintaining the doctrines and usages of Shiʿism begin to appear in al-Hakim about 393. In Syria a person was arrested on the charge that he denied that any special devotion was due to ʿAli. The offender was imprisoned by the authority of the Chief Qadi of Egypt who acted as pope over all the territories subject to Fatimid rule, and was examined by four jurists who did their best to persuade him to recognise the Imamate of ʿAli, but, as he remained stubborn, he was beheaded.