Alfatimiyah Meaning

AL-FĀT̤IMĪYAH (الفاطمية‎). “The Fatimides.” A dynasty of K͟halīfahs who reigned over Egypt and North Africa from A.D. 908 to A.D. 1171. They obtained the name from the pretensions of the founder of their dynasty Abū Muḥammad ʿUbaidu ʾllāh, who asserted that he was a Saiyid, and descended from Fāt̤imah, the daughter of the Prophet and ʿAlī. His opponents declared he was the grandson of a Jew of the Magian religion.

There were in all fourteen K͟halīfahs of this dynasty:—

(1) ʿUbaidu ʾllāh, the first Fatimide K͟halīfah, was born A.D. 882. Having incurred the displeasure of al-Muktafī, the reigning Abasside K͟halīfah, he was obliged to wander through various parts of Africa, till through fortunate circumstances he was raised in A.D. 910 from a dungeon in Segelmessa to sovereign power. He assumed the title of al-Mahdī, or “the Director of the Faithful.” [126][MAHDI.] He subdued the Amīrs in the north of Africa, who had become independent of the Abbasides, and established his authority from the Atlantic to the borders of Egypt. He founded Mahadi on the site of the ancient Aphrodisium, a town on the coast of Africa, about a hundred miles south of Tunis, and made it his capital. He became the author of a great schism among the Muḥammadans by disowning the authority of the Abassides, and assuming the titles of K͟halīfah and Amīru ʾl-Muʾminīn, “Prince of the Faithful.” His fleets ravaged the coasts of Italy and Sicily, and his armies frequently invaded Egypt, but without any permanent success.

(2) Al-Qāʾim succeeded his father in A.D. 933. During his reign, an impostor, Abū Yazīd, originally an Ethiopian slave, advanced certain peculiar doctrines in religion, which he was enabled to propagate over the whole of the north of Africa, and was so successful in his military expeditions as to deprive al-Qāʾim of all his dominions, and confine him to his capital, Mahadi, which he was besieging when al-Qāʾim died.

(3) Al-Manṣūr succeeded his father in A.D. 946, when the kingdom was in a state of the greatest confusion. By his valour and prudence he regained the greater part of the dominions of his grandfather ʿUbaidu ʾllāh, defeated the usurper Abū Yazīd, and laid the foundation of that power which enabled his son al-Muʿizz to conquer Egypt.

(4) Al-Muʿizz (A.D. 955) was the most powerful of the Fatimide K͟halīfahs. He was successful in a naval war with Spain, and took the island of Sicily; but his most celebrated conquest was that of Egypt, which was subdued in A.D. 972. Two years afterwards he removed his court to Egypt, and founded Cairo. The name of the Abasside K͟halīfah was omitted in the Friday prayers, and his own substituted in its place; from which time the great schism of the Fatimide and Abasside K͟halīfahs is more frequently dated than from the assumption of the title by ʿUbaidu ʾllāh. The armies of al-Muʿizz conquered the whole of Palestine and Syria as far as Damascus.

(5) Al-ʿAzīz (A.D. 978). The dominions recently acquired by al-Muʿizz were secured to the Fatimide K͟halīfahs by the wise government of his son, al-ʿAzīz, who took several towns in Syria. He married a Christian woman, whose brothers he made patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem.

(6) Al-Ḥākim was only eleven years of age when he succeeded his father in A.D. 996. He is distinguished even among Oriental despots by his cruelty and folly. His tyranny caused frequent insurrections in Cairo. He persecuted the Jews and Christians, and burnt their places of worship. By his order the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem was destroyed (A.D. 1009). His persecutions of the Christians induced them to appeal to their brethren in the West, and was one of the causes that led to the crusades. He carried his folly so far as to seek to become the founder of a new religion, and to assert that he was the express image of God. He was assassinated in A.D. 1021, and was succeeded by his son.

(7) Az̤-Z̤āhir (A.D. 1021) was not so cruel as his father, but was addicted to pleasure, and resigned all the cares of government to his Vizirs. In his reign the power of the Fatimide K͟halīfahs began to decline. They possessed nothing but the external show of royalty; secluded in the harem, they were the slaves of their vizirs whom they could not remove, and dared not disobey. In addition to the evils of misgovernment, Egypt was afflicted in the reign of az̤-Z̤āhir with one of the most dreadful famines that ever visited the country.

(8) Al-Mustanṣir (A.D. 1037) was only nine years old when he succeeded his father. The Turks invaded Syria and Palestine in his reign, took Damascus and Jerusalem (1076), where the princes of the house of Ortok, a Turkish family, established an independent kingdom. They advanced to the Nile with the intention of conquering Egypt, but were repulsed.

(9) Al-Mustaʿlī (A.D. 1094), the second son of al-Mustanṣir, was seated on the throne by the all-powerful Vizir Afẓal, in whose hands the entire power rested during the whole of al-Mustaʿlī’s reign. The invasion of Asia Minor by the Crusaders in 1097 appeared to Afẓal a favourable opportunity for the recovery of Jerusalem. Refusing to assist the Turks against the Crusaders, he marched against Jerusalem, took it (1098), and deprived the Ortok princes of the sovereignty which they had exercised for twenty years. His possession of Jerusalem was, however, of very short duration, for it was taken in the following year (1099) by the Crusaders. Anxious to recover his loss, he led an immense army in the same year against Jerusalem, but was entirely defeated by the Crusaders near Ascalon.

(10) Al-Āmir (A.D. 1101).

(11) Al-Ḥāfiẕ (A.D. 1129).

(12) Az̤-Z̤āfir (A.D. 1149).

(13) Al-Fāʾiz (A.D. 1154).

During these reigns the power of the Fatimides rapidly decayed.

(14) Al-ʿĀẓid (A.D. 1160) was the last K͟halīfah of the Fatimide dynasty. At the commencement of his reign Egypt was divided into two factions, the respective chiefs of which, Dargham and Shāwir, disputed for the dignity of Vizir. Shāwir implored the assistance of Nūru ʾd-dīn, who sent an army into Egypt under the command of Shīrkūh, by means of which his rival was crushed. But becoming jealous of Nūru ʾd-dīn’s power in Egypt, he solicited the aid of Amauri, King of Jerusalem, who marched into Egypt and expelled Shīrkūh from the country. Nūru ʾd-dīn soon sent another army into Egypt under the same commander, who was accompanied by his nephew, the celebrated Ṣalāḥu ʾd-dīn (Saladin). Shīrkūh was again unsuccessful, and was obliged to retreat. The ambition of Amauri afforded [127]shortly afterwards a more favourable opportunity for the reduction of Egypt. Amauri, after driving Shīrkūh out of the country, meditated the design of reducing it to his own authority. Shāwir, alarmed at the success of Amauri, entreated the assistance of Nūru ʾd-dīn, who sent Shīrkūh for the third time at the head of a numerous army. He repulsed the Christians, and afterwards put the treacherous Vizir to death. Shīrkūh succeeded to his dignity, but dying shortly after, Saladin obtained the post of Vizir. As Nūru ʾd-dīn was attached to the interests of the Abassides, he gave orders for the proclamation of al-Mustahdī, the Abasside K͟halīfah, and for depriving the Fatimides of the K͟halīfate. ʿĀẓid, who was then on a sick-bed, died a few days afterwards. [KHALIFAH.]