Decline of the Fatimites

DECLINE OF THE FATIMITES On May 18, 945, while Abu Yazid was besieging Susa, the caliph al-Qa'im died at Mandia, and was succeeded by his son Ismail, who took the title Mansur. He almost immediately re lieved Susa by sending a fleet, which joining with the garrison inflicted a severe defeat on Abu Yazid, who had to evacuate Kairawan also ; but though the cities were mainly in the hands of Fatimite prefects, Abu Yazid was able to maintain the field for more than two years longer, while his followers were steadily decreasing in numbers, and he was repeatedly driven into fast nesses of the Sahara. In Aug. 947 his last stronghold was taken, and he died of wounds received in defending it. His sons carried on some desultory warfare against Mansur of ter their father's death. A town called Mansura or Sabra was built adjoining Kairawan to celebrate the decisive victory over Abu Yazid, which, however, did not long preserve its name. The exhausted condition of north-west Africa due to the protracted civil war required some years of peace for recuperation, and further exploits are not recorded for Mansur, who died on March 19, 95 2.

Widening Authority.

His son, Abu Tamim Ma'add, was 22 years of age at the time, and succeeded his father with the title Mo'izz lidin allah. His authority was acknowledged over the greater part of the region now constituting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Sicily, and he appears to have had serious thoughts of endeavouring to annex Spain. At an early period in his reign he made Jauhar, who had been secretary under the former caliph, commander of the forces, and the services rendered by this person to the dynasty made him count as its second founder after al-Shi`i. In the years 958 and 959 he was sent westwards to reduce Fez and other places where the authority of the Fatimite caliph had been repudiated, and after a successful expedition advanced as far as the Atlantic. As early as 966 the plan of attempting a fresh invasion of Egypt was conceived, and preparations made for its execution ; but it was delayed, it is said at the request of the ca liph's mother, who wished to make a pilgrimage to Mecca first ; and her honourable treatment by Kaffir when she passed through Egypt induced the caliph to postpone the invasion till that sov ereign's death.

In Aug. 972 Mo'izz resolved to follow Jauhar's pressing invi tation to enter his new capital Cairo. With his arrival there the centre of the Fatimite power was transferred from Mandia and Kairawan to Egypt, and their original dominion became a pro vince called al-Maghrib, which immediately fell into the hands of a hereditary dynasty, the Zeirids, acknowledging Fatimite suze rainty. The first sovereign was Bulukkin, also called Abu'l-Futuh Yusuf, appointed by Mo'izz as his viceroy on the occasion of his departure for Egypt : separate prefects were appointed for Sicily and Tripoli ; and at the first the minister of finance was to be an official independent of the governor of the Maghrib. On the death of Bulukkin in 984 he was succeeded by a son who took the royal title al-Mansur, under whose rule an attempt was made by the Kutama, instigated by the Caliph, to shake off the yoke of the Zeirids, who originated from the Sanhaja tribe. This attempt was defeated by the energy of Mansur in 988; and the sovereignty of the Fatimites in the Maghrib became more and more confined to recognition in public prayer and on coins, and the payment of tribute and the giving of presents to the viziers of Cairo. The fourth ruler of the Zeirid dynasty, called Mo'izz, endeavoured to substitute 'Abbasid suzerainty for Fatimite : his land was invaded by Arab colonies sent by the Fatimite caliph, with whom in 1 o51 Mo'izz fought a decisive engagement, after which the dominion of the Zeirids was restricted to the territory adjoining Mandia; a number of smaller kingdoms rising up around them. The Zeirids were finally overthrown by Roger II. of Sicily in 1148.

The Last Fatimite Caliph.—Af ter the death of al-Adid, the last Fatimite caliph in Egypt, some attempts were made to place on the throne a member of the family, and at one time there seemed a chance of the Assassins, who formed a branch of the Fatimite sect, assisting in this project. In 1174 a conspiracy for the restoration of the dynasty was organized by `Umarah of Yemen, a court poet, with the aid of eight officials of the govern ment : it was discovered and those who were implicated were exe cuted. Two persons claiming Fatimite descent took the royal titles al-Mo`tasim billah and al-H5.mid lillah in the years and 1176, respectively; and as late as 1192 we hear of pretenders in Egypt. Some members of the family are traceable till near the end of the 7th century of Islam.

The doctrines of the Fatimites as a sect, apart from their claim to the sovereignty in Islam, are little known, and we are not justi fied in identifying them with those of the Assassins, the Car mathians or the Druses, though all these sects are connected with them in origin. A famous account is given by Maqrizi of a system of education by which the neophyte had doubts gently instilled into his mind till he was prepared to have the allegorical meaning of the Koran set before him, and to substitute some form of nat ural for revealed religion. In most accounts of the early days of the community it is stated that the permission of wine-drinking and licentiousness, and the community of wives and property formed part of its tenets. There is little in the recorded practice of the Fatimite state to confirm or justify these assertions; and they appear to have differed from orthodox Muslims rather in small details of ritual and law than in deep matters of doctrine. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-F. Wustenfeld, Geschichte der Fatimiden Chalifen (Gottingen, 1880) ; E. Mercier, Histoire de l'A f rique Septentrionale (1888) ; M. J. de Goeje, Memoire sur les Carmathes de Bahrain et les Fatimides (2nd ed., Leiden, i 886) ; P. Casanova, "Memoire sur les derniers Fatimides," Mem. Miss. archeologique au Caire, vol. vi.; for the lives of 'Obaidallah and Abu Yazid, Cherbonneau in the Journal Asiatique, ser. iv. vol. 20, and ser. v. vol. 5. See also EGYPT, History.

(D. S. MA. ; X.)