Fatimids2

Rather than continue to rule the country from the hotbed of rival interests that was Fustat, Jawhar founded a new capital a little further down the Nile. He then turned the Fatimid state's considerable resources to restoring order and prosperity in Egypt, solidifying control of the new region in preparation for a further push to Syria. Under the command of Ibn Falah, the Fatimid forces captured Damascus and reached the walls of Antioch in 971. There he was defeated by the Byzantines and eliminated by the Qarmatians, who surged into Egypt and got as far as Heliopolis (north Cairo). A second Qarmatian invasion in 973 proved disastrous for them, and after a century in which their dominance of Arabia and Mecca had made them the bane of all Muslims, the Qarmatians were no more. The Qarmatians gone, the Yemenites and, most importantly, the twin holy cities of Mecca and Medina acknowledged the Fatimids as their overlords.

Al-Mu`izz now placed the Maghrib under the responsibility of his subordinates and moved with his court to Egypt where he made Jawhar's new city his capital, naming it Cairo. There Al-Mu`izz died in 975, knowing that the defeat of the Abbasids was surely at hand. 

• 1) Abū Manṣūr al-`Aziz Nizār al-Fāṭimī, Fifth Fatimid Caliph (see below)

975 – 996 Abū Manṣūr al-`Aziz Nizār al-Fāṭimī, Fifth Fatimid Caliph. The next stage in any Fatimid assault on the Abbasids would have to be an attack on Syria. The closer that Fatimid armies approached the Abbasid core, the greater the Abbasids' advantage would be. Partially to deal with this, al-`Aziz instigated wide-ranging military reforms, fixing pay rates and introducing Turkish slave soldiers. This latter was a mistake. There was already extensive conflict between the Berber troops and the African slave troops - the Turkish slaves simply introduced another party to this struggle. Eventually these slaves, the Mamluks, would rule Egypt.  

• 1) Abū `Alī al-Ḥākim Manṣūr al-Fāṭimī, Sixth Fatimid Caliph (see below)

• 1) Sitt al-Mulk al-Fāṭimī

996 – 1021 Abū `Alī al-Ḥākim Manṣūr al-Fāṭimī, Sixth Fatimid Caliph.  There was something wrong with al-Ḥākim. Remarkably ascetic, he introduced discriminatory measures against Jews and Christians, while hiring them to serve in the uppermost echelons of his administration. Among these acts was the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to the shock of all Christendom. Ultimately, this act turned Christian attitudes decisively against Muslim rule in the Levant, a change which culminated in the First Crusade a century later.

By the al-Ḥākim s reign, it was becoming clear that the Fatimids could not defeat the Abbasids by force of arms. Where arms could not succeed, perhaps ideology could: the Fatimids continued to support Shi'ite efforts throughout the Middle East. In this they were often successful - the Abbasids faced frequent revolts in Syria and places as far afield as Khorasan. In 1010, the Emir of northern Iraq was (briefly) persuaded to switch his allegience to the Fatimids. Shi'ites poured into Cairo from throughout the Middle East. Some of these, embracing the ideology of the Imamate and impressed by al-Hakim's asceticism, asserted the divinity of their Caliph - he did not correct them. His followers, the Druze, still exist, in greatest secrecy in the mountains of the Lebanon.

Divinity did not make al-Ḥākim less erratic. He began to plan to appoint his cousin as his successor, despite Shi'ite theology demanding that the Imamate pass from father to son. Riding on a donkey in the Levant, he disappeared. The Druze claimed that he had gone into occultation - hiding himself, ready to return at the end times. Others suggest that his sister, Sitt al-Mulk had eliminated him. At any rate, she took charge, governing as regent for his young son.

• 1) Abū al-Ḥasan aẓ-Ẓahir `Alī ibn al-Manṣur al-Fāṭimī, Seventh Fatimid Caliph (see below)