The Fatimids: 2. The Rule from Egypt

249 Pages·2014·69.207 MB·English

by  Shainool Jiwa

The Fatimids
2. The Rule from Egypt
Shainool Jiwa
In association with
The Institute of Ismaili Studies
LONDON
i
I.B. TAURIS
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First published in Great Britain 2023
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ii
Contents
Acknowledgements v
Note on the Text vi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. The Arrival of the Fatimids in Egypt 8
Chapter 2. The Genesis of Fatimid Rule in Egypt 20
Chapter 3. Towards an Inclusive Empire 44
Chapter 4. The Composition of the State 60
Chapter 5. Science and Scholarship in the
City Victorious 92
Chapter 6. The Empire of the Seas 114
Chapter 7. The Fluctuations of Fatimid Rule 131
Chapter 8. Late Fatimid Egypt and the Heirs
of Empire 162
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iv Contents
Conclusion: Glimpses of the Fatimid Legacy 201
Glossary 209
Notes 216
Further Reading 222
List of Illustrations 226
Index 230
Acknowledgements
This second volume on the Fatimids has richly
benefi ted from several colleagues at the IIS: Dr
Hasan al-Khoee, Tara Woolnough, Lisa Morgan,
Russell Harris, and Sarah Campbell, who have
shep her ded the text through various stages of its
produc tion. My sincere grat itu de to Dr Shiraz
Kabani for a life time of friend ship and support.
Shahnavaz, Adil, and Nabila – you are the
beacons of my life.
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Note on the Text
In the interest of read ab il ity, notes have been
kept to a minimum, with primary-source quotes
refer enced in the endnotes. Similarly, diacrit ics
for trans lit er ated words have been limited to the
ayn ( ʿ ) and the hamza ( ʾ ) where they occur in the
middle of a word. The words ibn and bint
meaning ‘son of’ and ‘daugh ter of’ respecti vely
are abbre vi ated to b. and bt. when occur ring in
the middle of a name. All dates are Common
Era, unless other wise indic ated. Supplementary
mater ial related to the content of the book is
avail able on the IIS website: w ww.iis.ac.uk
vi
Figure 1. Map of the Fatimid Empire at its Height
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viii
Introduction
There are moments in history when the past, the
present, and the future seem to clash at an accel-
er ated pace, as if fi red through a hadron collider,
resulti ng in epochal changes in human civili z a-
tion. Such signi fi c ant events – whether the onset
of the First and Second World Wars, the inde-
pend ence movem ents in Asia and Africa, or the
collapse of the Soviet Union – were unders tood as
being transf orm at ive by those who lived through
them, long before later histori ans pronounced
their judgem ent.
In the few years that have elapsed between
the public a tion of T he Fatimids: 1. The Rise of a
Muslim Empire and this second volume, much
in the world has been irre voc ably trans formed.
Amidst frac tious social, economic, and polit ical
convul sions, human kind has witnessed tangible
signs of its wilful neglect of the envir on ment
and has faced a stark reminder of its own fragil-
ity in the face of a global pandemic.
Through all such epochal trans form a tions, one
distinct feature of the human exper i ence remains
constant: our inclin a tion to look to the past to
make meaning of the present. This impetus anim-
ated the Greek histori ans of the third century BCE
1