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Home , Jawhar (general), Saladin

CHAPTER THREE

HISTORY OF FĀTIMIḌ AND AYYŪBID

3.1 Islamic Urban Civilisation

From the ninth century onwards, Egypt became increasingly impor- tant in the Islamic world. The process of Arabisation and Islamisation stimulated Fustāṭ ’̣ s development from a garrison town into a signif- icant centre of Islamic learning.1 Similar demographic and cultural processes taking place in and Spain enhanced Egypt’s position, since it was a natural intermediary of economic and intellec- tual exchange between eastern and western Islamic lands. This inter- mediary role gained importance as Egypt moved from ʿAbbāsid control under the Ṭūlūnids (868–905 CE) to autonomy under the Ikhshīdids (935–69 CE) and then to being the central province of a new state, the Fātimiḍ (969–1171 CE).2 When the Fātimidṣ conquered Egypt , they had already changed from a Shīʿī missionary group3 into an expansionist caliphate, which challenged the political hegemony of the Sunnī ʿAbbāsid caliphate. At first, the Fātimidṣ controlled only parts of (modern-day) Tunisia, Alge- ria, Libya, and Sicily. A turning point came when the fourth Fātimiḍ caliph, al-Muʿizz ascended to the throne in 953 CE. After his prede- cessors’ three unsuccessful attempts, his general, , conquered

1 See I. Lapidus, “The Conversion of Egypt to Islam,” Oriental Studies 2 (1972): 248–62. 2 See H. Kennedy, “Egypt as a Province in the Islamic Caliphate, 641–868,” 62–85; and T. Bianquis, “Autonomous Egypt from Ibn Ṭūlūn to Kāfūr, 868–969,” 86–119. Both articles can be found in C. F. Petry, ed., The Cambridge History of Egypt: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 3 The Fātimidṣ were one of several Shīʿī groups who argued that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the sole legitimate heir of the Prophet Muḥammad. They also claimed that the headship of the Muslim community should rest with the descendants of ʿAlī and his wife Fātima,̣ the daughter of the Prophet (as their name Fātimidṣ indicates). The Fātimidṣ are often called Ismāʿīlīs , as they traced their own descent through Ismāʿīl, one of the early Shīʿī religious leaders (see P. E. Walker, “The Ismāʿīlī Daʿwa and the Fātimiḍ Caliphate,” in The Cambridge History of Egypt, 120–50). For a recent overview of Fātimiḍ political history see P. E. Walker, Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatimid History and its Sources (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002). 32 chapter three

Egypt in 969 CE and founded a capital just two miles north of Fustāṭ .̣ Four years later, when al-Muʿizz moved his court to Egypt, this city became known as the City of al-Muʿizz’s Victory (al-Qāhira ʾl-Muʿizziyya) or . Cairo remained the capital of the Fātimids;̣ they proved unable to conquer and supplant the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. The Fātimidṣ never did rule a large domain. At its peak, between 975 CE and 1020 CE, their empire reached from Tunisia and Sicily in the West to Ḥ ims ( ) in the East. By the middle of the eleventh century, the Fātimidṣ were losing influence in North Africa , and after the loss of in 1099 CE to the Crusaders, the Fātimidṣ were forced to retreat within Egypt’s borders. In the aftermath of the (1147–1148 CE), they became progressively unable to defend Egypt itself. This being so, the Fātimids’̣ demise in 1171 CE and the deposition of the last Fātimiḍ caliph al-ʿĀḍid by his own vizier Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn b. Ayyūb did not come as a surprise. During the eighty years of Ayyūbid rule (1171–1250 CE), Egypt became a frontier state in the contest between Muslims and Crusad- ers. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn () is best known as the heroic figure who in 1187 CE successfully recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders. On the other hand, he was a successful empire-builder who made Egypt the centre of a rapidly expanding empire. At his death in 1193 CE, the Ayyūbids ruled in Egypt and Syria, part of , the Ḥ ijāz , , and the North African coast as far as Tunisia. Saladin and his Ayyūbid successors were determined to root out the Shīʿī heresy of the Fātimidṣ and turn Egypt into a major centre of Sunnī learning. This proved very successful; by the end of Ayyūbid rule Cairo had already surpassed and Baghdad as the principal centre of Sunnī scholarship in the Islamic world.4 Islamic civilisation in general and Fātimiḍ and Ayyūbid culture in particular were highly urbanised. Yaakov Lev states the following: Cities and city-life embody Islamic medieval civilisation. The cities were the seats of the rulers and their courts, of generals and their armies and of administrators and administration. The civilian elite composed of the

4 See M. Chamberlain, “The Crusader Era and the Ayyūbid ,” in The Cam- bridge History of Egypt, 211–41; M. Barber, The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050– 1320 (New York: Routledge, 1992), 119–40; Y. Lev, Saladin in Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 1999); R. S. Humphreys, “Ayyūbids, Mamlūks, and the Latin East in the Thirteenth Century,” Mamlūk Studies Review 2 (1998): 1–17.