XIV THE TENTH FATIMID KHALIF, AL-AMIR

(A.H. 495-524 = 1101-1131 A.D.)

At Mustali’s death al-Afdal at once proclaimed Abu ʿAli al-Mansur al-Amir bi-ahkami-llah (“the ruler by the decrees of God”), then only in his fifth year, as Khalif, retaining the government in his own hands as had now become the established custom at the Fatimid court. Al-Afdal was an able and efficient ruler, whilst the young Khalif was of the type so common in oriental courts, a mere votary of pleasure and an idler. The wazir restrained the indulgence of his tastes and kept him closely confined in the palace. Al-Amir does not seem to have been at all aggrieved at being excluded from the government, but he certainly chafed at the restrictions which the wazir considered suitable to apply to his pleasures.

The centre of interest still lies in the Crusaders who had now established a firm hold in Palestine and were threatening Egypt. In 497 they took possession of Akka (Acre), and this increased the anxiety felt in the Fatimid court. In the same year al-Afdal sent his son in command of an army to Palestine, and he was successful in inflicting a severe defeat on the Franks: many were put to flight, and Baldwin, who had succeeded Godfrey as king of Jerusalem, was compelled to hide in a haystack. The Egyptians then advanced and took Ramla and, after slaying a large number of the vanquished, sent three hundred knights prisoners to Egypt. Later in the year both sides were reinforced, the Egyptians receiving an accession of four thousand cavalry as well as the support of a fleet, but no decisive step was taken and no progress made on either side. At this time nearly all Palestine was in the hands of the Franks save the coast towns, and the struggle centered round Ramla. The Fatimids had the advantage of an alliance with Tughtegin, the Saljuq governor of Damascus, for the Turks had at last perceived that it was necessary for all Muslim powers to unite against those who had proved to be a common enemy. A battle took place between Ascalon and Jaffa, but without any important result.

Nothing of marked importance took place during the next three years, but in 502 the Franks succeeded in taking the important coast town of Tripolis on Monday, the 11th of Dhu l-Hijja. When they entered the town they plundered and slaughtered indiscriminately and seized many of the inhabitants for slaves; they destroyed the library of the college and tortured their prisoners in a barbarous manner. The Egyptian wazir had sent an army to the relief of the town, but it arrived too late to be of any service.

After the fall of Tripolis the Muslim forces centered at Tyre. In the following year (503) the Franks took Bairut, and in the year after Sidon, so that the Fatimid possessions were reduced to a precarious hold on Ramla.

Thus affairs stayed for some six years, then in 511 Baldwin attempted the invasion of Egypt. He took Farama, burning the mosques, houses, and suburbs, and then advanced to Tinnis. Near this town he was taken ill, and shortly afterwards died at al-Arish. At his death the projected invasion was abandoned and the Frankish army retired, bearing with it the king of Jerusalem’s body which was ultimately buried in the Church of the Resurrection.

Egypt had practically lost all hold upon Palestine, but yet the threatening horde of Franks was held off from Egypt itself, and this check was in no small degree creditable to the wazir al-Afdal, who meanwhile maintained a firm though not absolutely pure government at home. But gradually the Khalif became more and more restive under the severe tutelage of his wazir, and always there were intrigues of the aggrieved and the ambitious to urge him on, as well as the ever present influence of the harim which, in almost all oriental countries, is the centre of intrigues against the established powers. In 515 the Khalif began to plot definitely against his wazir, and one day as al-Afdal rode out towards the Nile he was attacked and severely wounded, so that he was carried home to die. The Khalif visited him on his death-bed and expressed great sympathy and regret for the accident which had befallen him, an accident whose real nature was perfectly well known to both: as soon as the wazir breathed his last the Khalif commenced plundering his house which was the depository of enormous wealth, and this occupied him forty days (Ibn Khall. i. 614, cf. Jamal ad-Din).

After al-Afdal’s death al-Amir appointed Muhammad b. Abi Shujaa b. al-Bataihi al-Maʾmun as wazir. This new officer was a capable financier but harsh and tyrannical, and restrained the Khalif more rigorously than his predecessor had done. He was the builder of the “grey mosque” (Jamiʿ al-Akmar), so called from its being one of the earliest buildings in which stone was used almost exclusively, and completed the “Mosque of the Elephant” (Jamiʿ al-Fil) which had been commenced by al-Afdal in 498. He held office until 518 when he was arrested and his property confiscated. Three years later, in 521, he and five of his brothers, as well as the pretender who claimed to be Nizar’s son, were put to death.

After the fall of Ibn al-Bataihi the Khalif determined to act as his own wazir, and in this was assisted by the Christian monk Abu Najah b. Kanna, who undertook the department of finance. The monk’s method was to farm out the taxes to Christian collectors for a net sum of 100,000 dinars, which he paid in to the treasury. But Abu Najah made himself extremely offensive by his arrogant airs and by being the scape-goat of the harsh exactions of the collectors, the inevitable result of this system, and after a brief try the Khalif was persuaded to depose him, and he was flogged to death. Al-Amir continued, however, to act as his own wazir until his death in 524, and this made his office universally detested and justifies the custom of appointing a wazir or deputy on whom the odium of the harsher details of the executive should lie, and against whom there might be, at least in theory, an appeal to the throne. Indeed, during these years 519 to 524 the Khalif seems to have been more heartily hated than any other of his dynasty before or after. At length the end came in 524 by the hands of Ismaʿilian Assassins who had undertaken the duty of ridding the country of the tyrant. On Tuesday, the 3rd of Dhu l-Qaʿdah, the Khalif proceeded to Fustat and thence to the island of Roda, where he had built a pleasure house for a favourite Baidawi concubine. “Some persons who had plotted his death were lying there concealed with their arms ready; it being agreed among them that they should kill him as he was going up the lane through which he had to pass in order to reach the top of the hill. As he was going by them, they sprang out and fell upon him with their swords. He had then crossed the bridge and had no other escort than a few pages, courtiers, and attendants. They bore him in a boat across the Nile, and brought him still living into Cairo. The same night he was taken to the castle and there he died, leaving no posterity ... al-Amir’s conduct was detestable: oppressed the people, seized on their wealth and shed their blood: he committed with pleasure every excess which should be avoided, and regarded forbidden enjoyment as the sweetest. The people were delighted at his death” (Ibn Khall. ii. 457).

During the latter part of al-Amir’s reign the Franks continued to consolidate their kingdom in Palestine. On Monday, the 22nd of Jumada II. 518, they took Tyre, and only Ascalon remained to the Fatimids of their former possessions in Asia. About this time the Franks began to strike their own coinage, after issuing coins in the name of the Fatimid Khalif for three years.