XVI THE TWELFTH FATIMID KHALIF, AZ-ZAFIR

(A.H. 543-549 = A.D. 1149-1154)

At the death of Hafiz in October, 1149, i.e., A.H. 543, his youngest son Abu Mansur Ismaʿil az-Zafir li-ʾAdai dini-llah (“the conqueror of the enemies of God’s religion”) was proclaimed Khalif in accordance with the late sovereign’s orders. The new Khalif was then only sixteen years of age, frivolous in his tastes, and much given to the society of concubines and to listening to vocal music. One of his first acts was to select Najm ad-Din b. Masal as his chief minister, thus displacing the Emir Sayf ad-Din Abu l-Hasan ʿAli as-Sallar, whom he sent to a provincial administration. This new minister Ibn Masal was a native of Lukk, near Barqa, where he and his father had been horse breakers and falconers.

But Ibn Sallar was not disposed to take his deposition from office tamely, and soon assembled a band of armed supporters to help him to recover the wazirate. When the news of this revolt was brought to Cairo the Khalif assembled a council of all the emirs of the state and discussed with them the measures necessary to be taken. All professed unqualified loyalty to the Khalif’s nominee Ibn Masal, until a certain aged emir proposed that, if this profession represented their real attitude, they should join in passing a decree of death against the ex-wazir Ibn Sallar. This they unanimously refused to do. “Very well,” said the old emir, “then act accordingly.” At this the council broke up, all the emirs leaving the city and joining themselves to the party of Ibn as-Sallar. The Khalif gave large sums of money to his nominee Ibn Masal, but it was impossible to raise any supporters in Cairo. Meanwhile Ibn as-Sallar was gathering his forces at Alexandria and advanced along the left side of the Nile until he reached Giza on the 14th of Ramadan, 544, and the following day entered Cairo without meeting with any resistance and established himself in the official residence of the wazir, taking over the control of the affairs of state. At Ibn as-Sallar’s advance Ibn Masal fled, having held office only fifty days, and went to the Hawf east of the capital where, with the help of the funds supplied by the Khalif, he raised a force of supporters. As soon as he was firmly established in Cairo Ibn as-Sallar went out to deal with his rival, but Ibn Masal evaded him and took refuge in Upper Egypt whither Ibn as-Sallar followed him. A pitched battle took place at Dilas, south of Wasta, in which Ibn Masal was killed, his forces scattered, and his head cut off to be carried to Cairo as a trophy. Thus Ibn as-Sallar was left without rival, and the Khalif was compelled most reluctantly to recognise him as wazir. Naturally the young sovereign had no love towards such a minister, and almost immediately began to make plots to rid himself of him.

Although wazir under a Fatimid Khalif, Ibn as-Sallar was strictly orthodox and gave the whole of his patronage to orthodox teachers of the Shafiʿite school. This position in Alexandria gained him many adherents, and their attachment was still more secured by his foundation of a Shafiʿite college there. He continued the same attitude after his assumption of office at Cairo, so that he was regarded by the people of Egypt as an orthodox champion against the heretical Khalifate. By nature he was cruel and vindictive. An anecdote is related of him that when he was in the army in the days before he held office he had to apply to Ibn Masum, the Secretary of War, for help to defray extraordinary expenses incurred by him in the administration of the province of Gharbiya, as the result of which he found himself heavily in debt. The Secretary only replied: “By God, thy discourse entereth not my ear,” and Ibn as-Sallar left his presence full of indignation. Long afterwards, when he had risen to a high position, he made search for Ibn Masum, who hid himself fearing retaliation from the one whom he had treated contemptuously as a petitioner. At last the Secretary was found and brought before the wazir who had him lain on a board and a nail driven through his ear, Ibn as-Sallar asking him at each cry he uttered, “Doth my discourse yet enter thy ear or not?” (Ibn Khall. ii. 351).

In the plots against the wazir, az-Zafir’s chief confidant was a young man of his own age, Nasir ad-Din Nasir, the son of the general ʿAbbas who, next to the wazir, was the most powerful man in Egypt. About this time ʿAbbas was setting out with an army against the Franks taking with him his son Nasir. For a moment we must pause to consider the position of this son, the favourite of the young Khalif. Many years before, in 503 Bullara, the wife of Abu l-Futuh had come to Egypt with a child ʿAbbas. Some time afterwards the wazir as-Sallar married her, and in due course his step-son ʿAbbas grew up and became a general in the Egyptian army, and had a son, Nasir, who was brought up by his grand-mother in the house of Ibn as-Sallar. Now this youth went with the army which Ibn as-Sallar was sending against the Franks in the company of his father and the Syrian Osama. At Bilbays, on the point of quitting the land of Egypt, ʿAbbas can only talk about the delightful climate of Egypt, its many beauties, and regret that he is being exiled to the comparatively unattractive land of Syria. But Osama interrupted his discourse and asked him why, if he liked Egypt so much, did he not get rid of the wazir Ibn as-Sallar and take the wazirship himself, then he would be settled in Egypt permanently. ʿAbbas gave serious attention to these proposals and brought in his son Nasir, and the project was discussed by the three, the father ʿAbbas presumably being well aware of his son’s plotting with the Khalif against the wazir who had sheltered that son in his home and was the husband of his grand-mother. It was finally agreed that Nasir should go back to Cairo and murder the wazir. He, as an inmate of the house, would be the best able to get into his presence and do the deed without premature discovery. So the army remained at Bilbays and Nasir returned. The wazir’s house was guarded, but Nasir was well aware of the minister’s habits and went direct to the harim which was in a detached building. He had brought a small body of men with him, and together they went through the grounds to the harim, where Nasir found the wazir asleep and murdered him. As soon as the guards learned what had happened they broke out in disorder and began to search for the assassins, but Nasir and his men had made good their escape, and the household guards seem to have lacked any one to direct their plans, now the master was dead. This murder took place on the 6th of Muharram, 548.

As soon as the news was brought to ʿAbbas he returned with his forces to Cairo where he soon restored order, and was without delay invested with the office of wazir. The change does not seem to have aroused any other feelings than relief amongst the people at large, for Ibn as-Sallar had been a harsh and cruel ruler, and many had suffered for suspected partisanship with the defeated Ibn Masal. Early in his period of office he had suppressed the Khalif’s bodyguard of young men, and put most of them to death, and this had been the inauguration of an almost constant series of executions.

Thus ʿAbbas was made wazir, but this appointment resulted in the Khalif’s own assassination within the next few months. In the circumstances which led to this it is clear that the chief factor was a close friendship between the Khalif and the wazir’s son Nasir, and with this was the evil influence of Osama. It is said that the Khalif made overtures to Nasir to slay his father ʿAbbas, presumably intending to make the son wazir in his place; but the details of this are obscure and seem to be very much open to question. It is, however, clear that Osama took a leading part in stirring up the feelings of ʿAbbas and his son and inducing them to proceed to this murder, and it is he who definitely states that the Khalif had made overtures to Nasir to assassinate his father, and it seems likely that he says this to excuse his own bad advice.

Both the Khalif and Nasir were of exceptional beauty, of about the same age, and living in close intimacy,—so close as to provoke the scandalous comments of censorious tongues. It seems that Osama was the first to draw attention to these evil rumours. The Khalif had presented Nasir with the fief of Qaliub immediately north of Cairo, and in the presence of his father and Osama Nasir announced this in the words, “Our master has given me the province of Qaliub”: at which Osama remarked, “That is not splendid as a wedding gift.” This remark sounded offensive to ʿAbbas and his son, and in consequence they decided to slay the Khalif. Osama gives the further account that Ibn Munqidh said to ʿAbbas: “How can you endure the evil reports I hear about your son?” “What are they?” asked ʿAbbas. Osama then interposed: “People say that az-Zafir has commerce with thy son and suspect the Khalif of doing with him what one does with women.” ʿAbbas was aroused and asked indignantly, “But what can I do?” Ibn Munqidh replied, “Assassinate the Khalif, then the dishonour will be purged from thee.” Ibn Khallikan (i. 222), in his life of az-Zafir, states that ʿAbbas said to his son, “You are ruining your reputation by keeping company with az-Zafir; your familiarity with him is the subject of public talk; kill him then, for it is thus that thou wilt vindicate thy honour from these foul suspicions.”

When Nasir had made up his mind to the murder he invited the Khalif to visit him in his house in the Armourers’ Market, and there he concealed a band of confederates. On Thursday, the last day of Muharram, 549 (15th April, 1154), the Khalif went privately with a single black slave to Nasir’s house and there the conspirators fell upon him, slew him, and buried his body beneath the floor of the room; according to Osama they slew the black slave at the same time, but this does not seem to have been the case as we find the slave afterwards showing the place where the body was buried. The same night Nasir went to his father and informed him of what he had done.

Next morning ʿAbbas went to the palace and asked for the Khalif with whom, he said, he had important business. The household slaves went in search of him but could not find him either in his own rooms or in the harim, and brought the wazir word that they were unable to find where he was. At this ʿAbbas, who had remained at the palace gate, dismounted and went into the palace with a band of trusty followers and asked for the Khalif’s two brothers, Jibrila and Yusuf, who were soon brought. According to one account he bade one or the other then assume the Khalifate as the state could not go on without a head, but they declined. “For,” they said, “we have no share in the government, az-Zafir’s father disinherited us when he passed it to az-Zafir: after him it is to his son that the authority belongs” (Osama, op. cit.). According to the much more likely account given by Ibn Khallikan ʿAbbas asked the two brothers where az-Zafir was, and they replied that he ought rather to ask his son, thus making it clear that they knew whither he had gone the night before. At once he declared, “These two are his murderers,” and at his command they were beheaded. ʿAbbas then sent for the late Khalif’s son al-Faʿiz, then aged five (or two) years, set him on his shoulder and sent for the emirs. As soon as they had assembled he said, “Here is the son of your master: his uncles have murdered his father, and I put them to death as you may perceive. What is essential now is, that the authority of this infant should be fully recognised.” The emirs reply, “We hear and obey.” They then gave a great shout which so troubled the infant on the wazir’s shoulder that he was ever afterwards subject to fits of trembling (Ibn Khall. ii. 425-6). ʿAbbas then took charge of the government, but subsequent events rather belong to the reign of al-Faʿiz.

Az-Zafir was only twenty-two years of age at his death. His tastes had been frivolous, and it would not seem that there was much reason to regret him, but the circumstances of his murder and the general detestation of ʿAbbas threw round his memory a halo of loyalty. He was the founder of a mosque known as the az-Zafiri mosque, near the Bab Zawila.