The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Fatimids (909–1171)

An Isma‘ili dynasty that ruled from North Africa and Egypt from 909 to 1171, the Fatimids represented the crowning success of the Isma‘ili movement. The Isma‘ilis had organized a far-flung revolutionary movement in the hope of replacing the Abbasid caliphs with their own imams, descendants of Ja‘far al-Sadiq through his son Isma‘il. The religiopolitical message of the movement, designated as al-da‘wa al-hādiya or “the rightly guiding mission,” was propagated by a network of dā‘īs (missionaries) throughout the Muslim world and achieved particular success in North Africa. Here the dā‘ī Abu ‘Abdallah al-Shi‘i (d. 911) was active among the Kutama Berbers of the lesser Kabylia from 893. Between 903 and 909, he conquered Ifriqiya, in what is now known as eastern Algeria and Tunisia, from the Sunni Aghlabids who ruled it as vassals of the Abbasids. ‘Abdallah al-Mahdi (d. 934), who had succeeded to the central leadership of the Isma‘ili movement in 899, left the secret headquarters of the da‘wa movement in Salamiyya and entered Qayrawan (Kairouan) on January 4, 910, to become the first Fatimid caliph. The new dynasty was designated as such (Fāṭimiyya) because Mahdi and his successors traced their genealogy to the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and her spouse, ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, the first Shi‘i imam.

The early Fatimids did not control any region of the Maghrib beyond Ifriqiya proper for any extended period. Enemies of the Abbasids and the Umayyads of Spain, they also had numerous hostile encounters with the Byzantines in the Mediterranean, having inherited the island of Sicily as successors to the Aghlabids. Their main problem, however, was the rebellious activities of the Khariji Berbers of the Zanata tribal confederation, especially the prolonged revolt of Abu Yazid (943–47), who also capitalized on the hostility of the Sunnis toward their new Shi‘i overlords.

Fatimid rule was firmly established in North Africa only under Mu‘izz li-Din Allah (953–75). This caliph also made detailed plans for the conquest of Egypt, then ruled by the Ikhshidids on behalf of the Abbasids. Jawhar, a long-serving commander of the dynasty, led the Fatimid expedition to Egypt in 969, and with the arrival of Mu‘izz in Cairo in 973, the North African phase of the Fatimid caliphate came to an end.

After the Fatimid conquest, Egypt became a major commercial and cultural center, but the Fatimids’ attempts to advance further east through Syria were checked by a resurgence of Byzantine power, by the armies of the Qarmatians (dissident Isma‘ilis) in Bahrain, and later by the Seljuq Turks. The Fatimids did, however, supplant the Abbasids as protectors of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The Fatimids continued their mission (da‘wa) in Egypt, especially from the time of Mu‘izz, with particular success outside the Fatimid state, especially in Yemen, Iraq, Persia, and Central Asia. In Egypt, the population continued to adhere mainly to Sunni Islam, insofar as it was not Christian. The Fatimids paid great attention to the education of their dā‘īs and ordinary Isma‘ilis, founding a number of distinctive traditions as well as institutions of learning in Cairo. The movement underwent several splits, however. In the reign of Hakim bi-Amr Allah (996–1021), some dā‘īs preached extremist ideas leading to the formation of the Druze community. On the death of Mustansir bi-llah in 1094, the Isma‘ilis divided into the Musta‘li and Nizari factions, named after two of Mustansir’s sons who claimed his heritage. The Musta‘li Isma‘ilis of Egypt and elsewhere acknowledged the caliph Musta‘li (1094–1101) and the later Fatimid caliphs as their imams, while the Nizari Isma‘ilis of Persia and Syria recognized a different line of imams held to descend from Nizar b. al-Mustansir (d. 1095), the original heir-designate of Mustansir. By 1132, in the aftermath of Amir bi-Ahkam Allah’s assassination and the irregular succession of his cousin Hafiz, the Musta‘li Isma‘ilis themselves split into Hafizi and Tayyibi branches. Only the Hafizis, concentrated mainly in Fatimid Egypt, recognized Hafiz and his successors in the Fatimid dynasty as their imams.

The political decline of the Fatimid caliphate began during the long reign of Mustansir, who was eventually obliged to turn to the Armenian general Badr al-Jamali for help. In 1074, Badr arrived in Cairo with his Armenian troops, eventually to acquire all the highest positions of the Fatimid state. Henceforth, military men appointed as viziers, rather than the Fatimid caliphs themselves, exercised effective power in the state. Salah al-Din (Saladin) ended Fatimid rule on September 10, 1171, when he had the sermon at the Friday public prayers (khuṭba) read in Cairo in the name of the Abbasid caliph. A few days later, ‘Adid, the 14th and last of the Fatimid caliphs, died while the new Ayyubid masters of Egypt had begun their systematic persecution of the Isma‘ilis there.