Al-Fa'iz bi-Nasr Allah

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Abū'l-Qāsim ʿĪsā ibn al-Ẓāfir (Arabic: أبو القاسم عيسى بن الظافر; 1149–1160), better known by his regnal name al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh (الفائز بنصر الله), was the thirteenth and penultimate Fatimid caliph, reigning in Egypt from 1154 to 1160, and the 24th imam of the Hafizi Ismaili sect.

Life[]

Al-Fa'iz was raised to the throne as a five-year old child in April 1154, following the killing of his father al-Zafir and two of his uncles by the vizier, , and his son, Nasr.^[1][2] The bloody events soon resulted in Abbas' own downfall, as the terrified women of the Fatimid family called upon the Armenian-born governor of Asyut, Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, for assistance,^[1] reportedly sending their own cut hair in supplication.^[2] Ibn Ruzzik readily agreed and marched on Cairo. Abbas tried to resist, but faced general opposition, so that he had to force his way out of the capital, and tried to flee with his son and followers to Syria. The party were intercepted by the Crusaders near the Dead Sea. Abbas was killed, and Nasr was sold to the Fatimids; he was mutilated and killed by being beaten to death by the palace women.^[2]

The underage al-Fa'iz was placed under the tutelage of his aunts, headed by al-Zafir's sister Sitt al-Qusur ('Lady of the Palaces'), who had played a leading role in securing revenge against Abbas and Nasr for the murder of her brothers.^[3][2] Outside the walls of the Great Fatimid Palaces, however, Ibn Ruzzik was the actual ruler of the state, and al-Fa'iz was virtually his prisoner.^[1] A Twelver Shi'ite, he actively sponsored the Alid ashraf in the Hijaz and Iraq, but he made no attempt to depose the dynasty, instead ruling on its behalf as a de facto king in the style of the all-powerful and illustrious Armenian viziers Badr al-Jamali and al-Afdal Shahanshah, whom he attempted to emulate.^[4] Seeking legitimacy, Tala'i ibn Ruzzik returned to an aggressive policy against the Crusaders in Palestine. He scored some successes with a naval attack on Tyre in 1155 and at Gaza and Hebron in 1158, but his efforts to secure Egypt through an alliance with the Zengids of Syria under Nur al-Din Zangi failed.^[1][5] When Baldwin III of Jerusalem prepared an invasion of Egypt in 1160, he had to be bought off.^[5] Ibn Ruzzik's reputation as a holy warrior, a poet, and a patron of culture was counterbalanced by his despotic rule, resorting to confiscations to address the by now chronic shortfalls of revenue, exacerbated by the active pursuit of the war against the Crusaders.^[6]

Al-Fa'iz died during an epileptic seizure in July 1160,^[1] and was succeeded by his nine-year-old cousin al-Adid, who was to be the last Fatimid caliph.^[7]

See also[]

• List of rulers of Egypt

References[]

Sources[]

• Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4076-8.
• Cortese, Delia; Calderini, Simonetta (2006). Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1733-7.
• Daftary, Farhad (2007). The Ismāʿı̄lı̄s: Their History and Doctrines (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2.
• Halm, Heinz (2014). Kalifen und Assassinen: Ägypten und der vordere Orient zur Zeit der ersten Kreuzzüge, 1074–1171 [Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades, 1074–1171] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-66163-1.