Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Tāriqu l-Ḥākim, called bi Amr al-Lāh (Arabic الحاكم بأمر الله "Ruler by God's Command"), was the sixth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, ruling from 996 to 1021.
Born in Egypt in 985, Ḥākim succeeded his father Abū Mansūr Nizār al-ʿAzīz in 996 at the age of eleven. Because it had been unclear whether he would inherit his father's position, this successful transfer of power was a demonstration of the stability of the Fatimid dynasty. In his long reign as Khalīfa, Ḥākim extended Fatimid rule to the emirate of Aleppo.
Political rivalries and movements
Ḥākim's most rigorous and consistent opponent was the Abbāsid Caliphate in Baghdad, which sought to halt the influence of Ismailism. This competition led to the Baghdad Manifesto of 1011, in which the Abbāsids claimed that the line Ḥākim represented did not legitimately descend from ʿAlī.
Ḥākim also struggled with the Qarmatiyya rulers of Bahrain, an island in the Persian Gulf. His diplomatic and missionary vehicle was the Ismā'īlī daʿwa, with its organizational power center in Cairo.
Ḥākim's reign was characterized by a general unrest. The Fatimid army was troubled by a rivalry between two opposing factions, the Turks and the Berbers. Tension grew between the caliph and his viziers (called wasītas), and near the end of his reign the Druze movement, a religious sect centered around Ḥākim, began to form. It was the Druze who first referred to Ḥākim as "Ruler by God's Command".
In 1004 Al-Ḥākim founded the Dar Al-Hekma "House of Knowledge", with its great public library; there philosophy and astronomy were taught in addition to purely Islamic studies of the Qurʾān and ahādīth. In 1013 he completed the mosque in Cairo begun by his father, the Masjid al-Ḥākim "Ḥākim's Mosque" whose official name is "Jame-ul-Anwar". The mosque fell to ruins and was restored to its former glory some twenty years ago by Sultan-al-Bohra, His Holiness, Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, after much research and expense.
Foreign affairs
Imam Ḥākim upheld diplomatic relations between the Fatimid Empire and many different countries. Skillful diplomacy was needed in establishing a friendly if not neutral basis of relations with the Byzantine Empire, which had expansionary goals in the early 11th century. Perhaps the farthest reaching diplomatic mission of Ḥākim's was to Song Dynasty era China.[1] The Fatimid Egyptian sea captain known as Domiyat traveled to a Buddhist site of pilgrimage in Shandong in the year 1008 AD.[1] It was on this mission that he sought to present to the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong of Song gifts from his ruling Caliph Al-Ḥākim.[1] This reestablished diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost during the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in 907.[1]
Eccentric behavior
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Al-Ḥākim issued a series of seemingly arbitrary laws, including the prohibition of Mulūkhiyya, a characteristic Egyptian dish, grape eating, watercress eating as well as the prohibition of chess. He forbade the fisherman from catching any fish that had no scales and forbade people from selling or eating such fish.
In 1005, he ordered the killing of all the dogs in Egypt and discarded them in the desert. Also, he forced the inhabitants of Cairo to work at night and sleep at morning, and whoever caught violating his orders was punished severely. In 1014, he ordered women not to go out at all, and ordered the shoemakers not to make any women's shoes. He killed his tutor Abul Qasim Said ibn Said al-Fariqi and the great majority of his viziers. Some of them served as physicians as well. Al-Ḥākim also killed many other officials, highranking as well as lowly ones. These include viziers, judges, poets, physicians, bathhouse keepers, cooks, cousin, soldiers, Jews, Christians, intelligence gatherers, and even cut the hands of female slaves in his palace. In some cases, he did the killing himself. In 1009, he destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, then under Fatimid control. The church was later rebuilt by his successor with help from the Byzantine Empire. He made Christians and Jews wear a black hat. He made the Christians wear wooden crosses, half a meter long by half a meter wide, around their necks. The Jews were ordered to wear a wooden calf hanging around the neck, so as to remind them of the sin of the golden calf. Although Christians were not allowed to buy slaves, male or female, and had few other privileges, they were allowed to ride horses on the condition that they ride with wooden saddles and unornamented girths. Towards the end of his reign he became increasingly erratic and feared by his officials, soldiers and subjects alike. Muslim and Christian dignitaries alike went to his palace kissing the ground, and stood at the palace gates asking him for forgiveness, and not to listen to any rumors that were spreading. Then they raised a petition to al-Hakim and he forgave them.
Death and succession
Al-Ḥākim disappeared in 1021 on a trip on his donkey to the Muqattam Hills without any guards. The donkey was later found near a well covered with blood. It is believed that his sister Sitt al-Mulk hired assassins to kill him because of a dispute between them. The dispute started when his sister asked him to stop what he was doing, because he risked the continuity of their dynasty. In return, he accused his sister of adultery and then she decided to act first before he punished her. Although he presumably died, the Druze believe he had been hidden away by God and will return as the Mahdi on Judgement Day.
Al-Ḥākim was succeeded by his young son Ali az-Zahir under the regency of his sister Sitt al-Mulk.
See also
Notes
References
- Shen, Fuwei (1996). Cultural flow between China and the outside world. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 7-119-00431-X.
External links
- Al-Hakim
- Institute of Ismaili Studies: al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allah.
- Al-Hakim bi Amr Allah
| Preceded by al-Aziz |
Fatimid Caliph 996–1021 |
Succeeded by Ali az-Zahir |
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