S. Rappoport - History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12)

S >> S. Rappoport >> History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12)

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Leaving Mosul, the caliph proceeded to Rakkah, and there was invited by
Turun to return to Baghdad. Seeing that his adherents, the Hamdanites,
were greatly discouraged by their recent reverses, Muttaki resolved to
accept the offer. When Muhammed el-Ikshid heard this, he hastened to
Rakkah and offered the caliph refuge in Egypt. But the caliph refused,
agreeing, however, as Muhammed el-Ikshid promised to supply him with the
necessary funds, not to return to Baghdad and place himself in the power
of Turun. In spite of his promise, when Turun, fearing that the caliph
had found powerful friends, came to him, and, casting himself before
Muttaki, paid him all the homage due to an Islam sovereign, he allowed
himself to be overruled, and accompanied Turun back to Baghdad. Hardly
had the unfortunate caliph set foot in his capital when he was murdered,
after reigning four years and eleven months. Turun now proclaimed
Abd Allah Abu'l Kasim, son of Muttaki, caliph, who, after a short and
uneventful reign, was succeeded by his uncle, Abu'l Kasim el-Fadhl,
who was the last of the Abbasid caliphs whom Egypt acknowledged as
suzerains.

After Muttaki's return to Baghdad, Muhammed el-Ikshid remained for some
time in Damascus, and then set out for Egypt. His return was signalised
by the war with Saif ed-Dowlah, Prince of Hamdan. The campaign was of
varying success: After a disastrous battle, in which the Egyptians lost
four thousand men as prisoners, Muhammed el-Ikshid left Egypt with
a numerous army and arrived at Maarrah. Saif ed-Dowlah determined to
decide the war with one desperate effort, and first secured the
safety of his treasure, his baggage, and his harem by sending them to
Mesopotamia. Then he marched upon el-Ikshid, who had taken his position
at Kinesrin.

Muhammed divided his forces into two corps, placing in the vanguard all
those who carried lances; he himself was in the rear with ten thousand
picked men. Saif ed-Dowlah charged the vanguard and routed it, but the
rear stood firm; this resistance saved el-Ikshid from total defeat. The
two armies separated after a somewhat indecisive engagement, and
Saif ed-Dowlah, who could claim no advantage save the capture of his
adversaries' baggage, went on to Maubej, where he destroyed the bridge,
and, entering Mesopotamia, proceeded towards Rakkah; but Muhammed
el-Ikshid was already stationed there, and the hostile armies, separated
only by the Euphrates, faced one another for several days.

Negotiations were then opened, and peace was concluded. The conditions
were that Hemessa, Aleppo, and Mesopotamia should belong to Saif
ed-Dowlah, and all the country from Hemessa to the frontiers of Egypt
remain in the possession of Muhammed el-Ikshid. A trench was dug between
Djouchna and Lebouah, in those places where there were no natural
boundaries, to mark the separation of the two states. To ratify this
solemn peace, Saif ed-Dowlah married the daughter of Muhammed el-Ikshid;
then each prince returned to his own province. The treaty was, however,
almost immediately set aside by the Hamdanites, and el-Ikshid, forced to
retrace his steps, defeated them in several engagements and seized the
town of Aleppo.

Thus we see that the year 334 of the Hegira (a. d. 946) was full
of important events, to which was soon added the death of Muhammed
el-Ikshid. He died at Damascus, in the last month of the year
(Dhu'l-Kada), aged sixty, and had reigned eleven years, three months,
and two days. He was buried at Jerusalem. Muhammed el-Ikshid was a man
possessing many excellent talents, and chiefly renowned as an admirable
soldier. Brave, without being rash, quick to calculate his chances, he
was able always to seize the advantage. On the other hand, however,
he was so distrustful and timid in the privacy of his palace that he
organised a guard of eight thousand armed slaves, one thousand of
whom kept constant watch. He never spent the entire night in the same
apartment or tent, and no one was ever permitted to know the place where
he slept.

We are told that this prince could muster four hundred thousand men;
although historians do not definitely specify the boundaries of his
empire, which, of course, varied from time to time, we may nevertheless
believe that his kingdom, as that of his predecessors, the Tulunites,
extended over Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, as far as the
Euphrates, and even included a large portion of Arabia. The Christians
of the East charge him with supporting his immense army at their
expense, and persecuting and taxing them to such an extent that they
were forced to sell many possessions belonging to their Church before
they could pay the required sums.

But, if we may credit a contemporary historian more worthy of belief,
these expenses were covered by the treasure Muhammed el-Ikshid himself
discovered. In fact, el-Massudi, who died at Cairo in the year 346 of
the Hegira, relates that el-Ikshid, knowing much treasure to be buried
there, was greatly interested in the excavation of the subterraneous
tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings. "The prince" he adds, "was
fortunate enough to come across a portion of those tombs, consisting of
vast rooms magnificently decorated. There he found marvellously wrought
figures of old and young men, women, and children, having eyes of
precious stones and faces of gold and silver."

Muhammed el-Ikshid was succeeded by his son, Abu'l Kasim Muhammed,
surnamed Ungur. The prince being only an infant, Kafur, the favourite
minister of the late caliph, was appointed regent. This Kafur was a
black slave purchased by el-Ikshid for the trifling sum of twenty pieces
of gold. He was intelligent, zealous, and faithful, and soon won the
confidence of his master. Nobility of race in the East appertains only
to the descendants of the Prophet, but merit, which may be found in
prince and subject alike, often secures the highest positions, and even
the throne itself for those of the humblest origin. Such was the fate
of Kafur. He showed taste for the sciences, and encouraged scholars;
he loaded the poets with benefits, and they sang his praises without
measure so long as he continued his favours, but satirised him with
equal vigour as soon as his munificence diminished. Invested with
supreme authority, Kafur served the young prince with a devotion and
fidelity worthy of the highest praise. His first step was to dismiss Abu
Bekr Muhammed, the receiver of the Egyptian tributes, against whom he
had received well-merited complaints. In his place he appointed a native
of Mardin, also called Muhammed, of whose honesty and kindliness he was
well aware. He then took his pupil to Egypt, which country they reached
in the month of Safar in the year 335 of the Hegira.

Saif ed-Dowlah, hearing of the death of Muhammed el-Ikshid, and the
departure of Ungur, deemed this a favourable opportunity to despoil his
brother-in-law; he therefore marched upon Damascus, which he captured;
but the faithful Kafur promptly arrived upon the scene with a powerful
army, and, routing Saif ed-Dowlah, who had advanced as far as Ramleh,
drove him back to Rakkah, and relieved Damascus. The remainder of the
reign of Ungur passed peacefully, thanks to the watchfulness and wise
government of Kafur.

In the year 345 of the Hegira, the King of Nubia invaded the Egyptian
territories, advancing to Syene, which he pillaged and laid waste.
Kafur at once despatched his forces overland and along the Nile, and
simultaneously ordered a detachment embarking from the Red Sea to
proceed along the southern coast, attack the enemy in the rear and
completely cut off their retreat. The Nubians, thus surprised on all
sides, were defeated and forced to retreat, leaving the fortress of Rym,
now known as Ibrim, and situated fifty miles from Syene, in the hands of
the Egyptians. No other events of note took place during the lifetime of
Ungur, who, having reigned fourteen years and ten days, died in the year
349 of the Hegira, leaving his brother Ali, surnamed Abu'l-Hasan, as his
successor.

[Illustration: 371.jpg MOSQUE TOMB NEAR SYENE]

The reign of Abu'l-Hasan Ali, the second son of Muhammed el-Ikshid,
lasted but five years. His name, as that of his brother Ungur (Abu
Hurr), is but little known in history. Kafur was also regent during the
reign of Abu'l-Hasan Ali.

In the year 352 of the Hegira, Egypt was stricken with a disastrous
famine. The rise of the Nile, which the previous year had been but
fifteen cubits, was this year even less, and suddenly the waters fell
without irrigating the country. Egypt and the dependent provinces were
thus afflicted for nine consecutive years. During this time, whilst
the people were agitated by fear for the future, a rupture took place
between Abu'l-Hasan Ali and Kafur. This internal disturbance was soon
followed by war; and in the year 354 the Greeks of Constantinople,
led by the Emperor Nicepherous Phocas, advanced into Syria. They took
Aleppo, then in the possession of the Hamdanites, and, encountering
Saif ed-Dowlah, overthrew him also. The governor of Damascus, Dalim
el-Ukazly, and ten thousand men came to the rescue of the Hamdanites,
but Phocas beat a retreat on hearing of his approach.

Abu'l-Hasan Ali died in the year 355 of the Hegira. The regent
Kafur then ascended the throne, assuming the surname el-Ikshid. He
acknowledged the paramount authority of the Abbasid caliph, Muti, and
that potentate recognised his supreme power in the kingdom of Egypt.
During the reign of Kafur, which only lasted two years and four months,
the greater portion of Said was seized by the Fatimites, already
masters of Fayum and Alexandria, and the conquerors were on the point of
encroaching still farther, when Kafur died in the year 357 a.h. Ahmed,
surnamed Abu'l Fawaris, the son of Abu'l-Hasan Ali, and consequently
grandson of Mu-hammed el-Ikshid, succeeded Kafur.

The prince was only eleven years old, and therefore incapable of
properly controlling Egypt, Syria, and his other domains. Husain, one
of his relatives, invaded Syria, but in his turn driven back by the
Karmates, returned to Egypt and strove to depose Ahmed. These divisions
in the reigning family severed the ties which united the provinces of
the Egyptian kingdom. To terminate the disturbances, the emirs resolved
to seek the protection of the Fatimites. The latter, anxious to secure
the long-coveted prize, gladly rendered assistance, and Husain was
forced to return to Syria, where he took possession of Damascus, and the
unfortunate Ahmed lost the throne of Egypt.

With him perished the Ikshid dynasty, which, more ephemeral even than
that of the Tulunid, flourished only thirty-four years and twenty-four
days.

The period upon which this history is now about to enter is of more than
usual interest, for it leads immediately to the centuries during which
the Arabic forces came into contact with the forces of Western Europe.
The town and the coast of Mauritania were then ruled by the Fatimites,
a dynasty independent of the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. The Fatimites
belonged to the tribes of Koramah, who dwelt in the mountains situated
near the town of Fez in the extreme west of Africa. In the year 269 of
the Hegira, they began to extend their sway in the western regions of
Africa, pursuing their conquests farther east. The Fatimite caliph Obaid
Allah and his son Abu'l Kasim cherished designs not only upon Egypt,
but even aimed at the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate, these plans
being so far successful as to leave the Fatimites in secure possession
of Alexandria, and more or less in power in Fayum.

The Fatimite caliphs had lofty and pretentious claims to the allegiance
of the Moslem world. They traced their descent from Fatima, a daughter
of the Prophet, whom Muhammed himself regarded as one of the four
perfect women. At the age of fifteen she married Ali, of whom she was
the only wife, and the partisans of Ali, as we have seen, disputed with
Omar the right to the leadership of Islam upon the Prophet's death.
Critics are not wanting who dispute the family origin of Obaid Allah,
but his claim appears to have been unhesitatingly admitted by his own
immediate followers. The Fatimite successes in the Mediterranean gave
them a substantial basis of political power, and doubtless this outward
and material success was more important to them than their claim to both
a physical and mythical descent from the founder of their religion.

Some accounts trace the descent of Obaid from Abd Allah ibn Maimun
el-Kaddah, the founder of the Ismailian sect, of which the Carmathians
were a branch. The Ismailians may be best regarded as one of the several
sects of Shiites, who originally were simply the partisans of Ali
against Omar, but by degrees they became identified as the upholders of
the Koran against the validity of the oral tradition, and when, later,
the whole of Persia espoused the cause of Ali, the Shiite belief
became tinged with all kinds of mysticism. The Ismailians believed, for
instance, in the coming of a Messiah, to whom they gave the name Mahdi,
and who would one day appear on earth to establish the reign of justice,
and revenge the wrongs done to the family of Ali. The Ismailians
regarded Obaid himself as the Mahdi, and they also believed in
incarnations of the "universal soul," which in former ages had appeared
as the Hebrew Prophets, but which to the Muhammedan manifested itself as
imans. The iman is properly the leader of public worship, but it is not
so much an office as a seership with mystical attributes. The Muhammedan
imans so far have numbered eleven, the twelfth, and greatest (El-Mahdi),
being yet to come. The Ismailians also introduced mysticism into the
interpretation of the Koran, and even taught that its moral precepts
were not to be taken in a literal sense. Thus the Fatimite caliphs
founded their authority upon a combination of political power and
superstition.

Abu'l Kasim, who ruled at Alexandria, was succeeded in 945 by his son,
El-Mansur. Under his reign the Fatimites were attacked by Abu Yazid, a
Berber, who gathered around him the Sunnites, and the revolutionaries
succeeded in taking the Fatimite capital Kairwan. El-Mansur, however,
soon defeated Abu Yazid in a decisive battle and rebuilt a new city,
Mansuria, on the site of the modern Cairo, to commemorate the event.
Dying in 953, he was succeeded by Muiz ad-Din.

Muiz came to the throne just at the time when dissensions as to the
succession were undermining the Ikshid dynasty. Seizing the opportunity
in the year 969, Muiz equipped a large and well-armed force, with a
formidable body of cavalry, the whole under the command of Abu'l-Husain
Gohar el-Kaid, a native of Greece and a slave of his father El-Mansur.
This general, on his arrival near Alexandria, received a deputation from
the inhabitants of Fostat charged to negotiate a treaty. Their overtures
were favourably entertained, and the conquest of the country seemed
probable without bloodshed. But while the conditions were being
ratified, the Ikshidites prevailed on the people to revoke their offer,
and the ambassadors, on their return, were themselves compelled to seek
safety in flight.

Gohar el-Kaid incurred no delay in pushing his troops forward. He forced
the passage of the Nile a few miles south of El-Gizeh at the head of his
troops, and the Ikshidites suffered a disastrous defeat. To the honour
of the African general, it is related that the inhabitants of Fostat
were pardoned and the city was peaceably occupied. The submission of the
rest of Egypt to Muiz was secured by this victory. In the year 359 a.h.
Syria was also added to his domains, but shortly after was overrun by
the Carmathians. The troops of Muiz met with several reverses, Damascus
was taken, and those lawless freebooters, joined by the Ikshidites,
advanced to Ain Shems. In the meanwhile, Gohar had fortified Cairo (the
new capital which he had founded immediately north of Fostat) and taken
every precaution to repel the invaders; a bloody battle was fought in
the year 361 before the city walls, without any decisive result. Later,
however, Gohar obtained a victory over the enemy which proved to be a
decisive one.

Muiz subsequently removed his court to his new kingdom. In Ramadhan 362,
he entered Cairo, bringing with him the bodies of his three predecessors
and vast treasure. Muiz reigned about two years in Egypt, dying in the
year 365 a.h. He is described as a warlike and ambitious prince, but,
notwithstanding, he was especially distinguished for justice and was
fond of learning. He showed great favour to the Christians, especially
to Severus, Bishop of El-Ashmunein, and the patriarch Ephrem; and under
his orders, and with his assistance, the church of the Mu'allakah,
in Old Misr, was rebuilt. He executed many useful works (among others
rendering navigable the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which is still
called the canal of Muiz), and occupied himself in embellishing Cairo.
Gohar, when he founded that city, built the great mosque named El-Azhar,
the university of Egypt, which to this day is crowded with students from
all parts of the Moslem world.

Aziz Abu-Mansur Nizar, on coming to the throne of his father,
immediately despatched an expedition against the Turkish chief
El-Eftekeen, who had taken Damascus a short time previously. Gohar again
commanded the army, and pressed the siege of that city so vigorously
that the enemy called to their aid the Carmathians. Before this united
army he was forced to retire slowly to Ascalon, where he prepared to
stand a siege; but, being reduced to great straits, he purchased his
liberty with a large sum of money. On his return from this disastrous
campaign, Aziz took command in person, and, meeting the enemy at Ramleh,
was victorious after a bloody battle; while El-Eftekeen, being betrayed
into his hands, was with Arab magnanimity received with honour and
confidence, and ended his days in Egypt in affluence. Aziz followed his
father's example of liberality. It is even said that he appointed a Jew
his vizier in Syria, and a Christian to the same post in Egypt. These
acts, however, nearly cost him his life, and a popular tumult obliged
him to disgrace both these officers. After a reign of twenty-one years
of great internal prosperity, he died (a.h. 386) in a bath at Bilbeis,
while preparing an expedition against the Greeks who were ravaging
his possessions in Syria. Aziz was distinguished for moderation and
mildness, but his son and successor rendered himself notorious for very
opposite qualities.

Hakim Abu Ali Mansur commenced his reign, according to Moslem
historians, with much wisdom, but afterwards acquired a reputation for
impiety, cruelty, and unreasoning extravagance, by which he has been
rendered odious to posterity. He is said to have had at the same time
"courage and boldness, cowardice and timorousness, a love for learning
and vindictiveness towards the learned, an inclination to righteousness
and a disposition to slay the righteous." He also arrogated to himself
divinity, and commanded his subjects to rise at the mention of his name
in the congregational prayers, an edict which was obeyed even in the
holy cities, Mecca and Medina. He is most famous in connection with the
Druses, a sect which he founded and which still holds him in veneration
and believes in his future return to the earth. He had made himself
obnoxious to all classes of his subjects when, in the year 397 a.h., he
nearly lost his throne by foreign invasion.

[Illustration: 379.jpg MOSQUE OF HAKIM]

Hisham, surnamed Abu-Rekweh, a descendant of the house of Ommaya in
Spain, took the province of Barca with a considerable force and subdued
Upper Egypt. The caliph, aware of his danger, immediately collected
his troops from every quarter of the kingdom, and marched against the
invaders, whom, after severe fighting, he defeated and put to flight.
Hisham himself was taken prisoner, paraded in Cairo with every
aggravation of cruelty, and put to death. Hakim having thus by vigorous
measures averted this danger, Egypt continued to groan under his tyranny
until the year 411 a.h., when he fell by domestic treachery. His sister
Sitt el-Mulk had, in common with the rest of his subjects, incurred his
displeasure; and, being fearful for her life, she secretly and by night
concerted measures with the emir Saif ed-Dowlah, chief of the guard,
who very readily agreed to her plans. Ten slaves, bribed by five hundred
dinars each ($1,260), having received their instructions, went forth on
the appointed day to the desert tract southward of Cairo, where Hakim,
unattended, was in the habit of riding, and waylaid him near the village
of Helwan, where they put him to death.

Within a week Hakim's son Ali had been raised to the caliphate with
the title of Dhahir, at the command of Sitt el-Mulk. As Dhahir was only
eighteen years old, and in no way educated for the government, Sitt
el-Mulk took the reins of government, and was soon looked upon as the
instigator of Hakim's death. This suspicion was strengthened by the
fact that his sister had the heir to the throne--who was at that time
governor of Aleppo--murdered, and also the chief who had conspired with
her in assassinating Hakim. She survived her brother for about four
years, but the actual ruler was the Vizier Ali el-Jar jar.

Dhahir's reign offers many points of interest. Peace and contentment
reigned in the interior, and Syria continued to be the chief point of
interest to the Egyptian politics. Both Lulu and his son Mansur, who
received princely titles from Hakim, recognised the suzerainty of the
Fatimites. Later on a disagreement arose between Lulu's son and Dhahir.
One of the former's slaves conspired against his master, and gave Aleppo
into the hands of the Fatimites, whose governor maintained himself there
till 1023. In this year, however, Aleppo fell into the power of the Benu
Kilab, who defended the town with great success against Romanus in
1030. Not till Dhahir's successor came to the throne in 1036 was Aleppo
reconquered by the Fatimites, but only to fall, after a few years, again
into the hands of a Kilabite, whom the caliph was obliged to acknowledge
as governor until he of his own free will exchanged the city for several
other towns in Syria; but even then the strife about the possession of
Aleppo was not yet at an end.

Mustanssir ascended the throne at the age of four years. His mother,
although black and once a slave, had great influence in the choice of
the viziers and other officials, and even when the caliph became of age,
he showed very few signs of independence. His reign, which lasted sixty
years, offers a constant alternation of success and defeat. At one time
his dominion was limited to the capital Cairo, at another time he was
recognised as lord of Africa, Sicily, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and even of
the Abbassid capital, Baghdad. A few days later his dominion was again
on the point of being extinguished. The murder of a Turk by the negroes
led to a war between the Turkish mercenaries and the blacks who formed
the caliph's body-guard. The latter were joined by many of the other
slaves, but the Turks were supported by the Ketama Berbers and some of
the Bedouin tribes, and also the Hamdanite Nasir ed-Dowlah, who had
long been in the Egyptian service. The blacks, although supported by the
caliph's mother, were completely defeated, and the caliph was forced to
acknowledge the authority of Nasir ed-Dowlah. He thereupon threatened
to abdicate, but when he learned that his palace with all its treasures
would then be given up to plunder, he refrained from fulfilling his
threat. The power of the Hamdanites and the Turks increased with
every victory over the negroes, who finally could no longer maintain
themselves at all in Upper Egypt. The caliph was treated with contempt,
and had to give up his numerous treasures, one by one, to satisfy the
avarice of his troops. Even the graves of his ancestors were at last
robbed of all they contained, and when, at last, everything had been
ransacked, even his library, which was one of the largest and finest,
was not spared. The best manuscripts were dispersed, some went to
Africa, others were destroyed, many were damaged or purposely mutilated
by the Sunnites, simply because they had been written by the Shiites;
still others were burnt by the Turks as worthless material, and the
leather bands which held them made into sandals.

[Illustration: 383.jpg MUSTANSSIR'S GATE AT CAIRO]

Meanwhile war between Mustanssir and Nasir ed-Dowlah continued to be
waged in Egypt and Syria, until at last the latter became master of
Cairo and deprived the caliph once more completely of his independence.

Soon after, a conspiracy with Ildeghiz, a Turkish general, at its head,
was formed against Nasir ed-Dowlah, and he, together with his relations
and followers, was brutally murdered. Ildeghiz behaved in the same way
as his predecessor had-done towards the caliph, and the latter appealed
to Bedr el-Jemali for help. Bedr proceeded to Acre with his best Syrian
troops, landed in the neighbourhood of Damietta and proceeded towards
the capital, which he entered without difficulty (January, 1075). He was
appointed general and first vizier, so that he now held both the highest
military and civil authority.

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