Part 16

Although al-Hakim, by ordering the removal of the imprecatory inscriptions against the early Khalifs had done something to conciliate public opinion, he continued to enforce strictly the regulations against wine, beer, and the various kinds of food disapproved by the Shiʿites, and many fishmongers were arrested for selling fish without scales. Indeed the city was thrown into consternation by the extreme severity with which these and other rules were enforced. It was in this year (399) that the general Fadl was executed, and many other persons were punished by having their hands cut off. A decree published this year allowed the fast of the month of Ramadan to finish at the date as obtained by astronomical calculations, without waiting for the actual appearance of the new moon, a Fatimid novelty which was regarded with disapproval and is still not admitted by the orthodox. New regulations allowed the use of the Shiʿite formula in the call to prayer, or the Sunni call at the muezzin’s discretion; no complaint was to be made in either case. No one was to utter any imprecation against the early Khalifs, and if any one liked to use the reverent formula “God have mercy on them” in using their names, thus treating them as saints, they were allowed to do so: if on the other hand they chose to use the more honourable formula “God be gracious to him” after the name of ʿAli, there was full liberty to do so. Every Muslim was free to follow Sunni or Shiʿite usage as he preferred (Ibn Khall. iii. 451).

Al-Hakim’s more definite anti-Christian and anti-Jewish policy began in 398. In that year he seized the property of the churches and placed it under the control of the state treasury. He forbade the public processions which had generally been observed at the feast of Hosannas (Palm Sunday), at the feast of the Cross, and at the Epiphany. By his orders a large number of crosses were publicly burned before the doors of the Old Mosque, and orders were sent out that the same was to be done in the provinces. In some of the churches little mosques were constructed, and from these the usual call to prayer was given. Severus tells us that the use of bells was now prohibited.

The churches on the road to Maqs were destroyed, as well as the Coptic church of al-Maghitha in the Street of Rome, and all their contents were seized. Many other churches were pillaged and destroyed, the sacred vessels, furniture, and goods being handed over to Muslims, and the vessels often sold in the public markets. Amongst these were the churches at Rashida outside Fustat and the convent of Dayr al-Kasr on Mokattam, all these being given over to the people who plundered them.

Various persons sent in petitions to search churches and monasteries in the provinces for hoarded wealth, and received permission to do so (cf. Maq. _Hist. of Copts_). It is clear that this kind of persecution was generally popular, at least in its earlier stages, for it was generally believed that the Christians had used their opportunities as tax collectors to defraud the country to a serious extent. This no doubt contained a measure of truth, although the Fatimid government kept a closer and more careful control over its officials than has always been done by oriental powers. But it must be noted that resentment was felt towards the Christians and Jews, not for their religious beliefs, but because they were revenue officials.

In 400 Salih b. ʿAli Rudbari was deprived of his office as chief minister and replaced by Mansur b. ʿAbdun, a Christian clerk, for at no time did the persecution take such a form as to prevent the advancement of Christians and Jews to high and responsible offices in the state. The new minister was hated by the nobles who made accusations against him and brought forward his religion as one of the grounds of attack. This caused a brief but severe outburst against the Christian officials. Many of them were scourged to death and their bodies thrown to the dogs, and Mansur himself was beaten and left for dead, but as his friends stood round they perceived that there were signs of life in him, so they took him up and carried him home. After some time he recovered and went back without remark to his duties. Such a state of affairs seems to us almost incredible, for his duties were practically those of a prime minister, and that he should have been thus scourged, left to the dogs, as was the intention, and then when he was well enough go back to the highest office in the state without any particular remark seems to present al-Hakim’s court rather in the light of a lunatic asylum: practically it was very near that, for it can hardly be doubted that the Khalif at this time was definitely insane.

Orders were sent to Jerusalem for the destruction of the church of _al-Qayama_ “the resurrection,” the most famous and honoured sanctuary of Christendom. In accordance with these orders it was plundered and then pulled down, an act which produced a deep feeling of anger in the Christian community generally, as well as amongst the subjects of the Greek Empire as amongst those who lived in Hakim’s dominions. Indirectly it caused the Christian world to form an idea of Islam as a persecuting power, and so paved the way to the Crusades. The cause of the destruction of this sanctuary is said to have been a malicious report which alleged that the Christians practised a fraud in connection with the “holy fire” given out at Easter in that church. This blessing and distribution of new fire is a prominent part of the Easter Eve ceremonies of the Greek and of the Gallic churches, and from the latter afterwards passed into the Roman rite where it originally had no place. A common but apparently unauthorised superstition amongst the Greeks represents this “new fire” as distributed in the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem as sent down from heaven, and this superstition was already in existence in the days of Hakim. A certain chaplain of the church, suffering from some grievance, declared to the Muslim authorities that the canons of the church practised a fraud to play upon this superstition. He said that they used to anoint the iron chain by which the great lamp was suspended in the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, and that after the Muslim governor had closed and sealed the door of the church, as was the custom, they used to get at the chain from the roof and so the fire was passed along the anointed surface and reached the wick of the lamp which was thus lighted, whilst the chaplains sang _Kyrie eleison_ and wept, and pretended that the fire came down from heaven, thus confirming the Christians in their religious errors (Bar Hebraeus: _Chron._, pp. 215 sqq.).

Severus attributes the outbreak of this persecution to a monk named John whom the Patriarch steadily refused to ordain bishop and who, on this account, made his complaint to the Khalif. He waylaid Hakim as he was walking on the Mokattam hills and called on him for assistance, at the same time presenting a petition in which he said: “You are the ruler of this country, but the Christians have a king who is more powerful than you by reason of the immense wealth he has acquired. He sells bishoprics for money and acts in a way displeasing to God.” Influenced by this petition Hakim ordered the churches to be closed and the Patriarch to be brought before him. The Patriarch Zacharias was a man far advanced in years and now, by the Khalif’s order, was cast into prison. The very day after the Patriarch’s arrest Hakim sent the letter to the governor in Jerusalem ordering the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection, the clerk who prepared the letter being a Christian named Ibn Sharkin.

Shortly after this Hakim sent out notices to all the provinces that churches were to be destroyed and their gold and silver vessels confiscated, that all bishops were to be arrested, and that no one was to buy from or sell to Christians. At this many Christians conformed to Islam, whilst in most places they left off the distinctive outward signs of their religion as laid down in the revived penal laws, and popular usage evidently connived at this.

The Patriarch remained three months in prison; each day he was threatened with burning or being cast to wild beasts if he did not conform to Islam, whilst he was promised that if he did conform he would be made Chief Qadi and covered with honours, but neither threat nor promises made any impression on him. His gaoler visited him frequently and treated him roughly, but this he bore with patience and resignation. A Muslim fellow-prisoner tried to persuade him to conform, but he only replied, “All my confidence is in God who is almighty; it is He who will help me” (Severus).

A certain Christian who had been collector of taxes was in the same prison suffering the penalty for a deficit of 3,000 pieces of gold in his accounts. This prisoner was a friend of a noble Arab of the B. Qorra tribe, named Mahdi b. Mokrab, perhaps the same who had assisted Fadl at the time of Abu Raqwa’s revolt, and he stood high in the Khalif’s favour. One day he visited his Christian friend and promised to ask the Khalif for his release. The prisoner said, “I should not be willing to go out of this and leave here the Patriarch, the old man whom you see.” Mahdi enquired why the Patriarch was in prison, and when he heard the reason he judged that it would not be prudent to speak about him by name to Hakim, but he asked the Khalif to grant the liberty of all those who were detained in that prison. The Khalif consented and so the Patriarch was set free and went to Fustat, a thing which was the cause of great joy to all the Christians. But as his freedom had been granted only by an oversight it was judged expedient for him to go away and hide himself, so he retired to the valley of Habib where he lived in retirement for nine years. In that particular part the churches had not been destroyed. Officials and workmen had been sent to do so, but they were afraid of the Bedwin of the desert near and retired without doing anything.

The Khalif issued orders forbidding the Christians to observe the “Feast of Baptism,” _i.e._, the Epiphany, on the banks of the Nile, and prohibited the games and amusements which usually accompanied the celebration of that feast. He also forbade the observance of the “Feast of Hosannas,” _i.e._, Palm Sunday, and the Feast of the Cross in the autumn. At that time it was customary for Muslims and even the Khalifs themselves, to take part in the public festivities with which the Christians celebrated their greater festivals.

The destruction of churches was general during the course of this persecution, especially in the year 403. By 405 some 30,000 had been pillaged and pulled down in Syria and Egypt, and many of the Jewish synagogues were treated in a similar manner. Very often mosques were erected on their sites. The great church of the _Muʿallaqa_ was taken from the Christians, and the Muslim call to prayer was made in the Church of Shenuda in Fustat. In many places people presented petitions asking permission to seize one of the churches or monasteries, and these petitions were invariably granted. The furniture of the churches and their vessels of gold and silver were confiscated and sold in the markets, the price obtained being paid into the treasury or given to some of the Khalif’s retainers. A special board was established to deal with the confiscated property and the goods belonging to those who had been put to death.

We turn now to Hakim’s dealings with the Muslims during the year 400. In the earlier part of the year many persons who had been detected in possession of beer, malukhia, etc., were arrested and beaten. There was a growing disquiet at Hakim’s severity, and a large number of people thought it well to take out letters of protection. Panic seized Husayn b. Jawhar the ex-Commander in Chief, ʿAbdu l-ʿAziz b. Nuʿman, and Abu l-Kasam Husayn b. Maghrabi, and they fled the country. The laws against intoxicating drinks were executed with great rigour, and a number of eunuchs, clerks, and footmen were put to death. In the month of Shawal Salih b. ʿAli Rudbari was put to death. On the 19th of this same month an order was published dispensing with the payment of the fifth levied on the Shiʿites, of the sum paid at the end of Ramadan as alms, and of the _nejwa_, or “voluntary contribution,” all sums collected from the Ismaʿilian sect. About the same time the “conferences of wisdom,” the regular meetings of the sect which were held in the palace, were discontinued. This seems like an anti-Shiʿite change of attitude on the Khalif’s part, but the only reasonable explanation of the numerous and arbitrary developments which took place about this time is that which commended itself to many contemporary observers, namely, that the Khalif was insane, and the disorder of his mind was growing worse.

Later in the year Hakim abandoned the enforcement of several distinctively Shiʿite usages. He ordered the restoration of the formula known as the _tethwib_ in the call to prayer; the muezzins were forbidden to add “Come to the most excellent work” to the call, and were ordered party badges. Permission was given for the use of the _salat ad-Duha_ or voluntary fore-noon prayer which had been strictly forbidden in 393, and also for the use of the prayer known as _kunut_. In the course of the year Hakim presented lamps and a large candelabrum to the Mosque of Rashida.

The result of these events was that Hakim fell into ill repute with the Shiʿites who had come to Cairo from many parts, and now found themselves in a town veering round to orthodox Muslim customs. Other events, however, quickly made him even more obnoxious to the orthodox. He had sent officials to Madina to open the house which had formerly belonged to Jaʿfar as-Sadiq and to bring away whatever might be found there. When the house was opened the officials found in it a Qurʾan, a bed, and some furniture, and the _Daʿi_ Khatkin, who superintended the opening, carried away these articles, and at the same time helped themselves to the taxes which the _sharifs_ paid. Khatkin then returned to Egypt accompanied by a large number of sharifs, all descendants of ʿAli, who were led to expect generous treatment from Hakim. But when they reached the Khalif’s presence he gave them only a very small part of the money Khatkin had brought back and kept the bulk for himself, saying that he deserved it more than they did, as he, the true heir of ʿAli, was the head of the _sharifs_. The _sharifs_ at this left Cairo and returned to Madina cursing him (Abu l-Mahasin).

Hakim then decided to remove the bodies of the two first Khalifs, Abu Bakr and Umar, who were buried at Madina. His envoys bribed an ʿAlid who lived in a house close by the burial place, and with his help they began digging a passage through to the tombs. But a violent storm arose which so terrified the citizens that many of them sought refuge in the holy place where the Prophet and the early Khalifs were buried. The storm still continued until at last the ʿAlid who had assisted Hakim’s envoys himself became alarmed, and revealed the project on which they were engaged to the governor who had him punished, and provided that the plan should not be carried out (Mirkhond on the authority of the _Istidkar_ of the Qadi Ahmad Damagini).

On the whole Hakim seems at this time to have been endeavouring to conciliate Sunni opinion, perhaps he had even intended to honour Abu Bakr and ʿUmar by shrines in one or other of the burial places of Cairo. Certainly he was trying to please the Sunnis when, in this same year (400), he founded a college for instruction in the Malikite system of jurisprudence, the form of canon law in vogue before the arrival of the Fatimids, and the one to which the Egyptians were most attached. He presented the college with a library, and appointed Abu Bakr Antaki as its principal, and bestowed robes of honour on the principal and the lecturers whom he welcomed at court. For three years Hakim continued to favour the Sunnis, and then he suddenly changed his attitude. In the following year indeed the pro-Sunni decrees began to be modified. On the 12th of Rabiʿ II. 401 the call to prayer was again ordered to be made in the Shiʿite form, the _tethwib_, and the words “Prayer is better than sleep” were again forbidden, and the formula “Come to the excellent work” was restored. The fore-noon voluntary prayer was prohibited and so the _Tarawih_. When Hakim found that the latter form had been used in the Old Mosque in spite of his prohibition during the whole of Ramadan he had the leader of the prayer put to death. At the same time the “Conferences of wisdom” were restored in the palace, and the various subscriptions due from the initiated of the Ismaʿilian sect were again collected. It is impossible to follow anything like policy or purpose in these incessant changes; it can only be supposed that the Khalif’s mental malady was getting worse.

In the following year (401) new laws were published forbidding all pleasure parties on the banks of the canal and requiring all doors and windows opening on the canal to be kept closed: other laws forbade music, games, or meetings for pleasure at Sahra: and others forbidding loose entertainments anywhere or the sale of singing girls.

Changes in the personnel of the administration now begin to become more numerous and capricious. At the beginning of 401 the chief minister, Mansur b. ʿAbdun, the one who had once been scourged and left for dead, was deprived of his office, and later in the year was put to death and his goods confiscated. He was replaced by Ahmad b. Muhammad Kashuri, who was beheaded after ten days. The next minister was the clerk Zara, son of Isa b. Nestorius. Husayn b. Jawhar and ʿAbdu l-ʿAziz b. Numan, who had fled the country in the previous year were invited to return and were received with honour; only to be put to death and have their goods confiscated a few months later. The third fugitive, Abu l-Kasam Husayn, had gone to Syria and declined to come back. We shall find him a little later stirring up trouble for Hakim.

Turning to Syrian affairs we find similar rapid and frequent changes. In 400 Abu l-Jaysh Hamid b. Masham was replaced by Muhammad b. Nazae as governor of Damascus. In 401 Luʿluʿ b. Abdullah was appointed governor, reaching Damascus in the month of Jumada II. On the 10th of Dhu l-Hijja at the “Feast of Sacrifice” he was replaced by Dhu l-Karnayn.

The most important event of 401 was the revolt of Hasan b. Mufarraj b. Daghfal b. Jarrah Taiy (cf. year 387). He was persuaded to this by Husayn, the one of the three who fled from Egypt in 399 and was not willing to return. His two sons and two brothers had been put to death at the request of the minister, Mansur b. ʿAbdun, his mortal enemy, and it was this which had alarmed him and caused his flight in the first place. He took refuge with Hasan, and used every persuasion to induce him to revolt. The rebel faction was headed by Hasan’s father Mufarraj, and was joined by a number of Arabs, and very soon by the whole of the tribes of the Hijaz under the leadership of the Sultan of Mecca, Husayn b. Jaʿfar. Hakim sent Yarakhtakin to Aleppo with a large army to put down this movement. As soon as he arrived in Syria Mufarraj and his son became extremely anxious but, between Gaza and Ascalon they managed to get him into an ambush, and in the ensuing battle the Fatimid general was slain. The rebels then besieged Ramla and, as new recruits pressed in every day, they soon took it. Hakim sent them letters of remonstrance, but these were disregarded, and they invited the Sultan of Mecca to assume the Khalifate. This he was perfectly ready to do and, leaving a deputy in the city, joined the army of Mufarraj, and was saluted “Commander of the Faithful.”

But Hakim wrote again to Hasan and Mufarraj promising them estates and other gifts if they would cease from rebellion, so they resolved to abandon the newly proclaimed Khalif and returned to their allegiance. The result of this was a violent dispute between them and the man they had just invited to be Khalif. In the end he left them and returned to Mecca, taking Husayn Maghrabi with him. Not long afterwards Hakim sent an army under Jaʿfar b. Fallah to Syria, and expelled Hasan and his followers from Ramla. For two years Hasan remained in exile then, at the intercession of his father Mufarraj, Hakim pardoned him and gave him an estate in Egypt. Ultimately Mufarraj was poisoned by the Khalif’s orders. The anti-Khalifate of Mecca continued until 403, when the prince requested to be reconciled to Hakim, and when this was granted put Hakim’s name on his coinage and inserted it in the _khutba_.

In 401 Karwash b. Mukallad, chief of the Arabs of Okayl, revolted against the ʿAbbasid Khalif and transferred his allegiance to Hakim, whose name was inserted in the _khutba_ in Mosul, Anbar, Madayn, and other towns. In Mosul the form commenced: “Praise be to God, by whose light the shadows of tyranny have been scattered, by whose greatness the foundations of the heresy of the enemies of ʿAli have been rooted up, by whose power the sun of truth has risen in the west (_i.e._, in Africa).” Baha d-Dawla, the ʿAbbasid Khalif’s guardian, ordered the Emir al-Joyush to march against Karwash, who at once sent his apologies to the Khalif of Baghdad, and the recognition of the rival Fatimid Khalif ceased.

Next year (402) Hakim made more rigorous decrees against beer, vegetables disapproved by the Shiʿites, and the use of fish without scales. He further forbade women to go to funerals or to visit the cemeteries. He strictly suppressed the playing of chess, and caused chess-boards to be burned. Gathering the fishermen together he exacted from them a pledge that they would not take any fish without scales, and further threatened them with death if they were found selling any such.

He had already forbidden the use of beer, and the usual law against wine was strictly enforced. Now he forbade the sale of dried raisins because they were used by some for the making of wine: he forbade their importation into the country, and ordered all found in stores to be destroyed, in consequence of which some 2,340 boxes of dried raisins were burned, the value being put at 500 pieces of gold. He next forbade the sale of fresh grapes exceeding four pounds at a time; in any case grapes were not to be exposed for sale in the markets, and strict prohibition was made against squeezing out the juice. Very many grapes found on sale were confiscated, and either trodden in the street or thrown into the Nile. The vines at Gizeh were cut down and oxen employed to tread the fruit into the mire. Orders were issued that the same was to be done throughout the provinces. But honey as well as grapes can be used in preparing fermented liquor, so the Khalif’s seal was affixed to the stores of honey at Gizeh, and some 5,051 jars of honey were broken and their contents poured into the Nile, as well as 51 cruises of date honey. The sale of fresh dates was then forbidden, and many dates were collected and burned (Maq. ii. 287, Ibn Khall. iii. 450).