al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Mansur ibn al-Aziz
Mansur ibn al-Aziz, sixth Ubaydid caliph, titled al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Al-Maqrizi says he disappeared in Shawwal 411 AH, and prefers the account of a man who confessed to killing him in 415 AH.
Reign · Fatimid Caliphate · no. 14 in the chain · 996–1021 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The Revolt of Abu Rakwa al-Umawi against al-Hakim
Abu Rakwa, an Umayyad of the line of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik named al-Walid, was given his kunya from a water-flask (rakwa) he carried on his travels in the manner of the Sufis. He called people to a claimant from Hisham's descendants and took oaths of allegiance. He settled at al-Hulla as a teacher, and Arab boys gathered around him; then he told them he was the imam, and styled himself al-Thair bi-amr Allah al-Muntasir min a'da' Allah. He entered Barqa, where its people collected 200,000 dinars for him, and he took 100,000 dinars from a Jewish man whom he accused of holding deposits for him. He struck coins with his name and titles, rode out on a Friday, gave the khutba and cursed al-Hakim. Al-Hakim assembled sixteen thousand men for him under al-Fadl ibn Abd Allah, and 500,000 dinars and 5,000 pieces of cloth were carried to al-Fadl. Abu Rakwa met al-Fadl, but al-Fadl outmanoeuvred him until his companions demanded that he be delivered to the land of Nubia, by a pledge and covenant between him and them. They took him there; al-Fadl sent after him, they handed him over, and he was brought to al-Hakim, who had him mounted on a camel, paraded him, and then killed him. Al-Hakim showed al-Fadl great honour, then killed him after he had recovered from an illness that had come upon him.
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Abu Rakwa's Revolt
Draft card for Abu Rakwa's Revolt; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Achir (1016)
Draft card for the Battle of Achir in 1016, the Zirid defeat of the Zenata coalition; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Chelif River (1015)
Draft card for the Battle of the Chelif River in 1015, a Zirid–Zenata clash; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Dar al-Ilm in Cairo
Al-Hakim's early piety built Cairo's Dar al-Ilm, gathered jurists and hadith-men and raised the Jami' al-Hakimi — for three years; then he turned to killing men of learning, closed the house and barred much good.
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The khutba for al-Hakim, ruler of Egypt, in Mecca and Medina
In 396 Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Alawi led the pilgrimage and gave the khutba at Mecca and Medina for al-Hakim, ruler of Egypt, following the usual practice; he ordered the people of the two sanctuaries to stand whenever his name was mentioned, and did the same in Egypt, where, whenever he was mentioned, they stood and prostrated in the markets and gathering places.
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The Unleashing of Egypt's Slaves in al-Fustat, 411
On a Tuesday, two nights before the end of Shawwal 411, a written placard appeared in Egypt, with slips scattered along the lanes asking the state to unleash the slaves in Egypt for three days. Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah feared it, as did the commanders and soothsayers, that they would burn Egypt, kill and plunder. So they let the slaves of Egypt take their camp, and the sultans' women pressed it until it weakened. The fighting lasted three days. People cried out to the slaves, saying that if their aims were achieved, nothing mighty or humble would remain unhumbled. Women, children and the city's notables gathered, crying out to the slaves, and [the spoils] were sold in the seized markets. Then al-Hakim went out himself, rode, halted before a line of them and called out 'Ya Aghatiyy', and they turned back. He had burned a third of Egypt, and a third of it had gone to plunder.
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The Death of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and His Sister's Concealment, 411
Ibn al-Jawzi relates from the people of Egypt that Sitt al-Mulk, al-Hakim's sister, had a gathering with Ibn Dawwas seated by her. Al-Hakim feared him and said to Sitt al-Mulk, 'What have I to do with this man? He wants to bring me together with him.' Sitt al-Mulk arranged a link between them; Ibn Dawwas came back to her and charged her to bring him round to what she wanted. She returned to Ibn Dawwas, and that night he rode to al-Muqattam and climbed the mountain with two Maghribi slaves. At dawn the two slaves came carrying him back to Ibn Dawwas, who brought him to Sitt al-Mulk's assembly. She buried him there and kept it unknown, concealing the matter for three days, and she announced that he was absent for seven. She paid the rikabiyya (the mounted guard) to deal with anyone who opposed her affair. Then Ali ibn al-Hakim was pledged allegiance, the khutba was given in his name, and she set him up as heir apparent and crowned him with the crown of al-Mu'izz. She had Ibn Dawwas killed by the hand of Nasim, master of the curtain and the sword, after promising him kingship and wealth. She grieved, and put to death those among the slaves and servants who knew. It is said he died in Shawwal 411, aged thirty-seven, and that his caliphate lasted twenty-five years.
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Al-Hakim Destroys the Church of the Resurrection and Egypt's Churches
In 398 al-Hakim destroyed Jerusalem's Church of the Sepulchre and all Egypt's churches, ordering Christians to wear arm-length crosses of five Egyptian ratls and Jews wooden qirami of the same weight, with black turbans; a party of them professed Islam. Afterwards he permitted the rebuilding of the churches and let those compelled return to their faith.
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Al-Hakim Forbids the Women of Egypt to Go Out
In 405 al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah forbade the women of Egypt ever to leave their houses or enter the bathhouses, abolished women's shoemaking so they could not be shod for the street, and had several women who defied the order killed and a group of old women drowned.
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Hammadid Capture of Béja (1015)
Draft card for Hammadid Capture of Béja (1015); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Hammadid–Zirid War (1014–18)
Draft card for the Hammadid–Zirid War of 1014–18, Hammad ibn Buluggin's secession from the Zirids and the founding of the Hammadid state; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ibn al-Haytham summoned to Cairo
The Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim summoned Ibn al-Haytham from Basra to Egypt to devise a regulation of the Nile flood; seeing the task impossible he feigned madness until al-Ḥākim's death in 1021.
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The opening of Ja'far al-Sadiq's house in Medina and the removal of its relics to Egypt
In the year 400, al-Hakim, ruler of Egypt, sent a man with the stipends (rusum) of the Hasanids and Husaynids and added to them, ordering him to open the house of Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq in Medina after seeking their permission. No one had touched that house since Ja'far's death. From it were carried to Egypt his copy of the Qur'an, a wooden bowl bound with iron, a bamboo shield, a spear and a bed. Al-Hakim returned the bed to them and took the rest, claiming a better right to it.
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Kairouan incident against the Rafida under al-Mu'izz ibn Badis
Al-Mu'izz b. Badis broke with the Rafida and proclaimed Sunnism; when his horse stumbled and he called on Abu Bakr and Umar, the commons rose against the Shia and slew them wholesale — the rift deepened until the khutba for the Cairo caliphs was cut in 440.