al-Mustansir bi'llah Ma'add ibn al-Zahir
Ma'add ibn al-Zahir, eighth Ubaydid caliph, enthroned at seven in 428 and reigning sixty years and four months — al-Dhahabi knows none in Islam who lasted so. In his days came the seven-year famine unmatched since Joseph; his khutba sounded at Baghdad's Mansur mosque when al-Basasiri held the city on his money.
Reign · Fatimid Caliphate · no. 2 in the chain · 1036–1094 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Atsiz's defeat before Egypt
Atsiz's Egypt gambit collapsed in Rajab 1076 — beaten by an Arab force before Badr al-Jamali's great army even engaged — and the defeat spiralled into the feuds that killed him by 1078.
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al-Mu'izz ibn Badis Ends the Ubaydid Khutba
In 443 al-Mu'izz ibn Badis cut the Ubaydid khutba in the Maghreb and preached for the Abbasids.
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Battle of Haydaran
Draft card for the Battle of Haydaran in 1052, the Fatimid-Zirid clash at Qayrawan; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Kairouan (1053)
Draft card for Battle of Kairouan (1053); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The general famine and plague of 448
In 448 Egypt saw severe drought and rampant plague while Iraq was awash with strife, fear and looting from Tughril Beg's bands, the Bedouin and al-Basasiri; famine and pestilence struck until people ate carrion — a makuk of clover seed reached seven dinars, a pomegranate a dinar — and a report from Egypt told of three thieves found dead mid-burglary, one at the door, one on the stairs, one on the folded clothes.
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Yusuf ibn Tashfin founds Marrakesh
The Almoravid amir Yusuf ibn Tashfin ordered Marrakesh built in 462/1070; it became the Almoravid capital.
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The First Entry of the Arab Tribes into Ifriqiya
In 440 al-Mu'izz b. Badis raised the da'wa in the Maghreb for the Abbasid al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah and cast off the obedience of the Fatimid al-Mustansir; al-Mustansir sent an army of Arabs to fight him — the first entry of the Arab tribes into Ifriqiya: Banu Riyah and Banu Zughba, whose story lengthens beyond telling.
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The great famine in Egypt under al-Mustansir
Al-Dhahabi: under the Ubaydid al-Mustansir came Egypt's famine unmatched since Joseph's days — it lasted seven years till people ate one another and a loaf was said to sell for fifty dinars.
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The Great Plague and Famine
The great plague-and-famine of 448–449: wheat at 90 then 180 dinars the kurr in Baghdad, a thousand deaths a day, the sultan shrouding 18,000 corpses at his own expense four and five to a bier; a Transoxianan merchants' letter counting 18,000 funerals in a single day and 1,650,000 dead before the ink dried — graves dug for twenty at a time, markets empty, the poor eating dogs and exhuming the dead, and a general repentance of wine-pouring and instrument-breaking.
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The great earthquake of Ramla
The great Jumada I 460 earthquake in Palestine destroyed Ramla outright — a merchant's letter says the town was swallowed whole; the sea recoiled so far its floor lay bare and people walked on it before it returned, and one corner of the mosque in Egypt shifted.
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Siege of Málaga (1065–1066)
Draft card for Siege of Málaga (1065–1066); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Sousse (1053)
Draft card for Siege of Sousse (1053); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Yusuf ibn Tashfin Given the Title Amir al-Muslimin
In 479 Yusuf ibn Tashfin, lord of Sabta and Marrakesh, asked al-Muqtadi to make him sultan and invest him with the lands he held; the robes, banners and deed were sent with the title amir al-muslimin — the Maghreb's jurists rejoiced. He is the founder of Marrakesh.