Abū l-Ashbāl al-Manṣūr Ḍirghām b. ʿĀmir b. Sawār al-Mundhirī al-Lakhmī (d. 559/1164), was wazīr from 28 Ramaḍān 558/30 August 1163 to 28 Jumādā II 559/23 May 1164, under the last Fāṭimid caliph, al-ʿĀḍid (r. 555–67/1160–71). Although he held that office for only a short time, he…
ʿAbbās b. Abī l-Futūḥ b. Tamīm b. Muʿizz b. Bādīs al-Ṣinhājī (d. 549/1154) was wazīr for slightly more than a year, 548–9/1153–4, first under the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ẓāfir (r. 544-9/1149-54), then briefly under his successor, al-Fāʾiz (r. 549-55/1154-60). His father, Abū l-Futūḥ, …
Abū l-Faraj Yaʿqūb, Ibn Killis (318–80/930–91) was wazīr to the Fāṭimid caliph al-ʿAzīz (r. 365–86/975–96), the first to hold that position under the Fāṭimids. Ibn Killis was born Jewish in Baghdad. He and his father eventually moved to Syria, where he gained some prominence as …
Tāj al-Riʾāsa Amīn al-Dawla Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b. Munjib b. Sulaymān, known as Ibn al-Ṣayrafī (b. Shaʿbān 463/May 1071 in Cairo, d. 19 Ṣafar 542/20 July 1147), was one of the most famous clerks to work in and, eventually, direct the Fāṭimid chancery. He was the son of a money chan…
Dāʿī (s), in Ismāʿīlī Islam , were the agents of the daʿwa (the mission appealing for adherence and support), the earliest records of which date from about 261/875, in Iraq, concerning the activities of the Qarāmiṭa, led by Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ (d. 321/933) and his brother-in-law ʿAbdā…
The term bāṭiniyya derives from the Arabic bāṭin , meaning “inner,” “inward,” “interior,” hence “hidden,” “secret,” and, most importantly in this context, “esoteric.” It is normally used in opposition to ẓāhir , which, accordingly, carries the sense of “outward,” “obvious,” “lit…
Bayān b. Samʿān (d. 119/737) was the leader of an early radical Shīʿī movement in Iraq, called after him the Bayāniyya. Bayān himself appears in nearly all of the major Islamic heresiographies (for example, those of al-Nawbakhtī, al-Qummī, al-Ashʿarī, al-Nāshiʾ, Abū Tammām, al-B…
Abū l-Fatḥ, or Abū l-Futūḥ, Barjawān (d. 390/1000) was a white eunuch of Slavic origin belonging to the Fāṭimid caliph al-ʿAzīz (r. 365–86/975–96). He rose to the highest executive rank in the empire, becoming the wāsiṭa , a wazīr in all but name. His rule in this capacity began…
Al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh , the sixth of the Fāṭimid caliphs, ruled from his accession at the age of eleven on 28 Ramaḍān 386/14 October 996 until his mysterious disappearance one night at the end of Shawwāl 411/mid-February 1021. His reign was noted for an unusual range of strange,…
Al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allāh Abū l-Maymūn ʿAbd al-Majīd was the eleventh caliph of the Fāṭimid line (r. 297–567/909–1171). Born in ʿAsqalān in 467/1074 or 468/1075 to a son of the caliph al-Mustanṣir (r. 427–87/1036–94), he was the oldest surviving male in the royal family in 524/1130,…
Al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh Abū ʿAlī al-Manṣūr (4905–24/1096–1130) was the tenth of the Fāṭimid caliphs (r. 495–524/1101–30). Born on 13 Muḥarram 490/31 December 1096, he succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father, al-Mustaʿlī, in Ṣafar 495/December 1101. For the first two …
Al-ʿAzīz bi-llāh , Nizār Abū Manṣūr (344–386/955–996), was the fifth Fāṭimid caliph and the first whose rule began and ended in Egypt. He was born in al-Mahdiyya and moved to Cairo with his father al-Muʿizz in 362/973 when the centre of the empire shifted eastward from the Maghr…
Al-Mahdiyya is a fortified city on the east coast of what is now Tunisia , founded by and named after the first Fāṭimid caliph, al-Mahdī bi-llāh (r. 297–322/910–34). Once construction was completed in 306/918–9 and the caliph relocated there, it served as the capital of the Fāṭi…
Abū l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmad al-Jīlī al-Bustī (active late fourth/tenth and early fifth/eleventh centuries) was an important Zaydī Muʿtazilī author. We know hardly anything about his life, although his name suggests that he came from Bust, in Sīstān (southeastern Iran), and may …
Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Abī Shujāʿ Fātik al-Baṭāʾiḥī (more accurately Ibn al-Baṭāʾiḥī; d. 522/1128), known as al-Maʾmūn b. al-Baṭāʾiḥī, was wazīr to the Fāṭimid caliph al-Āmir (r. 495–524/1101–30). He rose to this position in 515/1122, following the assassination of the wazīr …