Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas

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Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas
Heir-apparent of the Fatimid Caliphate
Tenure1013–1021
DynastyFatimid
ReligionIsma'ilism

Abd al-Rahim

Ali al-Zahir, arrested and imprisoned. He died in captivity, officially by his own hands, or assassinated by the real power behind al-Zahir's throne, the princess Sitt al-Mulk
.

Life

Nomination as heir-apparent

Ibn Ilyas was a descendant of the first

Fatimid army took an oath of allegiance to him. He was accorded all caliphal insignia, apart from the ceremonial parasol (miẓalla).[4] Over the next months and years, Ibn Ilyas is frequently mentioned substituting for al-Hakim in public ceremonies and in the hearing of petitions.[4]

This appointment was a major break with Fatimid tradition, where the oldest surviving son had always been the designated heir; it even threatened to provoke a religious schism, as father-to-son succession was a fundamental tenet of Isma'ili dogma.

Hafizi schism in 1130.[5][7] It is for this reason that male members of the Fatimid dynasty other than the caliph and his designated heir were strictly kept away from government affairs.[8] The selection of Ibn Ilyas in particular was a surprise, since al-Hakim had two sons—Ali and al-Harith, born within a few months of each other in 905 to much fanfare[9]—and Ibn Ilyas himself was evidently of an advanced age, and had sons of his own, and possibly even grandsons.[10]

Moreover, al-Hakim specified that while Ibn Ilyas would become caliph (khalīfa) after his death, the position of

Badis ibn Mansur (r. 995–1016) was astonished by al-Hakim's ignoring his own sons' rights to succession.[2][9] Ibn Ilyas was also perceived as an adversary by Hamza ibn Ali, an Isma'ili missionary who advocated al-Hakim's divinity and founder of the Druze sect, since God could not have a partner or a successor.[14]

Governorship of Damascus

In 1018/19, Ibn Ilyas was appointed governor of Damascus, where he engaged in a complicated power struggle with the local Fatimid garrison, the urban militia (aḥdāth), and a short-lived replacement, Muhammad ibn Abi Talib al-Jarrar. It was only after al-Jarrar's murder that Ibn Ilyas was able to return to Damascus and establish himself as its governor, with the support of the aḥdāth.[15]

Downfall and death

Al-Hakim disappeared—most likely assassinated by disaffected palace factions, apparently involving Sitt al-Mulk—on one of his habitual nightly rides on 13 February 1021.[16][17] The caliph's disappearance was kept secret for six weeks, while the power struggle for the succession raged in the palace.[18][19] In Damascus, Ibn Ilyas was apparently ignorant of events. Nevertheless, when a missive purporting to be from al-Hakim summoned him back to Cairo, he refused to obey it.[20]

In the meantime, Sitt al-Mulk, who sponsored the succession of al-Hakim's son Ali, soon secured her position as the de facto head of the new regime, and on 26 March, during the Eid al-Adha festival, the death of al-Hakim and the succession of Ali, with the regnal name

al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah (r. 1021–1036), were announced.[20] On the same day, Ibn Ilyas was arrested by a specially dispatched force in Damascus, and carried off in chains to Cairo.[21] There he was kept in house arrest in the caliphal palace until his death sometime later.[22] According to the official account relayed by the courtier and historian al-Quda'i, he committed suicide by thrusting a fruit knife into his belly, but, as the historian Heinz Halm notes, nobody believed this version. Rumours insisted that he had been assassinated at the instigation of Sitt al-Mulk—the murderer was reportedly the black eunuch slave Mi'dhad, a close confidant of the princess and tutor to al-Zahir[23]—to remove the last potential rival to al-Zahir.[21] In contrast, Abu Hashim al-Abbas was allowed to retire to obscurity, dying in peace a few years later.[13]

References

  1. ^ Also found as Abd al-Rahman in some sources, cf. Brett 2017, p. 146, Canard 1965, p. 857, Lev 1987, p. 323.
  2. ^ a b c d e Halm 2003, p. 279.
  3. ^ a b Lev 1987, p. 323.
  4. ^ a b Halm 2003, pp. 279–280.
  5. ^ a b Canard 1965, p. 857.
  6. ^ Sanders 1998, pp. 152, 154.
  7. ^ Sanders 1998, pp. 154–155.
  8. ^ Brett 2017, p. 146.
  9. ^ a b Walker 1995, p. 247.
  10. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 279–281.
  11. ^ Halm 2003, p. 280.
  12. ^ Walker 1995, pp. 247–248.
  13. ^ a b Walker 1995, p. 248.
  14. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 294, 296.
  15. ^ Lev 1982, p. 104.
  16. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 297–302.
  17. ^ Sanders 1998, p. 152.
  18. ^ Brett 2017, p. 157.
  19. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 305, 307.
  20. ^ a b Halm 2003, pp. 307–308.
  21. ^ a b Halm 2003, p. 308.
  22. ^ Lev 1987, pp. 326–327.
  23. ^ Halm 2003, p. 318.

Sources

  • Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    ISBN 978-0-7486-4076-8
    .
  • OCLC 495469475
    .
  • ISBN 3-406-48654-1
    .
  • Lev, Yaacov (1982). "The Fāṭimids and the Aḥdāth of Damascus 386/996–411/1021". Die Welt des Orients. 13: 97–106.
    JSTOR 25683053
    .
  • Lev, Yaacov (1987). "The Fāṭimid Princess Sitt al-Mulk". Journal of Semitic Studies. 32 (2): 319–328.
    ISSN 0022-4480
    .
  • Sanders, Paula (1998). "The Fāṭimid state, 969–1171". In Petry, Carl F. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 151–174.
    ISBN 0-521-47137-0
    .
  • Walker, Paul E. (1995). "Succession to Rule in the Shiite Caliphate". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 32: 239–264.
    JSTOR 40000841
    .
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