Al-Adil ibn al-Sallar

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Abu'l-Hasan Ali al-Adil ibn al-Sallar
Died3 April 1154
Cairo
NationalityFatimid Caliphate
Occupations
  • Military commander
  • governor
  • vizier
Years active1098–1154

Abu'l-Hasan Ali al-Adil ibn al-Sallar or al-Salar (

Caliph al-Zafir from 1149 to 1154. A capable and brave soldier, Ibn al-Sallar assumed senior gubernatorial positions, culminating in the governorship of Alexandria. From this position in 1149 he launched a revolt, along with his stepson Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh. Defeating the army of the then vizier, Ibn Masal, he occupied Cairo and forced the young Caliph al-Zafir to appoint him vizier instead. A mutual disdain and hatred bound the two men thereafter, and the Caliph even conspired to have Ibn al-Sallar assassinated. During this tenure, Ibn al-Sallar restored order in the army and strove to halt Crusader
attacks on Egypt, but with limited success. He was assassinated at the behest of his ambitious stepson Abbas, who succeeded him as vizier.

Early life

Of

Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam.[2]

Following the brief

Zirid prince who had died in exile in the city. To further his political ambitions, he soon married Bullara, and raised her son Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh as his own.[1][2]

Vizierate

Political map of the Levant in c. 1140

At the time of the death of

Caliph al-Hafiz in October 1149, Ibn al-Sallar was governor of Alexandria, and his stepson Abbas was governor of the neighbouring district of al-Gharbiyya.[1][2] Ibn al-Sallar had hoped to be named vizier by the new ruler al-Zafir, but the latter chose Ibn Masal instead. Infuriated, Ibn al-Sallar refused to accept the appointment, and together with Abbas conspired against Ibn Masal. When al-Zafir learned of this plot, he called upon assistance from the grandees of the realm in support of Ibn Masal, but they proved unwilling to. In the end, the Caliph provided Ibn Masal with his own funds to hire mercenaries for action against Ibn al-Sallar.[2] Ibn al-Sallar entered Cairo on 10 December, and installed himself in the vizier's palace.[1] For the moment al-Zafir was forced to submit to the new strongman, appointing him vizier and conferring him the honorific titles al-Malik al-ʿĀdil ("righteous ruler"), al-Sayyid al-ʿAjal ("most noble master"), Amīr al-Juyūsh ("commander of the armies"), Sharaf al-Islām ("glory of Islam"), Kafī Quḍāt al-Muslimīn ("protector of the Muslims' qāḍīs"), and Hādī Duʿāt al-Muʾminīn ("guide of the believers' missionaries").[1][2]

His position was not yet secure, as Ibn Masal was among the tribes of Upper Egypt, trying to raise additional troops.[3] Furthermore, the Caliph was unreconciled to the new situation, and conspired to have Ibn al-Sallar killed. In retaliation, in January 1150 Ibn al-Sallar gathered the caliphal guard (ṣibyān al-khāṣṣ), an elite corps of cadets comprising the sons of high dignitaries and officials, and executed most of them, sending the rest to serve on the empire's frontiers.[2][4] He then sent an army under his stepson Abbas, along with Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, to confront Ibn Masal and his ally, Badr ibn Rafi. The two armies met in battle at Dalas in the province of Bahnasa on 19 February 1150, in which Ibn Masal was defeated and killed. Abbas brought his severed head back to Cairo as a token of victory.[3][4]

Unsurprisingly, the relationship between caliph and vizier remained extremely hostile: according to

Farama by the Crusaders, in 1151/2 Ibn al-Sallar mobilized the Fatimid navy to raid Christian shipping along the coasts of the Levant from Jaffa to Tripoli, Lebanon. The fleet inflicted significant casualties and returned victorious.[2][5] This success strengthened Ibn al-Sallar's position domestically, but was hollow, as neither the Fatimids nor Nur al-Din followed it up; in contrast, in early 1153 the Crusaders launched an attack on the Fatimid outpost of Ascalon.[2]

The garrison of Ascalon comprised men of the local tribe of

carrier pigeon to his father, who quickly returned to Cairo to claim the vizierate for himself, showing Ibn al-Sallar's severed head to the populace assembled before the Bab al-Dhahab gate.[2][8] Abandoned to its fate, Ascalon fell to the Crusaders in August 1153.[7]

Neither Abbas nor al-Zafir survived for long. Al-Zafir was killed by Nasr in April 1154 and replaced by his five-year old son, al-Fa'iz bi-Nasr Allah. When Abbas executed two of al-Zafir's brothers, the remaining Fatimid princes appealed to Tala'i ibn Ruzzik for aid. Abbas and Nasr were forced to flee to Syria, where Abbas was killed, while Nasr was captured by the Crusaders and handed back to the Fatimids for execution.[7]

Legacy

Historian Thierry Bianquis assesses Ibn al-Sallar as "a man of no discernible qualities whatsoever", whose greed led to "brutal and vindictive crimes", described in some detail by the chroniclers Ibn Zafir and Ibn Muyassar. These had made him widely unpopular, so that his murder was welcomed at the time.[9]

As vizier, Ibn al-Sallar raised the pay of the army, restoring its order and discipline,

Isma'ili doctrine espoused by the Fatimids: he ordered the construction of a Shafi'i madrasa in Alexandria, known as al-Adiliyya and completed in 1151/2, and may have been responsible for the appointment of the Shafi'i Abu'l-Ma'ali ibn Jumay al-Arsufi as chief qāḍī of Egypt.[11][9] He was also responsible for commissioning a number of other buildings, including several mosques and madrasas.[2]

His rise to power and downfall mark the beginning of the end for the Fatimid state: from al-Zafir on the caliphs were underage youths, sidelined and mere puppets at the hands of the strongmen who vied for the vizierate.[7] This power struggle between generals and viziers dominated the last decades of the Fatimid state, until its takeover by Saladin in 1171.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiet 1960, p. 199.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Al-Imad 2015.
  3. ^ a b Canard 1971, p. 868.
  4. ^ a b Bianquis 2002, p. 382.
  5. ^ a b Lev 1991, p. 103.
  6. ^ Lev 1991, pp. 103–104.
  7. ^ a b c d Daftary 1990, p. 250.
  8. ^ Bianquis 2002, pp. 382–383.
  9. ^ a b c Bianquis 2002, p. 383.
  10. ^ Lev 1991, p. 113.
  11. ^ Lev 1991, p. 140.
  12. ^ Sanders 1998, p. 154.

Sources

  • Al-Imad, Leila S. (2015). "al-ʿĀdil b. al-Sallār". In Fleet, Kate;
    ISSN 1873-9830
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  • ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2
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  • OCLC 495469525
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  • ISBN 978-0-521-37019-6
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  • ISBN 978-3-406-66163-1
    .
  • Lev, Yaacov (1991). State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden: Brill.
    ISBN 9789004093447
    .
  • Sanders, Paula A. (1998). "The Fatimid 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
    .
  • Wiet, C. (1960). "al-ʿĀdil b. al-Salār". In
    OCLC 495469456
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Preceded by Vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate
1149–1153 		Succeeded by
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