Badr al-Jamali
Badr al-Jamali بدر الجمالى | |
---|---|
Died | 1094 |
Nationality | Fatimid Caliphate |
Occupation(s) | Military commander, governor, vizier |
Years active | Before 1063–1094 |
Children | al-Afdal Shahanshah |
Abū'l-Najm Badr ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Jamālī al-Mustanṣirī,
Early life and career in Syria
Of Armenian ethnic origin, Badr was born sometime between 1005 and 1008; he is recorded as being over 80 years of age at the time of his death.[2][3] Badr was purchased as a slave (mamlūk) by Jamal al-Dawla ibn Ammar, ruler of Tripoli, whence he acquired his epithet (nisbah) of al-Jamālī.[2][3] Otherwise his early life and career until c. 1063 are obscure. However, the historian Seta Dadoyan suggests that he may be identifiable with a namesake Abu'l-Najm Badr, an Armenian ghulām who briefly ruled over Aleppo in 1022.[4]
Badr's career begins to be documented in April 1063, when he was appointed military governor (
Badr's troubles in Syria were symptomatic of the wider malaise afflicting the Fatimid state, which during this period neared complete collapse. The accession of the caliph
The Fatimids had already lost effective control over northern Syria in the early 1060s. In 1070,
In his absence, Ibn Hamdan, who had temporarily lost power, once again seized control of the capital. To secure his position, Ibn Hamdan tried to ensure that his powerful rival remained occupied in Syria. While Badr was engaged with besieging Tyre, Ibn Hamdan encouraged rebellions among the
Vizierate
Rise to power
In 1073, Nasir al-Dawla was murdered by a rival Turkish commander. In the same year, the famine ended following a good harvest.[18] Al-Mustansir seized upon a drastic solution to his problems, and secretly called upon Badr for aid. The latter accepted, provided that he could bring him his Armenian guard with him.[18] At the end of 1073, Badr was in Damietta,[1] and arrived in Cairo in January 1074.[18]
Unaware of the reason for his arrival, the Turkish leaders did not suspect him of ill intentions. As a result, Badr was able to achieve the assassination of all Turkish military leaders in the capital within a short time of his arrival.[18] Following this feat, al-Mustansir proclaimed Badr as vizier with a plenitude of powers and titles: as well as remaining Amīr al-Juyūsh, he was also chief justice as "Protector of the judges of the Muslims" (Kāfil quḍāt al-Muslimīn), and head of the Isma'ili daʿwa as "Guide of the Missionaries of the Believers" (Hādī duʿāt al-Muʿminīn).[19][20] Although the Fatimid caliph was left in place, Badr established a military-based regime, in which he ruled "as a military yet populist dictator" (Seta B. Dadoyan).[1] Medieval Arabic authors describe his position as a "vizierate with plenary powers" (wizārat al-tafwīḍ), which to all intents and purposes was similar to the position of sultan, established by the Seljuk rulers vis-à-vis the Abbasid caliphs.[19] The military character of Badr's office was exemplified by the title of Amīr al-Juyūsh (popularly mirgush), which not only became the name most commonly associated with him, but was also used by Badr as his proper patronymic.[1][21][22] His private army, some 7,000 strong, formed the core of a new force, called the Juyūshiyya,[1] while his own properties and servants were designated Juyush-i.[23]
Domestic governance
Following the establishment of control over Cairo, Badr proceeded to restore central control in the Nile Delta, from east to west, culminating in the storming of Alexandria.[2] The re-establishment of Fatimid control over Upper Egypt proved more difficult, as the local Arab tribes defended the virtual independence they had gained over the previous years.[2] By 1076, Badr had restored the authority of the central government over Egypt, and the Caliph al-Mustansir was reduced to the purely ritual role as head of the Isma'ili community.[1] Although Isma'ilism was restored as the official doctrine, Fatimid ceremonies were reduced, and Sunnis and other Shi'a communities were allowed to practice their faith.[1] Badr retained overall control of religious affairs, and sponsored the building of both mosques and churches.[1]
Badr also undertook a major administrative reform of Egypt. Until that time, the country had been divided in a large number (between 60 and 96) of small districts (
Military activities
In 1075, the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina, who had for a time recognized the Abbasid caliphs, reverted to Fatimid suzerainty.[19] In the same year, dissensions arose between Atsiz and his brothers. One of them, Mankli, made contact with Badr, and even restored the name of al-Mustansir in the Friday prayer in his territories around Acre. He did not last long against Atsiz, however, and was forced to flee to Rufaynah in the north.[25] In October 1076, Atsiz marched against Egypt but Badr declared jihād against him. Defeated, Atsiz withdrew to Syria.[26] In 1079, Badr sent his fellow Armenian, Nasr al-Dawla, against Atsiz in Damascus, while from the north the Seljuks under Tutush approached the city (October 1079). In the event, the Fatimids withdrew, and Damascus, along with most of Syria, fell to the Seljuks.[27]
Death and legacy
Badr died on 21 June 1094. Al-Mustansir tried to regain the powers he had ceded to him, but the majority of Badr's officers supported the succession of Badr's son al-Afdal as vizier.[23]
Badr's position in the history of the Fatimid state is pivotal. While the fusion of administrative and judicial powers in the person of the vizier was the culmination of a process already evident under previous holders, Badr was the first military man to rise to the vizierate ("vizier of the sword") under the Fatimids, and furthermore owed his position not to the Caliph, but to the support of a private military force, personally loyal to him.[28][22] In this Badr also set the tone for his successors: until the end of the Fatimid regime in 1171, the vizierate was held mostly by military strongmen, who sidelined the caliphs and were the de facto rulers of the state.[1][29] Many of these strongmen were Armenian, like Badr: Badr with his son al-Afdal and grandson Kutayfat provided a "miniature dynasty" of viziers, and three more Muslim Armenian viziers would follow until the assassination of the last of them, Ruzzik ibn Tala'i, in 1163. During this "Armenian period" in the history of Fatimid Egypt, the Armenians provided the mainstay of the Fatimid dynasty.[30]
Buildings
In the 1080s, to protect the city from possible Seljuk attack, Badr ordered the refortification of Cairo. The old
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dadoyan 2010.
- ^ a b c d Becker 1960, p. 870.
- ^ a b Dadoyan 2013, p. 80.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 78–80.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 25, 81.
- ^ a b c Dadoyan 2013, p. 81.
- ^ a b Dadoyan 2013, p. 26.
- ^ Daftary 1990, pp. 193–194.
- ^ Lev 1991, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Becker 1960, pp. 869–870.
- ^ Lev 1991, p. 45.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 25–26, 48.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, p. 27.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 43–47.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b c d Daftary 1990, p. 194.
- ^ a b c d e f Halm 2014a.
- ^ Daftary 1990, pp. 194–195.
- ^ Lev 1991, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b Sanders 1998, p. 153.
- ^ a b Lev 1991, p. 48.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, p. 67.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, p. 48.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, p. 49.
- ^ Lev 1991, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Sanders 1998, pp. 153, 157.
- ^ Dadoyan 2013, pp. 67–68, 77.
- ^ a b Bloom 2012.
Sources
- al-Imad, Leila S. (1990). The Fatimid Vizierate (979-1172). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag. ISBN 3-922968-82-1., pp. 96–109
- Becker, C. H. (1960). "Badr al-Jamālī". In OCLC 495469456.
- Bloom, Jonathan M. (2012). "Fāṭimid art and architecture". In Fleet, Kate; ISSN 1873-9830.
- Dadoyan, Seta B. (2013). The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World: Armenian Realpolitik in the Islamic World and Diverging Paradigms: Case of Cilicia Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4128-4577-9.
- Dadoyan, Seta (2010). "Badr al-Jamālī". In Fleet, Kate; ISSN 1873-9830.
- ISBN 978-0-521-37019-6.
- ISSN 1873-9830.
- 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.
Further reading
- Sajjadi, Sadeq (2015). "Badr al-Jamālī". In ISSN 1875-9831.