al-Qa'im (Fatimid caliph)

The future al-Qa'im was born in the Syrian town of Salamiyah in March or April 893.[1] His birth name was Abd al-Rahman. Abd al-Rahman's father was Sa'id ibn al-Husayn, the future Caliph Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah. The name of his mother, Sa'id's paternal cousin, is unknown.[1]

Sa'id was the leader of the clandestine Isma'ili missionary network, the da'wa ('invitation, calling'), ostensibly propagating the return of a hidden imam, Muhammad ibn Isma'il, as the mahdi, the Islamic messiah. Sometime before 899, Sa'id began claiming that he was the hidden imam, descended from a line of hidden imams; and that Muhammad ibn Isma'il was only a fiction and a cover name to mask their activities.[2] These claims may even have begun before Sa'id assumed control of the da'wa: the family eunuch Ja'far reports in his memoirs that already Sa'id's uncle and previous leader of the da'wa, Abu'l-Shalaghlagh, secretly claimed to a few senior agents the title of mahdi for Sa'id, and the title of qa'im for Abd al-Rahman.[3][lower-alpha 1] These claims caused a schism in the Isma'ili movement in 899, between those who recognized Sa'id's claims to the imamate and those who rejected them. The latter are generally known by the term "Qarmatians".[6][7]

After Sa'id's revelation that he was the hidden imam, some of his most fervent followers launched a series of Bedouin uprisings in Syria against the Abbasid Caliphate. Sa'id had not been consulted beforehand, and the outbreak of these revolts put him in danger, as his identity and location now became known to the Abbasid government, which launched a manhunt against him. Sa'id took Abd al-Rahman and a few other close members of his household, and left Salamiyah for Ramla in Palestine. There the local governor, secretly an Isma'ili convert, hid them from the Abbasid pursuit.[8][9] The Bedouin rebels, calling themselves 'Fatimids', seized control of much of Syria and established a Shi'a regime, but despite receiving several letters urging him to join them , Abd al-Rahman's father remained in hiding at Ramla.[10][11] The rebels were finally defeated in November 903 by the Abbasid army, and their leader captured and interrogated.[11][12]

This once again forced Sa'id to move to Fustat in Egypt, then ruled by the autonomous Tulunid dynasty.[13][14] The group stayed there until January 905, when the Abbasids invaded the country and overthrew the Tulunid regime. Abd al-Rahman's father decided to move to the Maghreb, in the western fringes of the Muslim world,[15] where one of his agents, the da'i Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, had converted the Kutama Berbers to the Isma'ili cause, and by 905 had achieved some first victories against the autonomous Aghlabid dynasty that ruled Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia and eastern Algeria) under nominal Abbasid suzerainty.[16][17] On the journey west, it became apparent that the Aghlabids had been informed about the group's identity and appearance, when one of their members, Abu Abdallah's brother Abu'l-Abbas Muhammad, was arrested.[18] As a result, they skirted the Aghlabid territory along its southern borders and made for the oasis town of Sijilmasa in what is now eastern Morocco.[19] Sa'id, Abd al-Rahman, and their small entourage settled in Sijilmasa, leading the comfortable life of wealthy merchants, for the next four years.[20][21]

The explanation by al-Mahdi that he was merely one in a series of imams rather than the messiah of the end times,[34] and the reality of the new ruler as a man—a middle-aged merchant who loved the finer things in life—clashed with the doctrines that had been propagated by Abu Abdallah. The latter began questioning the claims of his master, and was joined by several of the most prominent Kutama chieftains who had led the Kutama campaign against the Aghlabids.[35] Informed of their intentions, al-Mahdi struck first, and on 18 February 911, Abu Abdallah and Abu'l-Abbas Muhammad were assassinated by loyal Kutama soldiers in the caliph's own palace. They were soon followed by the other Kutama chieftains who had taken part in the conspiracy.[36]

This did not quiet Kutama doubts, however: in April 912, a young boy, Kadu ibn Mu'arik al-Mawati, was proclaimed by some of the Kutama as the true mahdi, new da'is were appointed, and a new holy book written.[37] Starting from Ikjan, the original centre of Abu Abdallah's mission, the revolt spread to the cities of Mila and Constantine, while a loyalist army sent against them was thrown back after many of the Kutama in its ranks defected.[38]

In response, in April/May 912, al-Mahdi officially proclaimed his Abu'l-Qasim Muhammad as heir-apparent (wali al-ahd), gave him the regnal name al-qa'im bi-amr Allah ('He who executes God's command'), and placed him in nominal charge of the army sent to quell the revolt.[38] On 21 June 912, the loyalist army decisively defeated the rebels near Mila. The anti-mahdi al-Mawati and the other rebel leaders were soon captured, and prominently featured in al-Qa'im's triumphal entry into Kairouan in autumn.[39]

Following the consolidation of Fatimid rule in Ifriqiya, al-Mahdi's first objective was Egypt, the gateway to Syria and Iraq, the old heartlands of the Islamic world and seat of his Abbasid rivals.[40] Tripoli, the easternmost city of the Aghlabid domain, had submitted to the Fatimids following the fall of the Aghlabid emirate, but the local Hawwara Berbers quickly came to resent the overbearing behaviour of the Kutama soldiery, as well as the heavy tax demands placed upon them. A first uprising and siege of Tripoli in 910–911 was followed by a general revolt of the Hawwara in summer 912. The Fatimid governor of Tripoli fled, and all Kutama in the city were slaughtered. Al-Qa'im was put in charge of a combined land and naval expedition, laying siege to Tripoli until it capitulated in June 913. Al-Qa'im left one of the principal Kutama generals, Habasa ibn Yusuf, there, to prepare the further eastward expansion of the Fatimid empire.[41] In January 914, Habasa led an army east, and captured Barqa, the capital of Cyrenaica.[42][43]

Following this first success, on 11 July al-Qa'im left Raqqada at the head of another army and went east to assume command of the expedition. Al-Qai'm ordered Habasa to await his arrival at Barqa, but Habasa, driven by ambition, led his forces into Egypt, entering Alexandria on 27 August.[44][45]

Al-Qa'im arrived in Alexandria on 6 November 914, where he imposed the Fatimid call to prayer, a Kutama governor, and an Isma'ili qadi (judge).[44][45] In early December, as the Nile floods withdrew and allowed the passage of armies along the river, the Fatimid army set out for Fustat in two columns: Habasa ahead, with al-Qa'im following behind.[45][46] The Abbasid governor, Takin al-Khazari, refused calls to surrender, and instead called for aid from Baghdad and mobilized his forces to defend the river crossing at the pontoon bridge to Rawda Island and Giza.[45][47] The Fatimid army tried to capture the bridge on 15 December, but was beaten back: Takin's Turkic horse-archers inflicted heavy casualties on the Kutama lancers. The Egyptian forces pursued the Kutama into the night, but during the pursuit the inexperienced levies fell into an ambush, saving the Fatimid army from a complete rout.[45][46] Some of the Egyptians (Christian Copts and Muslims alike) corresponded with al-Qa'im, revealing the continued presence of an element of possible sympathizers and, according to Heinz Halm, possibly the presence of a Fatimid da'i in Fustat.[45][46]

Unable to cross the river to Fustat, al-Qa'im moved, with a large part of his army, around Takin's defences and into the fertile Fayyum Oasis, where they could find provisions. The Kutama initially plundered the area, but al-Qa'im restored order and imposed a regular tax regime on the inhabitants.[45][48] At this point, al-Qa'im and Habasa, who had remained behind in command of the bulk of the Fatimid army at Giza, fell out when al-Qa'im ordered Habasa replaced. On 8 January 915, in a large-scale battle at Giza, the Fatimids were decisively defeated; Fatimid sources unanimously attribute this defeat to Habasa, who fled the battlefield, despite al-Qa'im's exhortations to stand firm. The pro-Fatimid accounts maintain that al-Qa'im launched three attacks on the enemy and caused many casualties, but these embellishments cannot hide the fact that the battle was a disaster: with his army collapsing, al-Qa'im retreated to Alexandria, which he entered on 23 January.[45][49]

Despite the setback, in his letters to his father, and the surviving sermons that he delivered in Alexandria, al-Qa'im appears not to have lost confidence in his ultimate success.[50] At Alexandria, he held a number of Friday prayer sermons (khutbah), propagating the Isma'ili and Fatimid cause.[51] For a while he also engaged in negotiations with some Egyptian defectors, who asked for aman from al-Qa'im, and raised the prospect of the capitulation of Fustat.[52] It appears that al-Qa'im himself was not entirely convinced of the sincerity of such proposals, which became impossible when the Abbasid commander-in-chief Mu'nis al-Muzaffar arrived at Fustat in April 915.[52][53]

Soon after, Habasa with thirty of his closest followers deserted al-Qa'im and made for Ifriqiya; alarmed by this, al-Qa'im evacuated Alexandria hastily and without battle, leaving much of his armament and equipment behind. The city was quickly reoccupied by the Abbasids.[52] Al-Qa'im arrived at Raqqada on 28 May 915. In his rear, Cyrenaica rose in revolt and overthrew Fatimid control; in Barqa, the entire Kutama garrison was killed.[52]

Despite the failure of the first attempt, preparations began immediately for a second assault on Egypt, starting with the recapture of Cyrenaica. This was accomplished with the surrender of Barqa after an 18-month siege, in April 917.[54]

Al-Qa'im set out from Raqqada on his second campaign against Egypt on 5 April 919.[54][55] His vanguard arrived before Alexandria on 9 July 919, while al-Qa'im with the main body of his army came in September/October. The Abbasid governor of the city fled, and Alexandria surrendered without battle.[54][55] Having already acknowledged Fatimid sovereignty during the first invasion and hence now considered in revolt, the city was sacked by the Fatimid troops.[54]

As in 914, the Abbasid governor concentrated the few local forces at Giza, to defend the Nile crossing,[56] until Baghdad could send reinforcements: once again, Mu'nis al-Muzaffar was entrusted with the high command, departing for Egypt on 23 February 920.[57] Although al-Qa'im corresponded with several key figures in Fustat, including the former Tulunid vizier, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i, who kept him informed of the Abbasid garrison's state, he made no move to exploit the weakness of the Fustat garrison and storm Giza. It is possible that al-Madhara'i played a double game, trying to delay an attack until fresh Abbasid troops arrived.[55][58] Al-Qa'im remained at Alexandria for the remainder of the year, as reinforcements continued to arrive from Ifriqiya.[57] These included the Fatimid fleet, 80 ships strong under the eunuch Sulayman, but the Fatimid ships were decisively defeated by an Abbasid squadron under Thamal al-Dulafi on 12 March at Abukir.[55][57]

After the failure of his navy and the arrival of Abbasid reinforcements, and with the supply situation in Alexandria worsening, al-Qa'im decided to repeat the manoeuvre of 914: on 30 July he left Alexandria and, bypassing Giza, took over the fertile Fayyum Oasis, which could provide provisions and a base of operations. As before, he proceeded to tax the inhabitants, as if he were the rightful ruler of Egypt.[59] Another Kutama force took over Upper Egypt in spring 921 up to the Coptic bishopric of al-Ushmuniyya. Not only did this increase the area under taxation for al-Qa'im, but it also ended the grain supply of Fustat from there.[60]

For an entire year, both sides avoided open conflict, and engaged rather in a diplomatic and propaganda battle. Mu'nis offered promises of safe-conduct (aman), as well as recognition of the Fatimids as autonomous rulers of Ifriqiya in the style of the Aghlabids, if al-Qa'im submitted to the Abbasid caliph.[60] Al-Qa'im rejected these overtures in a letter that reiterated the Fatimids' claims to universal dominion as the rightful heirs of Muhammad.[61] A fragment of a long poem by al-Qa'im, exhorting the inhabitants of Fustat to emulate the Ifriqiyan example and follow the rightful Fatimid da'wa, also survives, via a copy sent to Baghdad.[62] At the same time, the Fatimid commander sent appeals to the two holy cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, urging them to recognize the Fatimids' claims to sovereignty over the Islamic world. His requests were ignored.[58][63]

The impasse was broken by the Abbasids in May/June 921: Thamal's fleet captured Alexandria, and then sailed down the Nile to support Mu'nis' attack on Fayyum. The Abbasid forces blockaded the sole connection of Fayym with the Nile at Illahun, cutting al-Qa'im and his men in the oasis from the rest of the country.[64] Once the Abbasid forces began to advance into the oasis, on 8 July al-Qa'im ordered the retreat: all heavy equipment was left behind, while he and his men made their way through the desert to the coastal road to Barqa, an arduous march in which many perished.[65]