Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Tāriqu l-Ḥakīm, called bi Amr al-Lāh (Arabic الحاكم بأمر الله "Ruler by God's Command"), was the sixth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, ruling from 996 to 1021.
Born in Egypt in 985, Ḥakīm succeeded his father Abū Mansūr Nizār al-ˤAzīz in 996 at the age of eleven. Because it had been unclear whether he would inherit his father's position, this successful transfer of power was a demonstration of the stability of the Fatimid dynasty. In his long reign as Khalīfa, Ḥakīm extended Fatimid rule to the Emirate of Aleppo.
Political Rivalries and Movements
Ḥakīm's most rigorous and consistent opponent was the Abbāsid Caliphate in Baghdad, which sought to halt the influence of Ismailism. This competition lead to the Baghdad Manifesto of 1011, in which the Abbāsids claimed that the line Ḥakīm represented did not legitimately descend from ˤAlī.
Ḥakīm also struggled with the Qarmatiyya rulers of Bahrain, an island in the Persian Gulf. His diplomatic and missionary vehicle was the Ismā'īlī daˤwa, with its organizational power center in Cairo.
Ḥakīm's reign was characterized by a general unrest. The Fatimid army was troubled by a rivalry between two opposing factions, the Turks and the Berbers. Tension grew between the Caliph and his viziers (called wasītas ""), and near the end of his reign the Druze movement, a religious sect centered around Ḥakīm, began to form. It was the Druze who first referred to Ḥakīm as "Ruler by God's Command".
Religious Issues
In 1005 Ḥakīm founded the Dar al-ˤIlm "House of Knowledge", with its great public library; there philosophy and astronomy were taught in addition to purely Islamic studies of the Qur'ān and ahadīth. In 1013 he completed the mosque in Cairo begun by his father, the Masjid al-Ḥakīm "Ḥakīm's Mosque".
Ḥakīm is also known for his persecution of Christians and Jews and other strange behavior. In 1009, he destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, then under Fatimid control and persecuted the Christians and other dhimmis in Palestine. The church was later rebuilt by his successor with help from the Byzantine Empire. He made the Christians wear wooden crosses, half a meter long by half a meter wide, around their necks. Although Christians were not allowed to buy slaves, male or female, and had few other privileges, they were allowed to ride horses on the condition that they ride with wooden saddles and unornamented girths. Towards the end of his reign he became increasingly erratic and feared by those around him - high ranking officials were executed frequently (including the Vizir Barjuwan), and a series of idiosyncratic laws were enacted, including the prohibition of Mulūkhiyya, a characteristic Egyptian dish, as well as the prohibition of chess. Also, he forced the inhabitants of Cairo to work at night and sleep at morning. Ḥakīm allegedly punished cheating merchants by having one of his slaves, Masoud, sodomize them.
Death and Succession
Ḥakīm disappeared in 1021 on a trip on his donkey to the Muqattam Hills without any guards. The donkey was later found near a well. Some sources claimed that his aunt hired assassins to kill him because of a dispute between them. Although he presumably died, the Druze believe he had been hidden away by God and will return as the Mahdi on Judgement Day.
Ḥakīm was succeeded by his young son Ali az-Zahir under the regency of his sister Sitt al-Mulk.
External links
- Al-Hakim
- Institute of Ismaili Studies: al-Ḥakīm bi-Amr Allah.