Bardjawan

Abu'l-Futuh Bardjawan ( Arabic أبو الفتوح برجوان, DMG Abūʾl-Futūḥ Barǧawān ; † March 26, 1000 in Cairo ) was the ruling minister of the Fatimid Caliphate for the underage caliph al-Hakim from 997 until his death .

Life

"So I will make the gecko (al-wazaġa) king over us!"

Bardjawan is quoted with this sentence when he put on the ruler's turban on October 13, 996 in Bilbeis after the death of the old caliph al-Aziz, his eleven-year-old son and designated successor Mansur, after he found him climbing a tree while playing. Bardjawan's origins are obscure; In the traditions he is sometimes described as a "black" / Sudanese, sometimes as a "white" / Slavic eunuch who rose in the service of caliph al-Aziz and finally became the teacher ( ustāḏ ) of the young heir to the throne Mansur. After all, he was the first to pay homage to the little prince as the new caliph under the name of al-Hakim. He then defended the succession to the throne of his protégé when he uncovered an attempted coup by the ambitious Princess Sitt al-Mulk . The strong man in the state, however, became the commander of the Kutama Berbers Ibn Ammar , who was proclaimed by his troops to be the “mediator” (wāsiṭa) between them and the caliph, thus assuming the function of vizier .

The regime of the "mediator" quickly became unpopular, however, as it favored the Kutama in the state and army and disadvantaged the Sudanese, Dailamite and Turkish associations. Furthermore, the Kutama provoked the opposition of the population through their indiscipline and violence. Bardjawan took advantage of this displeasure on September 3, 997, when he carried out a successful coup in Cairo against Ibn Ammar and his Kutama, who were driven from the city, with the help of a wide-ranging network of informants and the Turkish military slaves ( mamlūk ) . Bardjawan now assumed the function of regent himself, but without taking over the title of the overthrown predecessor. One of his first measures was the removal of the Kutama from all important posts in the state, but showed himself gracious to them by allowing them to join the other formations of the Fatimid army as paid warriors. Bardjawa's stewards were now appointed to the state offices, most of whom, like him, came from the eunuch caste, but, in contrast to the Kutama, had a much higher level of competence in the organization of civil administration and the fiscal system.

During the reign of Bardjawan, the western, Berber provinces of the Fatminid Caliphate, the Maghreb (now Morocco ), "Africa" ​​( Ifrīqiyā , now Algeria and Tunisia ) and Sicily , began to break away from the supremacy of the caliphs, who were from the governor dynasties of the Zirids and Kalbites were only nominally recognized. Committed to the Fatimid Caliphate's claim to undivided rule over the Muslim world, Bardjawan and the rulers of the Caliphate who succeeded him turned their main attention to the East, with the aim of overcoming the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad , for which the military and economic forces by the state. In terms of foreign policy, he sought a compromise with the Byzantine Empire , with which the Fatimids had been at war for several years in the dispute over rule over Syria . At the same time, he hoped to find a strong ally in the powerful emperor Basil II . In the spring of 1000 he therefore sent a diplomatic mission under the Jerusalem patriarch Orestes , an uncle of the caliph, to the court of Constantinople to negotiate a multi-year armistice, although he did not live to see it successfully sealed the following year.

On March 26, 1000, Bardjawan was invited by fifteen-year-old al-Hakim to visit a newly designed garden in the palace of Cairo with him on a hunting trip. After they had moved away from the rest of the hunting party, the face of the young caliph, who was also an early supporter of Princess Sitt al-Mulk, stuck a knife into the regent's stomach. At the same time the caliph rammed his hunting lance into his body, whereupon Bardjawan fell from his mule covered in blood . Slavic slaves waiting in a hiding place completed the deed with sword blows at the victim lying on the ground. According to contemporary statements, the young caliph wanted to emancipate himself from the years of tutelage and harassment on the part of his former teacher through this bloody act, which was planned a year in advance. In fact, it marked the beginning of his autocracy. The authors of the Alexandrian Patriarchal History knew how to report the punch line, according to which the caliph sent a messenger to Bardjawan on that day with the invitation to visit the garden and let him know:

"Tell him: The little gecko has become a huge dragon, and he'll call you!"

literature

• Farhad Daftary , The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. 2nd edition, London 2007.
• Heinz Halm , The Caliphs of Cairo. The Fatimids in Egypt 973-1074. CH Beck, Munich 2003.

source

• Ibn Challikan : "The Death of Eminent Personalities and the News of the Sons of Time" (Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-Anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān) , ed. by William Mac Guckin de Slane : Ibn Khallikan's biographical dictionary, Vol. 1 (1842), p. 253.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Halm, p. 167 f.
2. ↑ See Halm, p. 173 f.
3. ↑ See Halm, p. 175.
4. ↑ See Halm, pp. 178, 219.
5. ↑ See Halm, p. 178 f.