Chalaf ibn Mulaib

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Chalaf ibn Mulaib ( Arabic خلف بن ملعب, DMG Ḫalaf ibn Mulāʿib ; † February 1106 in Apamea ) was a governor of the Fatimids in Syria in the late 11th and early 12th centuries.

Chalaf served in Syria in the second half of the 11th century as governor of the Shiite caliphs of Cairo from the Fatimid dynasty , who were also the imams of the Shia of the Ismailis . As such, he himself was a follower of this Shia and he came from the Arab tribe of the Kilab . At that time, however, Syria threatened to slip out of the Fatimid's sphere of influence, as the hordes of the Seljuks of Turkish origin had been pushing across the Euphrates from 1055 onwards , who had already controlled Persia and Iraq as recognized sultans of the Sunni caliphs of Baghdad after a conquest from Central Asia . In 1071, their sultan Alp Arslan appeared in person with his army in Syria, and one of his officers managed to advance into southern Palestine to the border of Egypt . In July 1076 the Syrian capital Damascus was finally conquered by the Seljuks. The Seljuks justified their urge to expand against the Fatimids as a religious struggle against the Shiite heresy of the caliphs of Cairo in favor of an orthodox Sunni Islam of the caliphs of Baghdad, after they themselves had adhered to a pagan faith a few generations before.

The shrine of the eighth Imam Abdallah al-Akbar in Salamiyya, which was built in 1088 by Chalaf ibn Mulaib.

As one of the few Fatimid governors in Syria, Chalaf was able to assert himself in Syria against the conquerors from Central Asia. His main residence was Homs (Ḥemṣ) , he also controlled Raphaneia (Rafanīya) and Salamiyya . Salamiyya still plays a prominent role in the historiographical memory of Ismaili Shi'aism. In the 9th century, their imams lived here in secret ( ġaiba ) camouflaged as merchants and laid the foundations of their mission ( daʿwa ) with which they had initiated the establishment of their Fatimid caliphate in North Africa. Now in the midst of the Sunni threat to the Seljuks, Chalaf had a shrine and cenotaph built here in 1088 in honor of the eighth Imam Abdallah al-Akbar of his Shia . The original dedicatory inscription of the building is still preserved. In 1980 the foundation of the forty-ninth Imam Karim Aga Khan IV had this sanctuary restored. In the Syrian civil war since 2011, the city as a Shiite place of pilgrimage has been exposed to the attacks of the Sunni terror syndicate Daesch ("Islamic State") several times .

More than nine hundred years earlier, in 1090, Chalaf had to capitulate to the overpowering Seljukenemir Tutusch I and had to withdraw to Cairo. The Fatimids under the vizier Badr al-Jamali did not come to terms with the loss of Syria and as early as 1092 Chalaf was able to return with an expeditionary army and take Apamea (Afāmiya) . But only a year later he was defeated by a Seljuk counteroffensive under Aq Sunqur al-Hajib and captured with his sons. First they were imprisoned in Aleppo , then deported to Baghdad. The death of Sultan Malik Shah I in the same year quickly brought them back to freedom, after which they rejoined the court of Cairo. In 1096 the Ismaili community of Apamea revolted against the Seljuks, expelled their governors and asked Cairo for help. Once again, Chalaf was able to return to Syria with his sons and take possession of Apamea.

Two years later, the Christian "Franks" of the First Crusade reached the Levant and founded their crusader states , as a result of which Chalaf and the Syrian Ismailis lost their geopolitical connection to Cairo. Last but not least, her Shia experienced a profound split during this time, which was sparked by her succession in the Imamate. A large part of the community in Syria has joined the allegiance of Nizar (X 1095), while Chalaf has remained loyal to the imam lineage that continues to exist in Cairo. The two splinter groups thus formed have since then been hostile to one another in a denominational civil war. Chalaf was able to assert himself in Apamea for several years, but in those years his followers were infiltrated by Nizarites who were known to the Muslims as "Batinites" and later to be known as " Assassins " by the Franks . With the intention of winning the strongly fortified Apamea for their group, they struck under the leadership of the "goldsmith" in the first days of February 1106, murdered Chalaf and one of his sons and occupied the castle. His second son was able to escape the attack and asked for help from the Franconian Tankred , who was ultimately able to take Apamea.

literature

  • Farhad Daftary , The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge University Press 1990, p. 333.
  • Heinz Halm : Caliphs and Assassins. Egypt and the Middle East at the time of the First Crusades 1074–1171 . Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66163-1 , pp. 38-41, 85, 93, 128-129 .

swell

annotation

  1. ↑ The news of the murder of Chalaf and the occupation of Apamea by the "Batinites" got the contemporary chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi († 1160) on 26 Jumada-I 499 AH / 10. Reached February 1106 AD .
personal data
SURNAME Chalaf ibn Mulaib
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Khalaf ibn Mulaib
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Governor of the Fatimids in Syria
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH February 1106
Place of death Apamea