Jaudhar al-Ustadh

Jaudhar al-Ustadh ( Arabic جوذر الأستاذ, DMG Ǧauḏar al-Ustāḏ ; † 973 in Barqa ) was a slave , eunuch and reporter of the early Fatimids , who successively served the caliphs al-Qaim (934-946), al-Mansur (946-953) and al-Muizz (953-975) as caretakers.

As a young slave, Jaudhar saw the entry and proclamation of al-Mahdi as caliph in Raqqada in January 910 , from whom he was also responsible during the subsequent mustering of the slaves for the household of the designated heir to the throne al-Qaim for service in the private sphere ( ḥarīm ) selected. In the following years he became one of the closest confidants of al-Qaim, who, after his accession to the throne in 934, appointed him chief administrator of the palace, the treasury and the clothing stores in Mahdia .

With the death of Qaim in 946, Jaudhar received the status of a freedman, but then remained in the service of the subsequent caliphs al-Mansur and al-Muizz as advisors and court servants. In late 972 he also belonged to al-Muizz's entourage when the court moved to Egypt . Already ill and with swollen legs, he had to make the journey in a litter . He died in ancient Barqa in Kyrenaica in the spring of 973 before the court could reach Egypt. Al-Muizz said the funeral prayer for him personally .

Jaudhar left his freed slave Abu Ali Mansur al-Azizi al-Jaudhari an extensive written legacy, which he wrote during the reign of al-Aziz (975-996) for a biography (Sīrat al-Ustāḏ Ǧauḏar) of his old "master" ( ustāḏ ) compressed.

expenditure

• Marius Canard : Vie de l'ustadh Jaudhar (contenant sermons, lettres et rescrits des premiers califes Fâtimides). Algiers 1958.

literature

• Heinz Halm : The Empire of the Mahdi. The rise of the Fatimids 875–973. Munich 1991, pp. 249, 441.
• Farhad Daftary : Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies. London 2004, p. 122 f.