Kutaifat

Abu Ali Ahmad ibn al-Afdal ( Arabic ابو علي احمد بن الافضل, DMG Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn al-Afḍal ; † December 8, 1131 in Cairo ), best known under the surname Kutaifat ("shoulder blades"), was an absolute ruler of Egypt from 1130 to 1131 .

Life

Kutaifat was one of the sons of 1121 murdered vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah , who according to the official account was killed by followers of the Nizarites (aka " Assassins "). But because the members of the vizier's family were subsequently excluded from all posts in the state, their property was expropriated and in some cases also executed, speculations have also arisen about an overthrow within the palace, after which Caliph al-Amir wanted to free himself from the all-powerful vizier family. The surviving Kutaifat, however, cultivated a personal hatred of the Caliph dynasty afterwards and converted from their Ismaili Shia to that of the Twelve . Incidentally, his own family was of Armenian descent.

On October 7, 1130, the caliph was murdered by assassins, whereupon the state steered into a crisis, because only his son Abu'l-Qasim at-Taiyib, who was just a few months old, was a potential heir to the throne of al-Amir , but his birth was hardly public. Initially, Prince Abd al-Madschid was installed as regent, but the army immediately revolted against him. Because of their military origins, the old vizier family enjoyed a high level of prestige among the warriors, who therefore forced the prince regent in Cairo on October 21, 1130 to appoint Kutaifat as the new vizier. After this was done, Kutafat immediately brought all state functions necessary for the unrestricted exercise of power into his power. In addition to the supreme command of the army, he also took charge of the administration of justice and the management of the Ismaili mission. He had old opponents of his family executed. In doing so, he had acquired a monopoly on the use of force, just as his grandfather Badr al-Jamali and his father had. Following the example of the latter, he now gave himself the honorary title al-Afḍal ("the best"). Kutafat soon took the step to absolute power with the imprisonment of the Prince Regent Abd al-Majid and his personal appointment as deputy to the absent true Imam . So he renounced the proclamation of a new caliph, who at the same time would have been the imam of the Ismaili Shia attached to him. Instead, this true Imam was declared to have been raptured into secrecy ( ġaiba ) , whose future return would now have to be awaited by the followers of the faithful. What became of the child at-Tayyib, to whom the imamate and caliphate should have passed, remained unclear. It is possible that Kutaifat made it disappear in order to secure his unlimited power for the future, if that was not done by Prince Abd al-Majid when he took over the reign.

The peculiarity of Kutaifat's assumption of power lies in the identity of the "true imam" he had declared hidden and whose deputy he now intended to rule. During his reign he had coins minted in Cairo, Fustat and Alexandria with the name “the Imam Muhammad Abu'l-Qasim, the triumphant at God's command (al-Muntaṣir bi-amriʾllāh) , commander of all believers”. Behind this name is the person of Muhammad al-Mahdi , the hidden Imam expected by the Twelve Shiites to this day. So Kutifat thus carried out a change in leadership over the believers by ousting the Ismaili Fatimids in favor of the imam line of the twelve, who had only a marginal following in Egypt. But now the country has adopted a constitution similar to that of the current Islamic Republic of Iran .

Kutaifat was murdered in front of the city gate Bab al-Futuh. It was built in 1087 by his grandfather Badr al-Jamali.

Kutaifat sought to establish his sole rule by opening the granaries to the people and giving lucrative military loans (iqṭāʿ) to support his devoted followers in the army, to whom he owed the rule . In terms of religious policy, he seems to have retained the traditional tolerance of the Fatimid caliphate. In a document issued by him in October / November 1130, he certified the monks of the St. Catherine's Monastery on Sinai with a state guarantee of protection after they had endured several attacks in the previous years. He also remained conciliatory towards the Ismailis, who still dominated the Shiites in Egypt. They were allowed to continue their mission and teaching schools and they also retained a seat in the college of judges. Despite these measures, Kutaifat's rule did not last long. He had excluded the veteran guards of the Fatimid dynasty from favoring his army clientele, among whom resentment was now spreading. Ten of their conspirators lay in wait for him on December 8, 1131 on the polo field in front of Bab al-Futuh when he wanted to ride his horse there. Here they pounced on him and stabbed him with their daggers, just as his father had ended ten years earlier.

Prince Abd al-Madschid was released from his prison by the conspirators and reappointed regent. After little at-Tayyib could no longer be found, the prince was proclaimed al-Hafiz to the new caliph on January 23, 1132 , restoring the old Ismaili order and ending the interregnum of the Fatimids brought about by Kutaifat. With him, his family also came to an end.

literature

• Heinz Halm , Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades 1074–1171. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66163-1 .
• Samuel M. Stern, The succession to the Fatimid Imam al-Amir, the claims of the later Fatimids to Imamate, and the rise of Ṭayyibī Ismailism. In: Oriens, Vol. 4 (1951), pp. 193-255.
• Paul E. Walker and Paul Walker, Succession to Rule in Shiite Caliphate. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 32 (1995), pp. 239-264.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Halm, p. 178; Walker, p. 260.
2. ↑ See Halm, p. 180.
3. ↑ See Stern, p. 205.
4. ↑ See Stern, p. 206.
5. ↑ See Halm, p. 179.
6. ↑ See Halm, p. 181.