Abdallah ibn al-Mu'izz

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Abdallah ibn al-Mu'izz (died 975) was the son and heir-apparent of the fourth Fatimid caliph, al-Mu'izz (r. 953–975), but died before him.

Abdallah was the second oldest of al-Mu'izz's sons, and was designated heir in 972, as part of the preparations for the move of the Fatimid court from Ifriqiya to recently conquered Egypt.[1] The aim was probably to safeguard the succession, against what was expected to be a difficult and perilous journey.[2] The designation had initially been communicated to a select few senior officials and kept secret even from Abdallah himself, but the elderly majordomo Jawdhar revealed the secret when he performed obeisance to Abdallah before the assembled court.[1] The disillusioned eldest son, Tamim, was then involved in an unsuccessful conspiracy with the son of the Kalbid Emir of Sicily.[3]

Initially this appointment was not widely publicized beyond the court, but Abdallah's name was proclaimed publicly alongside his father's after their arrival in Egypt.[2] In April 974, during the Qarmatian invasion of Egypt, Abdallah was put in command of the Fatimid army and led it to a decisive victory, that forced the Qarmatians to withdraw back to their home in Bahrayn.[4] In the aftermath of the victory, on 26 May, the victorious Abdallah made a triumphal entrance into Cairo, accompanied by the most prominent captives on the backs of camels, and several thousand severed heads of the Qarmatian fallen impaled on lances;[5] his position as heir apparent was further underlined by riding under the caliphal parasol, the mizalla.[2] Abdallah predeceased his father, dying after a brief illness on 8 February 975.[2] When al-Mu'izz died in December of the same year, he was succeeded by Abdallah's younger brother, Nizar, as al-Aziz (r. 975–996), without the latter having formally been designated heir previously.[6]


References

  1. ^ a b Halm 1991, pp. 369–370.
  2. ^ a b c d Halm 2003, p. 116.
  3. ^ Halm 1991, p. 370.
  4. ^ Halm 2003, p. 98.
  5. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 98–99.
  6. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 116–117.

Sources

  • Halm, Heinz (1991). Das Reich des Mahdi: Der Aufstieg der Fatimiden [The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
  • Halm, Heinz (2003). Die Kalifen von Kairo: Die Fatimiden in Ägypten, 973–1074 [The Caliphs of Cairo: The Fatimids in Egypt, 973–1074] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 3-406-48654-1.
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