Misplaced Pages

#921078

194-710: The mosque was built by the Fatimid vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi , who served in this position from 1121 to 1125 under the Caliph al-Amir . He served during a period of great political and spiritual crisis for the Fatimid Caliphate, not long after the sudden incursion of the First Crusade . He initiated a number of reforms and revived the ceremonial aspects of the caliphate, both at court and in public. He also conducted other constructions and renovations inside

388-455: A waqf must be objects of a valid contract. The objects should not themselves be haram (e.g. wine or pork ). These objects should not already be in the public domain: public property cannot be used to establish a waqf. The founder cannot also have pledged the property previously to someone else. These conditions are generally true for contracts in Islam. The property dedicated to waqf

582-890: A Buyid refugee who had fled an unsuccessful rebellion in Baghdad with his own contingent of Turkish soldiers, became the protector of Damascus. He allied with the Qarmatis and with Arab Bedouin tribes in Syria and invaded Palestine in the spring of 977. Jawhar, once again called into action, repelled their invasion and besieged Damascus. However he suffered a rout during the winter and was forced to hold out in Ascalon against Aftakin. When his Kutama soldiers mutinied in April 978, Caliph al-Aziz himself led an army to relieve him. Instead of returning to Damascus, Aftakin and his Turkish ghilman joined

776-683: A jurist of Palestinian origin, took and kept the office of vizier from 1050 to 1058. In the 1040s (possibly in 1041 or 1044), the Zirids declared their independence from the Fatimids and recognized the Sunni Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, which led the Fatimids to launch the devastating Banū Hilal invasions of North Africa. Fatimid suzerainty over Sicily also faded as the Muslim polity there fragmented and external attacks increased. By 1060, when

970-467: A waqf and a trust, "property is reserved, and its usufruct appropriated, for the benefit of specific individuals, or for a general charitable purpose; the corpus becomes inalienable ; estates for life in favor of successive beneficiaries can be created" and "without regard to the law of inheritance or the rights of the heirs; and continuity is secured by the successive appointment of trustees or mutawillis ." The only significant distinction between

1164-565: A Kutama general, Salman, to take Damascus, the Turkish ghulām Bultakīn finally succeeded in occupying the city for the Fatimids in 983, demonstrating the value of this new force. Another ghulām , Bajkūr, who appointed governor of Damascus at this time. That same year he tried and failed to take Aleppo, but he was soon able to conquer Raqqa and Rahba in the Euphrates valley (present-day northeast Syria ). Cairo eventually judged him to be

1358-483: A Turkish commander, with a force that defeated them in 1029 at the Battle of Uqḥuwāna near Lake Tiberias. In 1030 the new Byzantine emperor Romanos III broke a truce to invade northern Syria and forced Aleppo to recognize his suzerainty. His death in 1034 changed the situation again and in 1036 peace was restored. In 1038 Aleppo was directly annexed by the Fatimids state for the first time. Al-Zahir died in 1036 and

1552-427: A counter-offensive to secure coastal cities, such as Gaza and Ascalon, and later Tyre , Sidon , and Byblos further north in 1089. Badr made major reforms to the state, updating and simplifying the administration of Egypt. As he was of Armenian background, his term also saw a large influx of Armenian immigrants, both Christian and Muslim, into Egypt. The Armenian church , patronised by Badr, established itself in

1746-500: A final invasion of Kairouan. The remaining Aghlabid army, led by an Aghlabid prince named Ibrahim Ibn Abi al-Aghlab, met them near al-Aribus on 18 March. The battle lasted until the afternoon, when a contingent of Kutama horsemen managed to outflank the Aghlabid army and finally caused a rout. When news of the defeat reached Raqqada, Ziyadat Allah III packed his valuable treasures and fled towards Egypt. The population of Kairouan looted

1940-492: A floriated background runs around the arches along the courtyard. Aside from some of the Kufic inscriptions and some of the carved wooden tie-beams between the arches, most of the mosque's original interior decoration has not been preserved. The mosque's original Fatimid mihrab was replaced during the 14th-century restoration by a Mamluk-style mihrab with marble paneling, however the 1990s Bohra restoration replaced this too with

2134-512: A former finance official, at their head. Fatimid control in Syria was threatened during the 1020s. In Aleppo, Fatāk, who had declared his independence, was killed and replaced in 1022, but this opened the way for a coalition of Bedouin chiefs from the Banu Kilab, Jarrahids, and Banu Kalb led by Salih ibn Mirdas to take the city in 1024 or 1025 and to begin imposing their control on the rest of Syria. Al-Jarjarā'ī sent Anushtakin al-Dizbari ,

SECTION 10

#1732779984922

2328-565: A geometric motif similar to the equivalent openwork added by al-Hafiz to the courtyard of Al-Azhar Mosque, and a wider upper band featuring an interlacing motif similar to the stucco-carved motifs at the top of the Fatimid-era mihrab in the Mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya . The minaret was added later by the Mamluk amir Yalbugha al-Salimi as part of his restorations in 1393 or 1397. Only

2522-669: A great uprising in Syria . The large-scale Abbasid reaction it precipitated and the attention it brought on him, forced Abdallah to abandon Salamiya for Palestine, Egypt, and finally for the Maghreb , where the dā'ī Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i had made great headway in converting the Kutama Berbers to the Isma'ili cause. Unable to join his dā'ī directly, Abdallah instead settled at Sijilmasa sometime between 904 and 905. Prior to

2716-516: A little too popular as governor of Damascus and he was forced to move to Raqqa while Munir, a eunuch in the caliph's household (like Jawhar before him), took direct control in Damascus on behalf of the caliph. Further north, Aleppo remained out of reach and under Hamdanid control. The incorporation of the Turkish troops into the Fatimid army had long-term consequences. On the one hand, they were

2910-459: A man dies, only three deeds will survive him: continuing alms, profitable knowledge, and a child praying for him." Islamic law places several legal conditions on the process of establishing a waqf . A waqf is a contract; therefore, the founder (called al-wāqif or al-muḥabbis in Arabic) must be capable of entering into a contract. For this, the founder must: Although waqf

3104-633: A means to legally safeguard properties under conditions of debt. In donating assets to the public, the aristocracy managed to preserve their wealth while providing land, financial support and community spaces such as mosques to the general public. When Zanzibar became a British protectorate in 1890, almost half the island was waqf property. In order to establish control, the British realised that they would either have to privatise waqf or gain administrative control over them. A series of decrees were subsequently issues to incorporate all waqf properties into

3298-687: A necessary addition to the military in order for the Fatimids to compete militarily with other powers in the region. The Fatimids began to recruit ghilmān much as the Abbasids had done before them. They were soon joined by recruited Daylamis (footmen from the Buyid homeland in Iran ). Black Africans from the Sudan (upper Nile valley) were also recruited afterward. In the short term the Kutama warriors remained

3492-603: A new government under the helm of the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP). An important part of the revolution was the prosecution of the Zanzibari elite of Arabic descent. This left a significant portion of land, much of which was waqf , to be nationalised by the newly independent state as part of their socialist development programme. The revolution highlights a crucial turn point in waqf institutions in Zanzibar, namely

3686-513: A one-year truce with the caliph, which the Fatimids used to recruit and build new ships for their fleet. In 996 many of the ships were destroyed by a fire at al-Maqs, the port on the Nile near Fustat, further delaying the expedition. Finally, in August 996 al-Aziz died and the objective of Aleppo became secondary to other concerns. Before leaving for Egypt, al-Mu'izz had installed Buluggin ibn Ziri ,

3880-577: A perpetual element; the waqf must specify its beneficiaries in case. The declaration of founding is usually a written document, accompanied by a verbal declaration, though neither are required by most scholars. Whatever the declaration, most scholars (those of the Hanafi, Shafi'i, some of the Hanbali and the Imami Shi'a schools) hold that it is not binding and irrevocable until actually delivered to

4074-580: A siege when local notables arranged to have the gates opened to them in May or June 907. This opened a hole in the wider defensive system of Ifriqiya and created panic in Raqqada. Ziyadat Allah III stepped up anti-Fatimid propaganda, recruited volunteers, and took measures to defend the weakly-fortified city of Kairouan. He spent the winter of 907–908 with his army in al-Aribus ( Roman -era Laribus, between present-day El Kef and Maktar ), expecting an attack from

SECTION 20

#1732779984922

4268-651: A soup kitchen, and two traveler and pilgrim inns. The earliest pious foundations in Egypt were charitable gifts, and not in the form of a waqf . The first mosque built by ' Amr ibn al-'As is an example of this: the land was donated by Qaysaba bin Kulthum , and the mosque's expenses were then paid by the Bayt al-mal . The earliest known waqf , founded by financial official Abū Bakr Muḥammad bin Ali al-Madhara'i in 919 (during

4462-400: A source of charity and thereby public welfare while doubling as a tool of domination used by the ruling class to maintain the dependence of the lower classes. While the former was somewhat preserved as a scripture-based normative foundation of waqf institutions, the nature and dynamics of the latter was contingent on the nature and dynamics of regime changes in Zanzibar. Under Omani rule, waqf

4656-725: A strong response in Cairo. A major military campaign was prepared to impose Fatimid control over all of Syria. Along the way, Munir was arrested in Damascus and sent back to Cairo. Circumstances were favourable to the Fatimids as the Byzantine emperor Basil II was campaigning far away in the Balkans and the Hamdanid ruler Sa'd al-Dawla died in late 991. Manjūtakīn, the Turkish Fatimid commander, advanced methodically north along

4850-764: A thing to stop or stand still. According to Islamic law, once an asset has been donated as waqf it cannot be sold, transferred or given as a gift. Once a waqif has verbally or in writing declared a waqf property, it is legally conceived as the property of Allah and must be used to "fulfill public of family needs" as a charitable social service. A waqf property can fall into one of two categories: movable or immovable. A 'movable' asset includes money or shares which are used to finance educational, religious or cultural institutions such as madrasahs (Islamic schools) or mosques . The madrasahs and mosques themselves are an example of an 'immovable' asset which refers to land or structures open for public use. An important function of

5044-488: A third expedition to try and subdue the Kutama. They based themselves in Constantine and in the fall of 905, after receiving further reinforcements, set out to march against Abu Abdallah. However, they were surprised by Kutama forces on the first day of their march, which caused a panic and scattered their army. The Aghlabid general fled and the Kutama captured a large booty. Another Aghlabid military expedition organized

5238-540: A widespread messianic tradition in Islam concerning the appearance of a mahdī ("the Rightly Guided One") or qāʾim ("He Who Arises"), who would restore true Islamic government and justice and usher in the end times . This figure was widely expected – not just among the Shi'a – to be a descendant of Ali. Among Shi'a, however, this belief became a core tenet of their faith, and

5432-602: Is 33,229. In the 16th century, the Haseki Sultan Complex charitable complex was founded by the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent and serviced 26 villages; the institution also included shops, a bazaar, two soap plants, 11 flour mills and two bathhouses located in Ottoman Syria and Lebanon . For several centuries, the income generated by these businesses contributed in the maintenance of a mosque,

5626-504: Is a modern restoration and reconstruction by the Bohras, hence the stone's lighter color and smoother texture in comparison with the original masonry of the rest of the façade. Other carved images offer more abstract symbols. To the very left of the façade, there is a window grille framed by an arch resting on two small columns with the Muslim profession of faith above and roundels filling

5820-433: Is an Islamic institution, being a Muslim is not required to establish a waqf , and dhimmis may establish a waqf . Finally, if a person is fatally ill, the waqf is subject to the same restrictions as a will in Islam. Some of the founders of Ottoman waqfs were women, with their establishments having a crucial impact on their communities' economic life. Out of 30,000 waqf certificates documented by

6014-676: Is certainly well known to Allah." Their formal conception in Islamic society has been derived from a number of hadiths . It is said that during the time of Muhammad, after the Hijrah , the first waqf was composed of a grove of 600 date palms. The proceeds of this waqf were meant to feed Medina's poor. In one tradition, it is said that: "Ibn Umar reported, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab got land in Khaybar , so he came to Muhammad and asked him to advise him about it. Muhammad said, 'If you like, make

Aqmar Mosque - Misplaced Pages Continue

6208-702: Is dedicated by the Donor ( Wakif ) for the benefit of their kith and kin and for any purpose recognised by Muslim law as pious, religious or charitable. After the enactment Wakf Act 1954, the Union government directed to all the states governments to implement the Act for administering the wakf institutions like mosques, dargahs , hussainiyas , graveyards, takhiyas , eidgah , anjumans , and various religious and charitable institutions. A statutory body under Government of India, which also oversees State Wakf Boards . In turn

6402-636: Is difficult to pinpoint the historical origins of waqf in East Africa, the practice began to formalize in the 17th Century after the Sultan of Oman, Sayyid Saïd , had cemented his control over Zanzibar and the East African coastline. Until this point, archeological evidence has unearthed several old mosques along the Swahili Coast which are believed to be informal waqf dating as far back as

6596-400: Is generally immovable, such as an estate. All movable goods can also form waqf , according to most Islamic jurists. The Hanafis, however, also allow most movable goods to be dedicated to a waqf with some restrictions. Some jurists have argued that even gold and silver (or other currency) can be designated as waqf . Documents listing endowments (waqfiyyas) often include the name of

6790-490: Is now northern Morocco occurred in 917 and 921 and were primarily aimed at the Principality of Nakur , which they subjugated on both occasions. Fez and Sijilmasa were also captured in 921. These two expeditions were led by Masala ibn Habus, who had been made governor of Tahert . Thereafter, the weakened Idrisids and various local Zenata and Sanhaja leaders acted as proxies whose formal allegiances oscillated between

6984-468: Is similar to the Mosque of al-Salih Tala'i , built by the Fatimids later in the same century, whose shops have been excavated and are visible today below the street level. The mosque of al-Aqmar was the earliest to have lavish decoration across the entire façade. Elements decorating the façade are loaded with symbolic meaning and can be interpreted in various ways. One notable feature is the large medallion in

7178-482: Is synonymous with ḥabs ( حَبْس , also called ḥubs حُبْس or ḥubus حُبْوس and commonly rendered habous in French). Habs and similar terms are used mainly by Maliki jurists. In Twelver Shiism , ḥabs is a particular type of waqf , in which the founder reserves the right to dispose of the waqf property. The person making the grant is called al-waqif (or al-muhabbis ) while

7372-493: Is that the window represents a shubbāk , the grille from which the caliph appeared to the public on Fatimid ceremonial occasions, specifically symbolizing a famous grille taken by the Fatimids from the palace of their Abbasid rivals in Baghdad and placed as an emblem of victory in the neighboring palace. Near the grilled window, on the same side of the façade, are carved panels representing doors. One possible interpretation of

7566-470: Is the institution(s) providing services as committed in the vakıf deed, such as madrasas , public kitchens ( imarets ), karwansarays , mosques, libraries, etc. Generally, the waqf must fulfill three primary constraints: Although there is no direct Quranic injunction regarding waqf , it can be inferred from Surah Al-i'-Imran (3:92): "You will never achieve righteousness until you donate some of what you cherish. And whatever you give

7760-401: Is uncertain whether an agreement was reached but it seems that the parties expected to reach a conclusion in Cairo. Al-Afdal took then advantage of the crusader victory at Antioch to reconquer Jerusalem in August 1098, possibly to be in a better position in the negotiations with the crusaders. The next time both parties met was at Arqah in April 1099 where an impasse was reached in regard to

7954-434: The waqf during their lifetime. In some cases, however, the number of beneficiaries is quite limited. Thus, there is no need for an administrator, and the beneficiaries themselves can take care of the waqf . The administrator, like other persons of responsibility under Islamic law, must have the capacity to act and contract. In addition, trustworthiness and administrative skills are required. Some scholars require that

Aqmar Mosque - Misplaced Pages Continue

8148-418: The waqf system depended on several hadiths and presented elements similar to practices from pre-Islamic cultures, it seems that the specific full-fledged Islamic legal form of endowment called waqf dates from the 9th century AD (see § History and location below). In Sunni jurisprudence, waqf , also spelled wakf ( Arabic : وَقْف ; plural أَوْقاف , awqāf ; Turkish : vakıf )

8342-603: The Abbasid period ), is a pond called Birkat Ḥabash together with its surrounding orchards, whose revenue was to be used to operate a hydraulic complex and feed the poor. Early references to waqf in India can be found in the 14th-century work Insha-i-Mahru by Aynul Mulk ibn Mahru. According to the book, Muhammad of Ghor dedicated two villages in favor of a congregational mosque in Multan , and, handed its administration to

8536-729: The Awliya' Allah ('Friends of God'), and to initiate them into Isma'ili doctrine. In 902, while the Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II was away on campaign in Sicily , Abu Abdallah struck the first significant blow against Aghlabid authority in North Africa by attacking and capturing the city of Mila for the first time. This news triggered a serious response from the Aghlabids, who sent a punitive expedition of 12,000 men from Tunis in October of

8730-539: The Dar al-'Ilm ("House of Knowledge"), a library for the study of the sciences, which was in line with al-Aziz's previous policy of cultivating this knowledge. For the general population, he was noted for being more accessible and willing to receive petitions in person, as well as for riding out in person among the people in the streets of Fustat. On the other hand, he was also known for his capricious decrees aimed at curbing what he saw as public improprieties. He also unsettled

8924-631: The Fatimid Empire , was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids , an Isma'ili Shia dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia , it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids trace their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad 's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali ,

9118-506: The Fatimid Great Palaces . He was arrested shortly after completing the mosque in 1125, and was executed 3 years later.He had grown up in poverty following his father's death and, before being hired by the vizier al-Afdal (his predecessor), he had been working low-status jobs which reportedly included learning building skills. This early experience may have encouraged his later architectural achievements. The al-Aqmar mosque

9312-459: The Fatimid architecture . Therefore, it is likely that the mosque originally had a flat ceiling but that when Yalbugha al-Salimi restored it from ruin in the 14th century it was given these vaulted ceilings, which resemble the type of ceiling used in the Khanqah of Faraj ibn Barquq , a Mamluk monument from the early 15th century. The novelty of the floor plan lies in the facade's alignment with

9506-716: The Italo-Norman Roger I began his conquest of the island (completed in 1091), the Kalbid dynasty, along with any Fatimid authority, were already gone. There was more success in the east, however. In 1047 the Fatimid dā'ī Ali Muhammad al-Ṣulayḥi in Yemen built a fortress and recruited tribes with which he was able to capture San'a in 1048. In 1060 he began a campaign to conquer all of Yemen, capturing Aden and Zabid . In 1062 he marched on Mecca, where Shukr ibn Abi al-Futuh 's death in 1061 provided an excuse. Along

9700-676: The Levant (including Transjordan), the Red Sea coast of Africa, Tihamah , Hejaz , Yemen , with its most remote territorial reach being Multan (in modern-day Pakistan) . Egypt flourished, and the Fatimids developed an extensive trade network both in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean. Their trade and diplomatic ties, extending all the way to China under the Song Dynasty ( r.  960–1279 ), eventually determined

9894-599: The Mustansirite Hardship . Viziers came and went in flurry, the bureaucracy broke down, and the caliph was unable or unwilling to assume responsibilities in their absence. Declining resources accelerated the problems among the different ethnic factions, and outright civil war began, primarily between the Turks under Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan , a scion of the Hamdanids of Aleppo, and Black African troops, while

SECTION 50

#1732779984922

10088-514: The Nizaris or Assassins , though the truth of this is unconfirmed. Waqf A waqf ( Arabic : وَقْف ; [ˈwɑqf] , plural awqaf أَوْقَاف ), also called a ḥabs ( حَبْس , plural ḥubūs حُبوس or aḥbās أَحْباس ), or mortmain property, is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law . It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitable purposes with no intention of reclaiming

10282-550: The Shaykh al-Islām (highest ecclesiastical officer of the Empire). In the coming years, several more waqf were created, as the Delhi Sultanate flourished. As per the Wakf Act 1954 (later Wakf Act 1995) enacted by the government of India, waqf are categorized as (a) waqf by user such as graveyards, Musafir Khanas (Sarai) and Chowltries etc., (b) waqf under Mashrutul-khidmat (Service Inam) such as Khazi service, Nirkhi service, Pesh Imam service and Khateeb service etc., and (c) Wakf Alal-aulad

10476-406: The Sulayhid dynasty which continued to rule Yemen as nominal vassals of the Fatimids after this. Events degenerated in Egypt and Syria, however. Starting in 1060, various local leaders began to break away or challenge Fatimid dominion in Syria. While the ethnic-based army was generally successful on the battlefield, it had begun to have negative effects on Fatimid internal politics. Traditionally

10670-399: The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, whom they considered usurpers. Instead, they believed in the exclusive right of the descendants of Ali through Muhammad's daughter Fatima , to lead the Muslim community. This manifested itself in a line of imams , descendants of Ali via al-Husayn , whom their followers considered as the true representatives of God on earth. At the same time, there was

10864-403: The Zagwe dynasty ) as vassals to the Fatimid state. The Juyushi Mosque ( Arabic : الجامع الجيوشي , lit.   'the Mosque of the Armies'), was commissioned by Badr and completed in 1085 under the patronage of the caliph. The mosque, identified as a mashhad , was also a victory monument commemorating vizier Badr's restoration of order for al-Mustansir. Between 1087 and 1092,

11058-423: The Zenata Berbers, the uprising spread through Ifriqiya, taking Kairouan and blockading al-Qa'im at al-Mahdiyya, which was besieged in January–September 945. Al-Qa'im died during the siege, but this was kept secret by his son and successor, Isma'il, until he had defeated Abu Yazid; he then announced his father's death and proclaimed himself imam and caliph as al-Mansur . While al-Mansur was campaigning to suppress

11252-458: The palaces of the caliph and the official state mosque, Al-Azhar Mosque . In 988 the mosque also became an academic institution that was central in the dissemination of Isma'ili teachings. Until the last years of the Fatimid Caliphate, the economic centre of Egypt remained Fustat, where most of the general population lived and traded. Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the centre of an empire that included at its peak parts of North Africa, Sicily,

11446-414: The political quietism of their leadership and the recent disappearance of the twelfth imam. Missionaries ( dā'ī s) such as Hamdan Qarmat and Ibn Hawshab spread the network of agents to the area round Kufa in the late 870s, and from there to Yemen (882) and thence India (884), Bahrayn (899), Persia , and the Maghreb (893). In 899, Abdallah al-Akbar's great-grandson, Abdallah , became

11640-427: The spandrels in the names of Muhammad and 'Ali. The grille is formed of a radiating six-pointed star with a lamp hanging in the center. One scholarly claim argues that this window represents a mihrab (prayer niche), similar to a flat stucco mihrab found in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun ; however, the mihrab referred to has a star hanging from a chain and not a lamp. A more plausible argument proposed by another scholar

11834-417: The 'public' ownership of these assets that disposed of the need for a waqif . In this way, waqf was further cemented as a political institution regulated by a centralized state while being managed by mutawallis . It allowed the poorest inhabitants of Stone Town to reside in waqf buildings that were previously reserved for the relatives of waqif families. While this may appear to be an act of good fortune,

SECTION 60

#1732779984922

12028-404: The 19th century, during the reign of Muhammad 'Ali (r. 1805–1848), by amir Sulayman Agha al-Silahdar, who also built a nearby mosque across the street. In 1993, the mosque was extensively and heavily renovated by the Dawoodi Bohras . This included the replacement of al-Salimi's mihrab with a new marble mihrab and the reconstruction of the southern half of the exterior façade by replicating

12222-427: The 8th Century. The formalization of waqf can be traced back to 1820 when Sultan Said moved the Omani Sultanate to Stone Town, Zanzibar. This marked a shift from waqf as an Islamic scriptural imperative to a local and centralized institutional practice legitimated by the royal family. From this point onward, the urban development of the port city of the East African archipelago was shaped by waqf practices. As such,

12416-423: The 950s, until the Fatimid general Jawhar , on behalf of Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah , led another major expedition to Morocco in 958 and spent two years subjugating most of northern Morocco. He was accompanied by Ziri ibn Manad , the leader of the Zirids . Jawhar took Sijilmasa in September or October 958 and then, with the help of Ziri, his forces took Fez in November 959. He was unable, however, to dislodge

12610-408: The 9th century, while a third one dates from the early 10th century, all three within the Abbasid Period. The oldest dated waqfiya goes back to 876 CE and concerns a multi-volume edition of the Qur'an currently held by the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in Istanbul . A possibly older waqfiya is a papyrus held by the Louvre Museum in Paris , with no written date but considered to be from

12804-427: The Aghlabid province of Sicily , which the Aghlabids had gradually conquered from the Byzantine Empire starting in 827. The conquest was generally completed when the last Christian stronghold, Taormina , was conquered by Ibrahim II in 902. However, some Christian or Byzantine resistance continued in some spots in the northeast of Sicily until 967, and the Byzantines still held territories in southern Italy, where

12998-464: The Aghlabid state's apparatus and allowed its former officials to continue working for the new regime. He established a new, Isma'ili Shi'a regime on behalf of his absent, and for the moment unnamed, master. He then led his army west to Sijilmasa, whence he led Abdallah in triumph to Raqqada, which he entered on 15 January 910. There Abdallah publicly proclaimed himself as caliph with the regnal name of al-Mahdī , and presented his son and heir, with

13192-413: The Aghlabids had also campaigned. This ongoing confrontation with the traditional foe of the Islamic world provided the Fatimids with a prime opportunity for propaganda, in a setting where geography gave them the advantage. Sicily itself proved troublesome, and only after a rebellion under Ibn Qurhub was subdued, was Fatimid authority on the island consolidated. For a large part of the tenth century

13386-407: The Berbers shifted alliance between the two sides. The Turkish faction under Nasir al-Dawla seized partial control of Cairo but their leader was not given any official title. In 1067–1068 they plundered the state treasury and then looted any treasures they could find in the palaces. The Turks turned against Nasir al-Dawla in 1069, but he managed to rally Bedouin tribes to his side, took over most of

13580-412: The Egyptian population to adopt its religious beliefs. After the reigns of al-'Aziz and al-Hakim , the long reign of al-Mustansir entrenched a regime in which the caliph remained aloof from state affairs and viziers took on greater importance. Political and ethnic factionalism within the army led to a civil war in the 1060s, which threatened the empire's survival. After a period of revival during

13774-433: The Fatimid army and became a useful instrument in the Syrian effort. After Ibn Killis became vizier in 979, the Fatimids changed tactics. Ibn Killis was able to subjugate most of Palestine and southern Syria (the former Ikhshidid territories) by paying off the Qarmatis with an annual tribute and making alliances with local tribes and dynasties, such as the Jarrahids and the Banu Kilab . Following another failed attempt by

13968-652: The Fatimid rise to power, a large part of the Maghreb including Ifriqiya was under the control of the Aghlabids , an Arab dynasty who ruled nominally on behalf the Abbasids but were de facto independent. In 893 the dā'ī Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i first settled among the Banu Saktan tribe (part of the larger Kutama tribe) in Ikjan , near the city of Mila (in northwestern Algeria today). However, due to hostility from

14162-432: The Fatimid vizier's function in governing who had access to the caliph. Although the grilled window and the carved door panels represent real objects, their particular use as part of the façade's decorative scheme grants them a metaphorical meaning associated with the historical framework of Fatimid caliphal rituals. Between the carved image of the window and of the doors there was once a decorative roundel or medallion which

14356-515: The Fatimids also engaged in a rivalry with the Umayyads of Cordoba —who ruled Al-Andalus and were hostile to the Fatimids' pretensions—in an effort to establish domination over the western Maghreb. In 911, Tahert , which had been briefly captured by Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i in 909, had to be retaken by the Fatimid general Masala ibn Habus of the Miknasa tribe. The first Fatimid expeditions to what

14550-495: The Fatimids faced a new external threat: the First Crusade . Although initially both sides intended to reach an agreement and an alliance against the Seljuk Turks, these negotiations would eventually break down. First contact seems to have been established by the crusaders who sent in May or June 1097, on suggestion of Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos , an embassy to al-Afdal. In return the Fatimids dispatched an embassy to

14744-623: The GDPFA ( General Directorate of Pious Foundation in Ankara ), over 2,300 of them were registered to institutions that belonged to women. Of the 491 public fountains in Istanbul that were constructed during the Ottoman period and survived until the 1930s, nearly 30% of them were registered under waqfs that belonged to women. The property (called al-mawqūf or al-muḥabbas ) used to found

14938-464: The Islamic waqf and English trust was "the express or implied reversion of the waqf to charitable purposes when its specific object has ceased to exist", though this difference only applied to the waqf ahli (Islamic family trust) rather than the waqf khairi (devoted to a charitable purpose from its inception). Another difference was the English vesting of "legal estate" over the trust property in

15132-424: The Islamic waqf law and madrassah foundations were firmly established by the 10th century, the number of Bimaristan hospitals multiplied throughout Islamic lands. By the 11th century, many Islamic cities had several hospitals. The waqf trust institutions funded the hospitals for various expenses, including the wages of doctors, ophthalmologists , surgeons, chemists , pharmacists , domestics and all other staff,

15326-400: The Kutama element of the army had the strongest sway over political affairs, but as the Turkish element grew more powerful, it began to challenge this. In 1062, the tentative balance between the different ethnic groups within the Fatimid army collapsed and they quarreled constantly or fought each other in the streets. At the same time, Egypt suffered a 7-year period of drought and famine known as

15520-464: The Kutama rebels, but he ended the expedition prematurely due to troubles at home arising from disputes over his succession. On 27 July 903 he was assassinated and his son Ziyadat Allah III took power in Tunis. These internal Aghlabid troubles gave Abu Abdallah the opportunity to recapture Mila and then go on to capture Setif, another fortified city, by October or November 904. In 905 the Aghlabids sent

15714-531: The Merciful, O People of the House [ ahl al-bayt ] God only desires to put away from you abomination and with cleansing to cleanse you.” The Fatimids interpreted this Qur’anic inscription as a reference to themselves, using it as a statement of legitimacy and manifestation of Shi'i ideology. The last few words of the inscriptions are cramped and placed on a new line, which indicates that the ratio of space to words

15908-470: The Muslim world. In West Africa, very few examples of the institution can be found, and were usually limited to the area around Timbuktu and Djenné in Massina Empire . Instead, Islamic west African societies placed a much greater emphasis on non-permanent acts of charity. According to expert Illife, this can be explained by West Africa's tradition of "personal largesse." The imam would make himself

16102-485: The Nile Delta region, and blocked supplies and food from reaching the capital from this region. Things degenerated further for the general population, especially in the capital, which relied on the countryside for food. Historical sources of this period report extreme hunger and hardship in the city, even to the point of cannibalism . The depredations in the Nile Delta may have also been a turning point that accelerated

16296-427: The Nile Delta region, which gave Jawhar time to organize a defense of Fustat and Cairo. The Qarmati advance was halted just north of the city and eventually routed. A Kalbid relief force arriving by sea secured the expulsion of the Qarmatis from Egypt. Ramla , the capital of Palestine , was retaken by the Fatimids in May 972, but otherwise the progress in Syria had been lost. Once Egypt was sufficiently pacified and

16490-497: The Orontes valley. He took Homs and Hama in 992 and defeated a combined force from Hamdanid Aleppo and Byzantine-held Antioch. In 993 he took Shayzar and in 994 he began the siege of Aleppo. In May 995, however, Basil II unexpectedly arrived in the region after a forced march with his army through Anatolia, forcing Manjūtakīn to lift the siege and return to Damascus. Before another Fatimid expedition could be sent, Basil II negotiated

16684-519: The State Wakf Boards work towards management, regulation and protect the Wakf properties by constituting District Wakf Committees, Mandal Wakf Committees and Committees for the individual Wakf Institutions. As per the report of Sachar Committee (2006) there are about 500,000 registered Wakfs with 600,000 acres (2,400 km ) land in India, and Rs. 60 billion book value. While it

16878-664: The Sunni anti-caliph, but the latter's death in 1013 led to their surrender. Despite his policies against Christians and his demolition of the church in Jerusalem, al-Hakim maintained a ten-year truce with the Byzantines that began in 1001. For most of his reign, Aleppo remained a buffer state that paid tribute to Constantinople. This lasted until 1017, when the Fatimid Armenian general Fatāk finally occupied Aleppo at

17072-588: The Umayyad garrisons in Sala , Sebta (present-day Ceuta) and Tangier , and this marked the only time that the Fatimid army was present at the Strait of Gibraltar . Jawhar and Ziri returned to al-Mansuriyya in 960. The subjugated parts of Morocco, including Fez and Sijilmasa, were left under the control of local vassals while most of the central Maghreb (Algeria), including Tahert, was given to Ziri ibn Manad to govern on

17266-557: The Umayyads or the Fatimids depending on the circumstances. As a result of the political instability in the western Maghreb, effective Fatimid control did not extend much beyond the former territory of the Aghlabids. Masala's successor, Musa ibn Abi'l-Afiya , captured Fez from the Idrisids again, but in 932 defected to the Umayyads, taking the western Maghreb with him. The Umayyads gained the upper hand again in northern Morocco during

17460-400: The abandoned palaces of Raqqada and resisted Ibn Abi al-Aghlab's calls to organise a last-ditch resistance. Upon hearing of the looting, Abu Abdallah sent an advance force of Kutama horsemen who secured Raqqada on 24 March. On 25 March 909 (Saturday, 1 Rajab 296), Abu Abdallah himself entered Raqqada and took up residence here. Upon assuming power in Raqqada, Abu Abdallah inherited much of

17654-508: The administrator of this Islamic religious institution be a Muslim, though the Hanafis drop this requirement. A waqf is intended to be perpetual and last forever. Nevertheless, Islamic law envisages conditions under which the waqf may be terminated: The practices attributed to Muhammad have promoted the institution of waqf from the earliest part of Islamic history. The two oldest known waqfiya (deed) documents are from

17848-658: The advance of the Sunni-aligned Seljuk Turks who had conquered much of the Middle East and had become the guardians of the Abbasid Caliphs as well as independent Turkmen groups. Atsiz ibn Uwaq , a Turkmen of the Nawaki tribe, conquered Jerusalem in 1073 and Damascus in 1076 before attempting to invade even Egypt itself. After defeating him at a battle close to Cairo, Badr was able to start

18042-430: The architects desired the mosque's façade to be in harmony with the adjacent Fatimid caliphal palaces. The mosque was also originally placed above a row of shops, but the street level has risen so much in the intervening centuries that these are now buried. The income from the rents of these shops contributed to the revenues of the waqf (charitable endowment) which maintained the mosque's operation and upkeep. This design

18236-560: The architectural configuration of Stone Town was entirely managed by the Sultanate and its network of nobility. This effectively allowed elites to practice zakat through waqf while doubling as a means to secure control over the local population. The East African archipelago underwent an economic recession from 1860 to 1880 that threatened the private property of the elite class. In a time when landowners were forced to sell or mortgage their properties to foreign investors, waqf became

18430-533: The armies') who would dominate late Fatimid politics. In 1078 al-Mustansir formally abdicated responsibility for all state affairs to him. His de facto rule initiated a temporary and limited revival of the Fatimid state, although it was now faced with serious challenges. Badr reestablished Fatimid authority in the Hejaz (Mecca and Medina ) and the Sulayhids were able to hold on in Yemen. Syria, however, saw

18624-515: The arrival of an Islamic messiah . The origins of that movement and of the dynasty itself, are obscure prior to the late ninth century. The Fatimid rulers were Arab in origin, starting with its founder, the Isma'ili Shia caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah . The caliphate's establishment was accomplished by Kutama Berbers from Little Kabylia , who converted to the Fatimid cause early and made up its original military forces. The Shi'a opposed

18818-409: The assets. A charitable trust may hold the donated assets. The person making such dedication is known as a waqif ('donor') who uses a mutawalli ('trustee') to manage the property in exchange for a share of the revenues it generates. A waqf allows the state to provide social services in accordance with Islamic law while contributing to the preservation of cultural and historical sites. Although

19012-412: The beneficiaries or put to their use. Once in their use, however, the waqf becomes an institution in its own right. Usually, a waqf has a range of beneficiaries. Thus, the founder makes arrangements beforehand by appointing an administrator (called nāẓir or mutawallī or ḳayyim ) and lays down the rules for appointing successive administrators. The founder may choose to administer

19206-401: The caliph resented after the vizier's arrest. Lastly, the main foundation inscription of the mosque runs along the top of the façade, directly below the cornice of the building. Much of the inscription is missing, but what still survives mentions the reigning caliph al-Amir, his father al-Musta'li, and the vizier al-Bata'ihi. It translates as follows: (Basmala, has ordered its construction ...

19400-464: The caliph's behalf. All this warfare in the Maghreb and Sicily necessitated the maintenance of a strong army, and a capable fleet as well. Nevertheless, by the time of al-Mahdi's death in 934, the Fatimid Caliphate "had become a great power in the Mediterranean". The reign of the second Fatimid imam-caliph, al-Qa'im, was dominated by the Kharijite rebellion of Abu Yazid . Starting in 943/4 among

19594-471: The caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb , Sicily , the Levant , and the Hejaz . Between 902 and 909, the foundation of the Fatimid state was realized under the leadership of da'i (missionary) Abu Abdallah , whose conquest of Aghlabid Ifriqiya with the help of Kutama forces paved the way for the establishment of the Caliphate. After

19788-459: The collector and distributor of charity, thus building his personal prestige. According to Hamas, all of historic Palestine is an Islamic waqf. This belief, a relatively recent one, forms part of the group's mythology. In Southeastern Europe , there are several places in Bosnia and Herzegovina that were originally built under the waqf system, such as Gornji Vakuf , and Donji Vakuf . After

19982-525: The colonial bureaucracy. The Waqf Property Decree which formed the Waqf Commission in 1905 was composed of a majority of British officials and a minority of Islamic authorities to represent the Sultanate who maintained a degree of influence over the island. This shift marked the further formalization of waqf into the state apparatus, a move which allowed the English to directly control the preservation and maintenance of publicly used assets as well as

20176-461: The conquest, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah was retrieved from Sijilmasa and then accepted as the Imam of the movement, becoming the first Caliph and founder of the dynasty in 909. In 921, the city of al-Mahdiyya was established as the capital. In 948, they shifted their capital to al-Mansuriyya , near Kairouan . In 969, during the reign of al-Mu'izz , they conquered Egypt , and in 973, the caliphate

20370-600: The control of the Ikhshidids , another regional dynasty whose formal allegiance was to the Abbasids. Al-Mu'izz had given Jawhar specific instructions to carry out after the conquest, and one of his first actions was to found a new capital named al-Qāhira ( Cairo ) in 969. The name al-Qāhirah ( Arabic : القاهرة ), meaning "the Vanquisher" or "the Conqueror", referenced the planet Mars , "The Subduer", rising in

20564-448: The corner, another feature unique to Cairo. The combination of Mohammad and Ali are further prominent in the decoration of the left half of the façade, here name of Ali is in center and encircled by five linked Muhammad. The extravagantly decorated façade is what makes this mosque the major architectural monument of its time. It is important to note that the right side of the portal was later covered by another building and its current state

20758-545: The country along with a clerical hierarchy. He commanded a large contingent of Armenian troops, many (if not all) of whom were also Christian. Badr also used his relations and influence with the Coptic Church for political advantage. In particular, he enlisted Cyril II ( Coptic Pope from 1078 to 1092 ) to secure the allegiance of the Christian kingdoms of Nubia (specifically Makuria ) and Ethiopia (specifically

20952-579: The countryside under his control, while the major cities remained under Aghlabid control. He established an Isma'ili theocratic state based in Tazrut, operating in a way similar to previous Isma'ili missionary networks in Mesopotamia but adapted to local Kutama tribal structures. He adopted the role of a traditional Islamic ruler at the head of this organization while remaining in frequent contact with Abdallah. He continued to preach to his followers, known as

21146-550: The crusading forces which arrived in February 1098 during their siege of Antioch , witnessing and congratulating the crusaders on their victory against the Seljuk emirs Ridwan of Aleppo and Sökmen of Jerusalem as well as stressing their friendly attitude towards Christians. The Fatimid embassy stayed for a month with the crusading forces before returning via the harbour of Latakia with gifts as well as Frankish ambassadors. It

21340-459: The current modern marble creation. The simple stepped crenellations seen around the top edge of the courtyard today were also added by the Bohra restoration. The original decorative crenellations had disappeared by the early 20th century, but were recorded in drawings made by English architect James Wild in the 1840s. They were executed in openwork and consisted of two elements: a lower band with

21534-405: The doors is in reference to the famous Shi'i hadith : "I am the city of knowledge and 'Ali is its gate". The carved panels could also have a political interpretation rather than a religious one, representing the doors of the caliph's court ( Bab al-Majlis ) in connection with the official role of the mosque's founder, al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi, as master of the door ( Sahib al-Bab ); thereby symbolizing

21728-535: The dynasty named itself simply the 'Alid dynasty' ( al-dawla al-alawiyya ), but many hostile Sunni sources only refer to them as the Ubaydids ( Banu Ubayd ), after the diminutive form Ubayd Allah for the name of the first Fatimid caliph. The Fatimid dynasty came to power as the leaders of Isma'ilism , a revolutionary Shi'a movement "which was at the same time political and religious, philosophical and social," and which originally proclaimed nothing less than

21922-537: The east. The Qarmatis of Bahrayn, responding to the appeal of the recently defeated leaders of Damascus, had organized a large coalition of Arab tribesmen to attack him. Ja'far chose to confront them in the desert in August 971, but his army was surrounded and defeated and Ja'far himself was killed. A month later the Qarmati imam Hasan al-A'ṣam led the army, with new reinforcements from Transjordan , into Egypt, seemingly without opposition. The Qarmatis spent time occupying

22116-583: The economic course of Egypt during the High Middle Ages . The Fatimid focus on agriculture further increased their riches and allowed the dynasty and the Egyptians to flourish. The use of cash crops and the propagation of the flax trade allowed Fatimids to import other items from various parts of the world. The Fatimids built upon some of the bureaucratic foundations laid by the Ikhshidids and

22310-497: The economic function of the practice. After the British gained control of Zanzibar and further formalized waqf as a political institution, it was used to culturally subvert the local population and gradually rid it off its Arabic origins. This persisted after independence when the newly independent state sought to further eliminate Arabic influence by nationalizing all waqf properties as a means to gain control of private property. The waqf institutions were not popular in all parts of

22504-517: The elite class of the Omani aristocracy. In the context of growing inequality, the nobility used waqf to provide public housing to slaves and peasants as well mosques, madrasahs and land for free habitation and cultivation. For instance, all 66 mosques in Stone Town were waqf privately financed and owned by noble waqif as a display of social status and duty to their neighborhood. Under this system,

22698-469: The endowed assets are called al-mawquf (or al-muhabbas ). In older English-language law-related works in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the word used for waqf was vakouf ; the word, also present in such French works, was used during the time of the Ottoman Empire, and is from the Turkish vakıf . The term waqf literally means 'confinement and prohibition', or causing

22892-503: The endower, the listed property or fiscal unit, the endowed fraction (in 24- qarats ), and a description of its boundary . The boundary descriptions start in Islamic direction of prayer and go counterclockwise by listing different landscape elements. Endowment deeds most often include the conditions of the endowment and its administration. The beneficiaries of the waqf can be individuals and public utilities. The founder can specify which persons are eligible for benefits (such as

23086-521: The faithful, spread the word ( daʿwa , "invitation, calling"), and prepare his return. The head of this secret network was the living proof of the imam's existence, or "seal" ( ḥujja ). It is this role that the ancestors of the Fatimids are first documented. The first known ḥujja was a certain Abdallah al-Akbar ("Abdallah the Elder"), a wealthy merchant from Khuzestan , who established himself at

23280-474: The first Shia imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate , the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia ). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of

23474-412: The founder may stipulate that half the proceeds go to their family, while the other half goes to the poor. Valid beneficiaries must satisfy the following conditions: There is dispute over whether the founder themselves can reserve exclusive rights to use waqf . Most scholars agree that once the waqf is founded, it cannot be taken back. The Ḥanafīs hold that the list of beneficiaries includes

23668-459: The founder's family, the entire community, only the poor, travelers). Public utilities such as mosques, schools, bridges, graveyards, and drinking fountains can be the beneficiaries of a waqf . Modern legislation divides the waqf into "charitable causes," where the beneficiaries are the public or the poor, and "family" waqf , where the founder designates their relatives as beneficiaries. There can also be multiple beneficiaries. For example,

23862-478: The growing threat. He fortified Raqqada in 907. In early 907 another Aghlabid army marched eastwards again against Abu Abdallah, accompanied by Berber reinforcements from the Aurès Mountains . They were again scattered by Kutama cavalry and retreated to Baghaya , the most fortified town on the old southern Roman road between Ifriqiya and the central Maghreb. The fortress, however, fell to the Kutama without

24056-541: The harsh Abbasid persecution of the Alids, the Ismaili Imams went into hiding and neither Isma'il's nor Muhammad's lives are well known, and after Muhammad's death during the reign of Harun al-Rashid ( r.  786–809 ), the history of the early Isma'ili movement becomes obscure. While the awaited mahdī Muhammad ibn Isma'il remained hidden, however, he would need to be represented by agents, who would gather

24250-471: The help of their fleet. After 1107, a new rising star rose through the ranks of the regime in the form of Muḥammad ʿAlī bin Fatik, better known as al-Maʾmūn al-Baṭā'iḥī . He managed to carry out various administrative reforms and infrastructural projects in the later years of al-Afdal's term, including the construction of an astronomical observatory in 1119. Al-Afdal's was assassinated in 1121, an act blamed on

24444-473: The hood of the main niche above the entrance. This epigraphic medallion is pierced in the form of a grille, which is unique to the decorative repertoire of architectural façades in Cairo. " Muhammad and ' Ali " take up the center of the medallion surrounded by a Qur’anic inscription. The Qur’anic inscription around the medallion starts on the lower right side, stating: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent,

24638-426: The hospitals every day and speak quietly to one another in the patients' hearing, remarking on their improvement and good colour". The waqf in Islamic law , which developed in the medieval Islamic world from the 7th to 9th centuries, bears a notable resemblance to the English trust law . Every waqf was required to have a waqif (founder), mutawillis (trustee), qadi (judge) and beneficiaries. Under both

24832-489: The infid(els.....the most noble lord, al-Ma'mun amir of the armies, sword of Islam, defender of the imam), protector of the judges of the Muslims and the director of the missionaries of the believers, Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad (servant of) al-Amir, may God strengthen religion for him, may He make the commander of the faithful enjoy long life, may He perpetuate his power and elevate his word, in the year 519 [1125-6]." The name of

25026-527: The intermediary between the caliph and the large bureaucratic state that he ruled. In 975 the Byzantine emperor John Tzimisces retook most of Palestine and Syria, leaving only Tripoli in Fatimid control. He aimed to eventually capture Jerusalem , but he died in 976 on his way back to Constantinople , thus staving off the Byzantine threat to the Fatimids. Meanwhile, the Turkish ghulām (plural: ghilmān , meaning soldiers recruited as slaves) Aftakin ,

25220-476: The invitation of a local commander who had expelled the Hamdanid ghulām ruler Mansur ibn Lu'lu' . After a year or two, however, Fatāk made himself effectively independent in Aleppo. Al-Hakim also alarmed his Isma'ili followers in several ways. In 1013 he announced the designation of two great-great-grandsons of al-Mahdi as two separate heirs: one, Abd al-Raḥīm ibn Ilyās, would inherit the title of caliphate as

25414-422: The last remnants of the revolt, a new palace city was being constructed for him south of Kairouan. Construction began around 946 and it was only fully completed under al-Mansur's son and successor, al-Mu'izz. It was named al-Mansuriyya (also known as Sabra al-Mansuriyya) and became the new seat of the caliphate. In 969 Jawhar launched a carefully-prepared and successful invasion of Egypt , which had been under

25608-653: The latter is also to provide shelter and community spaces to the poor, also known as the mawquf 'alayh (beneficiaries). Bahaeddin Yediyıldız defines waqf as a system comprising three elements: hayrat , akarat , and waqf . Hayrat , the plural form of hayr , means 'goodnesses' and refers to the motivational factor behind the vakıf organization; akarat refers to corpus and literally means 'real estates,' implying revenue-generating sources such as markets ( bedestens , arastas , hans , etc.), land, and baths; and waqf , in its narrow sense,

25802-526: The local Aghlabid authorities and other Kutuma tribes, he was forced to leave Ikjan and sought the protection of another Kutama tribe, the Banu Ghashman, in Tazrut (two miles southwest of Mila). From there, he began to build support for a new movement. Shortly after, the hostile Kutama tribes and the Arab lords of the nearby cities (Mila, Setif , and Bilizma ) allied together to march against him, but he

25996-625: The long-term decline of the Coptic community in Egypt. By 1072, in a desperate attempt to save Egypt, al-Mustansir recalled general Badr al-Jamali , who was at the time the governor of Acre . Badr led his troops into Egypt, entered Cairo in January 1074, and successfully suppressed the different groups of the rebelling armies. As a result, Badr was made vizier, becoming one of the first military viziers ( Arabic : امير الجيوش , romanized :  amīr al-juyūsh , lit.   'commander of

26190-553: The lower part of al-Salimi's minaret survives, which is built of brick covered in stucco, topped with stone muqarnas, convex molding below, and a band of carved arabesques interrupted by openwork bosses in the middle. The upper part of the minaret by al-Salimi fell in 1412 and was replaced by a cylindrical finial most likely during the Ottoman period. Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate ( / ˈ f æ t ɪ m ɪ d / ; Arabic : ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْفَاطِمِيَّة , romanized :  al-Khilāfa al-Fāṭimiyya ), also known as

26384-410: The majority of greater Stone Town became waqf property made available for free habitation or cemeteries by noblemen, approximately 6.4% of which was public housing for the poor. It is important to note that economic changes in Zanzibar shaped waqf practices overtime. Under Omani rule slavery and the cash crop industry was booming, specifically because of the exportation of spices, which strengthened

26578-1092: The mid-9th century. The next oldest document is a marble tablet whose inscription bears the Islamic date equivalent to 913 CE and states the waqf status of an inn, but is in itself not the original deed; it is held at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv . By the early 1800's, more than half of all arable land in the Ottoman Empire was classified as a waqf. In relation to present day countries, this figure included 75 percent of arable land in Turkey , one-fifth in Egypt, one-seventh in Iran, one-half in Algeria, one-third in Tunisia, and one-third in Greece. The total number of registered endowments in Saudi Arabia

26772-417: The military officers at the further ends of the empire became semi-independent. Badr al-Jamali died in 1094 (along with Caliph al-Mustansir that same year) and his son Al-Afdal Shahanshah succeeded him in power as vizier. After al-Mustansir, the Caliphate passed on to al-Musta'li , and after his death in 1101 it passed to the 5-year-old al-Amir . Another of al-Mustansir's sons, Nizar , attempted to take

26966-507: The most important troops of the Caliph, but resentment and rivalry eventually grew between the different ethnic components of the army. Bajkūr, based in Raqqa, made another unsuccessful attempt against Aleppo in 991 which resulted in his capture and execution. That same year, Ibn Killis died and Munir was accused of conducting treasonous correspondence with Baghdad. These difficulties triggered

27160-412: The name of the al-Aqmar mosque is an epithet of the patron in connection with light. The Mamluk amir Yalbugha al-Salimi restored the mosque in 1393 or 1397 and added a minaret (which collapsed in 1412 and was later restored) as well as shop stalls to the right of the entrance. Al-Salimi also restored or replaced the minbar , the mihrab , and the ablutions area. The mosque was restored again in

27354-447: The nationalisation of all waqf assets led to the loss and destruction of many properties because of a lack of funding because the state did not have the means to preserve waqf as effectively as it were under the private control of waqif nobility. According to Bowen, when practicing Islam, Muslims "engage in a dialogue between potentially conflicting cultural orders: the universalistic imperatives of Islam (as locally understood) and

27548-493: The new capital was ready, Jawhar sent for al-Mu'izz in Ifriqiya. The caliph, his court, and his treasury, departed from al-Mansuriyya in fall 972, traveling by land but shadowed by the Fatimid navy sailing along the coast. After making triumphant stops in major cities along the way, the caliph arrived in Cairo on 10 June 973. Like other royal capitals before it, Cairo was constructed as an administrative and palatine city, housing

27742-407: The new fortified palace city, al-Mahdiyya , began in 916. The new city was officially inaugurated on 20 February 921, though construction continued after this. The new capital was removed from the Sunni stronghold of Kairouan, allowing for the establishment of a secure base for the Caliph and his Kutama forces without raising further tensions with the local population. The Fatimids also inherited

27936-421: The new head of the movement, and introduced a radical change in the doctrine: no longer was he and his forebears merely the stewards for Muhammad ibn Isma'il, but they were declared to be the rightful imams, and Abdallah himself was the awaited mahdī . Various genealogies were later put forth by the Fatimids to justify this claim by proving their descent from Isma'il ibn Ja'far, but even in pro-Isma'ili sources,

28130-419: The next year (906) failed when the soldiers mutinied. Around the same time or soon after, Abu Abdallah's forces besieged and captured the fortified cities of Tubna and Bilizma. The capture of Tubna was significant as it was the first major commercial center to come under Abu Abdallah's control. Meanwhile, Ziyadat Allah III moved his court from Tunis to Raqqada , the palace-city near Kairouan , in response to

28324-566: The nominal sphere of authority of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid dynasty claimed descent from Fatimah , the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . The dynasty legitimized its claim through descent from Muhammad by way of his daughter and her husband Ali , the first Shī'a Imām , hence the dynasty's name, fāṭimiyy ( Arabic : فَاطِمِيّ ), the Arabic relative adjective for "Fāṭima". Emphasizing its Alid descent,

28518-468: The north. However, Abu Abdallah's forces had been unable to capture the northerly city of Constantine and therefore they instead attacked along the southern road from Baghaya in early 908 and captured Maydara (present-day Haïdra). An indecisive battle subsequently occurred between the Aghalabid and Kutama armies near Dar Madyan (probably a site between Sbeitla and Kasserine ), with neither side gaining

28712-456: The old Abbasid imperial order. The office of the wazīr ( vizier ), which existed under the Ikhshidids, was soon revived under the Fatimids. The first to be appointed to this position was the Jewish convert Ya'qub ibn Killis , who was elevated to this office in 979 by al-Mu'izz's successor al-Aziz . The office of the vizier became progressively more important over the years, as the vizier became

28906-519: The palace. In 1021, while wandering the desert outside Cairo on one of his nightly excursions, he disappeared. He was purportedly murdered, but his body was never found. After al-Hakim's death his two designated heirs were killed, putting an end to his succession scheme, and his sister Sitt al-Mulk arranged to have his 15-year-old son Ali installed on the throne as al-Zahir . She served as his regent until her death in 1023, at which point an alliance of courtiers and officials ruled, with al-Jarjarā'ī ,

29100-555: The plurality of Egyptian society by imposing new restrictions on Christians and Jews, particularly on the way they dressed or behaved in public. He ordered or sanctioned the destruction of a number of churches and monasteries (mostly Coptic or Melkite ), which was unprecedented, and in 1009, for reasons that remain unclear, he ordered the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sephulchre in Jerusalem. Al-Hakim greatly expanded

29294-423: The preserved northern half. This renovation has been criticized for sacrificing some historic elements of the mosque, especially in its interior. The mosque has been called a "seminal" monument in the architectural history of Cairo. It is significant for two features in particular: the decoration of its façade and the design of its floor plan. The mosque of al-Aqmar the first building in Cairo with an adjustment to

29488-494: The property inalienable and give the profit from it to charity.' It goes on to say that Umar gave it away as alms, that the land itself would not be sold, inherited, or donated. He gave it away for the poor, the relatives, the slaves, the jihad , the travelers, and the guests. It will not be held against him who administers it if he consumes some of its yield in an appropriate manner or feeds a friend who does not enrich himself by means of it." In another hadith, Muhammad said, "When

29682-450: The purchase of foods and medicines ; hospital equipment such as beds, mattresses, bowls and perfumes; and repairs to buildings. The waqf trusts also funded medical schools, and their revenues covered various expenses such as their maintenance and the payment of teachers and students. From the more peculiar examples of healthcare-related waqfs, in the city of Tripoli, a man had set up a waqf which employed two people who would "walk through

29876-450: The question of ownership over Jerusalem. Following this, the crusaders crossed into Fatimid territory and captured Jerusalem in July 1099 while al-Afdal was leading a relief army trying to reach the city. The two forces finally clashed in the Battle of Ascalon in which al-Afdal was defeated. Nevertheless, the initial negotiations were held against the Fatimids and Ibn al-Athir wrote that it

30070-491: The real power base of Fatimids in Ifriqiya was quite narrow, resting on the Kutama soldiery, later extended by the Sanhaja Berber tribes as well. The historian Heinz Halm describes the early Fatimid state as being, in essence, "a hegemony of the Kutama and Sanhaja Berbers over the eastern and central Maghrib". In 912, al-Mahdi began looking for the site of a new capital along the Mediterranean shore. Construction of

30264-418: The real target was Baghdad , the capital of the Fatimids' Abbasid rivals. The ambition to carry the revolution eastward had to be postponed after the failure of two successive invasions of Egypt, led by al-Qa'im, in 914–915 and 919–921 . In addition, the Fatimid regime was as yet unstable. The local population were mostly adherents of Maliki Sunnism and various Kharijite sects such as Ibadism , so that

30458-484: The recruitment of Black Africans into the army, who subsequently became another powerful faction to balance against the Kutama, Turks, and Daylamis. In 1005, during his early reign, a dangerous uprising led by Abu Rakwa was successfully put down but had come within striking distance of Cairo. In 1012 the leaders of the Arab Tayyi tribe occupied Ramla and proclaimed the sharif of Mecca , al-Ḥasan ibn Ja'far , as

30652-488: The region temporarily, until a final decisive Umayyad intervention in 984–985 put an end to further efforts. In 978 the caliph also gave Tripolitania to Buluggin to govern, though Zirid authority there was later replaced by the local Banu Khazrun dynasty in 1001. In 988 Buluggin's son and successor al-Mansur moved the Zirid dynasty's base from Ashir (central Algeria) to the former Fatimid capital al-Mansuriyya, cementing

30846-523: The regnal name of al-Qa'im . Al-Mahdi quickly fell out with Abu Abdallah: not only was the dā'ī over-powerful, but he demanded proof that the new caliph was the true mahdī . The elimination of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i and his brother led to an uprising among the Kutama, led by a child- mahdī , which was suppressed. At the same time, al-Mahdi repudiated the millenarian hopes of his followers and curtailed their antinomian tendencies. The new regime regarded its presence in Ifriqiya as only temporary:

31040-423: The reigning caliph's father, al-Mustaʿli, is placed in the center of the inscription frieze above the entrance door for maximum exposure. While the inscriptions of the upper band are carved in relief with floriated letters, the lower band of inscriptions are plain, relatively small in size with flat letters and a floriated stem in the background. In the mosque's interior courtyard, a band of Kufic inscriptions with

31234-476: The role of political ruler, and the other, Abbās ibn Shu'ayb, would inherit the imamate or religious leadership. This was a serious departure from a central purpose of the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs, which was to combine these two functions in one person. In 1015 he also suddenly halted the Isma'ili doctrinal lectures of the majālis al-ḥikma ("sessions of wisdom") which had taken place regularly inside

31428-495: The same year. Abu Abdallah's forces were unable to resist this counterattack and after two defeats they evacuated Tazrut (which was largely unfortified) and fled to Ikjan, leaving Mila to be retaken. Ikjan became the new center of the Fatimid movement and the dā'ī reestablished his network of missionaries and spies. Ibrahim II died in October 902 while in southern Italy and was succeeded by Abdallah II . In early 903 Abdallah II set out on another expedition to destroy Ikjan and

31622-507: The servant of our lord and master the imam al-Amir bi-ahkam Allah the son of the imam al-Musta'li) Bi'llah, commander of the faithful, may God's prayers be upon them and upon their pure and honourable ascendants, and their pious descendants, seeking the favour of God, the King, the Generous...O God, give victory to the armies of the imam al-Amir bi-ahkam Allah, commander of the faithful, over all

31816-406: The sky at the time when the construction of the city started. The city was located several miles northeast of Fusṭāt , the older regional capital founded by the Arab conquerors in the seventh century. Control of Egypt was secured with relative ease and soon afterward, in 970, Jawhar sent a force to invade Syria and remove the remaining Ikhshidids who had fled there from Egypt. This Fatimid force

32010-489: The small town of Salamiya on the western edge of the Syrian Desert . Salamiya became the centre of the Isma'ili daʿwa , with Abdallah al-Akbar being succeeded by his son and grandson as the secret "grand masters" of the movement. In the last third of the ninth century, the Isma'ili daʿwa spread widely, profiting from the collapse of Abbasid power in the Anarchy at Samarra and the subsequent Zanj Revolt , as well as from dissatisfaction among Twelver adherents with

32204-536: The son of Ziri bn Manad (who died in 971), as his viceroy in the Maghreb. This established a dynasty of viceroys, with the title of "amir", who ruled the region on behalf of the Fatimids. Their authority remained disputed in the western Maghreb, where the rivalry with the Umayyads and with local Zenata leaders continued. After Jawhar's successful western expedition, the Umayyads returned to northern Morocco in 973 to reassert their authority. Buluggin launched one last expedition in 979–980 that reestablished his authority in

32398-484: The status of the Zirids as more or less de facto independent rulers of Ifriqiya, while still officially maintaining their allegiance to the Fatimid caliphs. Caliph al-Aziz accepted this situation for pragmatic reasons to maintain his own formal status as universal ruler. Both dynasties exchanged gifts and the succession of new Zirid rulers to the throne was officially sanctioned by the caliph in Cairo. After al-Aziz's unexpected death, his young son al-Mansur, 11 years old,

32592-426: The street alignment. The plan of the mosque of al-Aqmar is hypostyle , with an internal square courtyard surrounded by roofed sections defined by rows of four-centered arches . The prayer hall on the qibla side is three bays or aisles deep while the gallery on bay around the courtyard is one bay deep. Each bay is covered by a shallow brick dome. However, this type of roofing is not attested in other monuments of

32786-412: The street in contrast with its interior space, which remains oriented towards the qibla . In order to accommodate this difference in angle while still maintaining internal symmetry, the structure uses variations in wall thickness. Here, street alignment starts to play a pivotal role because al-Mu'izz Street – previously known as the Qasaba – was the most important avenue in the city and it's possible that

32980-467: The succession and names of imams differ, while Sunni and Twelver sources of course reject any Fatimid descent from the Alids altogether and consider them impostors. Abdallah's claim caused a rift in the Isma'ili movement, as Hamdan Qarmat and other leaders denounced this change and held onto the original doctrine, becoming known as the " Qarmatians ", while other communities remained loyal to Salamiya. Shortly after, in 902–903, pro-Fatimid loyalists began

33174-421: The succession was left open. Most of his followers followed al-Sadiq's son Musa al-Kazim down to a twelfth and final imam who supposedly went into occultation in 874 and would one day return as the mahdī . This branch is hence known as the "Twelvers". Others followed other sons, or even refused to believe that al-Sadiq had died, and expected his return as the mahdī . Another branch believed that Ja'far

33368-419: The surplus revenues generated from them. It was also part of what Ali Mazrui calls the 'dis-Islamization' and 'de-Arabization' of Swahili culture by British colonialism, a strategy used to rid the territory of Omani influence. While Mazrui speaks of this in the context of the Swahili language, it can also be seen by the way in which the British deviated from the Islamic values underpinning waqf practices. What

33562-438: The tenure of the vizier Badr al-Jamali , the Fatimid caliphate declined rapidly during the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. In addition to internal difficulties, the caliphate was weakened by the encroachment of the Seljuk Turks into Syria in the 1070s and the arrival of the Crusaders in the Levant in 1097. In 1171, Saladin abolished the dynasty's rule and founded the Ayyubid dynasty , which incorporated Egypt back into

33756-432: The throne after his father's death and organized a rebellion in 1095, but he was defeated and executed that same year. Al-Afdal arranged for his sister to marry al-Musta'li and later for his daughter to marry al-Amir, hoping in this way to merge his family with that of the caliphs. He also attempted to secure the succession of his son to the vizierate as well, but this ultimately failed. During al-Afdal's tenure (1094–1121)

33950-413: The time. Among other things, al-Hakim was known for executing his officials when unsatisfied with them, seemingly without warning, rather than dismissing them from their posts as had been traditional practice. Many of the executions were members of the financial administration, which may mean that this was al-Hakim's way of trying to impose discipline in an institution rife with corruption. He also opened

34144-408: The trustee, though the "trustee was still bound to administer that property for the benefit of the beneficiaries." In this sense, the "role of the English trustee therefore does not differ significantly from that of the mutawalli ." Personal trust law developed in England at the time of the Crusades , during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Court of Chancery, under the principles of equity, enforced

34338-411: The upper hand. During the winter of 908–909 Abu Abdallah campaigned in the region around Chott el-Jerid , capturing the towns of Tuzur (Tozeur) , Nafta , and Qafsa (Gafsa) and taking control of the region. The Aghlabids responded by besieging Baghaya soon afterward in the same winter, but they were quickly repelled. On 25 February 909, Abu Abdallah set out from Ikjan with an army of 200,000 men for

34532-438: The values embedded in a particular society". While Bowen analyzes how Islamic rituals are practiced in context, this logic can arguably be applied to how the history of waqf in Zanzibar is shaped by "local cultural concerns and to universalistic scriptural imperatives". In fact, this conflict is evident in the way in which waqf has historically served a dual purpose in Zanzibar; to satisfy the inalienable Islamic law of waqf as

34726-420: The vizier also replaced the mudbrick walls of Cairo with new stone walls and slightly expanded the city. Three of its monumental gates still survive today: Bab Zuweila , Bab al-Futuh , and Bab al-Nasr . As the military viziers effectively became heads of state, the Caliph himself was reduced to the role of a figurehead. The reliance on the Iqta system also ate into Fatimid central authority, as more and more

34920-510: The way he forced the Zaydi Imam in Sa'da into submission. Upon arriving in Mecca, he installed Abu Hashim Muhammad ibn Ja'far as the new sharif and custodian of the holy sites under the suzerainty of the Fatimids. He returned to San'a where he established his family as rulers on behalf of the Fatimid caliphs. His brother founded the city of Ta'izz , while the city of Aden became an important hub of trade between Egypt and India , which brought Egypt further wealth. His rise to power established

35114-432: The year 1000, Barjawan was assassinated by al-Hakim, who now took direct and autocratic control of the state. His reign, which lasted until his mysterious disappearance in 1021, is the most controversial in Fatimid history. Traditional narratives have described him as either eccentric or outright insane, but more recent studies have tried to provide more measured explanations based on the political and social circumstances of

35308-414: Was able to move quickly and muster enough support from friendly Kutama to defeat them one by one before they were able to unite. This first victory brought Abu Abdallah and his Kutama troops valuable loot and attracted more support to the dā'ī 's cause. Over the next two years Abu Abdallah was able to win over most of the Kutama tribes in the region through either persuasion or coercion. This left much of

35502-443: Was applied to several Shi'a leaders who were killed or died; their followers believed that they had gone into " occultation " ( ghayba ) and would return (or be resurrected) at the appointed time. These traditions manifested themselves in the succession of the sixth imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq . Al-Sadiq had appointed his son Isma'il ibn Ja'far as his successor, but Isma'il died before his father, and when al-Sadiq himself died in 765,

35696-424: Was built at the northeastern corner of the eastern Fatimid Great Palace, and may have served both the neighbourhood and the palace inhabitants. Its adjacency to the palace may have been one reason why it did not feature a minaret; in order to prevent anyone climbing the minaret from looking down into the caliph's palaces. Similarly to Al-Azhar Mosque (970) and the Al-Hakim Mosque (990–1013), formerly named al-Anwar,

35890-422: Was followed by a seventh imam, who had gone into occultation and would one day return; hence this party is known as the "Seveners". The exact identity of that seventh imam was disputed, but by the late ninth century had commonly been identified with Muhammad , son of Isma'il and grandson of al-Sadiq. From Muhammad's father, Isma'il, the sect, which gave rise to the Fatimids, receives its name of "Isma'ili". Due to

36084-416: Was initially intended as a charitable practice that would provide social services was replaced by a focus on profit over public welfare. This ruptured the social and political relations that were formed between the upper and lower classes during Omani rule as the underlying values used to manage waqf were lost in translation. The Zanzibari Revolution which followed a year after independence in 1963 installed

36278-459: Was installed on the throne as al-Hakim . Hasan ibn Ammar, the leader of the Kalbid clan in Egypt, a military veteran, and one of the last remaining members of al-Mu'izz's old guard, initially became regent, but he was soon forced to flee by Barjawan, the eunuch and tutor of the young al-Hakim, who took power in his stead. Barjawan stabilized the internal affairs of the empire but refrained from pursuing al-Aziz's policy of expansion towards Aleppo. In

36472-433: Was later cut out and removed at some later unknown date, leaving the brickwork of the wall exposed. The 1990s restoration filled in this empty space with a rosette, hiding the brickwork once again. Scholar Doris Behrens-Abouseif has suggested that the original roundel was removed because it conveyed a message or concept that was later deemed unorthodox, or because it because it contained an inscription glorifying al-Ma'mun which

36666-399: Was led by a Kutama general named Ja'far ibn Falāḥ . This invasion was successful at first and many cities, including Damascus, were occupied that same year. Ja'far's next step was to attack the Byzantines, who had captured Antioch and subjugated Aleppo in 969 (around the same time as Jawhar was arriving in Egypt), but he was forced to call off the advance in order to face a new threat from

36860-419: Was miscalculated. The façade is divided into a variation of recesses: some, such as the main niche above the entrance, have a scalloped-shell hood with a medallion in the center while others, such as the niches flanking the main entrance niche, have flat muqarnas panels. The left beveled corner, topped by a muqarnas niche with the names of Muhammad and 'Ali, was designed to facilitate traffic turning around

37054-403: Was moved to the newly founded Fatimid capital of Cairo . Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of the empire and it developed a new and "indigenous Arabic culture". After its initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Shia sects of Islam, as well as to Jews and Christians. However, its leaders made little headway in persuading

37248-442: Was practiced by the aristocratic class as an outward demonstration of Islamic piety while simultaneously serving as a means to control slaves and the local population through social housing, educational facilities and religious institutions like mosques. When an economic recession threatened the position of the elite, noblemen used waqf to maintain ownership of their properties to avoid selling or mortgaging their land thereby altering

37442-457: Was said that the Fatimids had invited the crusaders to invade Syria. This defeat established the Kingdom of Jerusalem as a new regional rival and although many crusaders returned to Europe, having fulfilled their vows, the remaining forces, often aided by the Italian maritime republics , overran much of the coastal Levant, with Tripoli , Beirut , and Sidon falling to them between 1109 and 1110. The Fatimids retained Tyre, Ascalon, and Gaza with

37636-429: Was succeeded by his son, al-Mustansir , who had the longest reign in Fatimid history, serving as caliph from 1036 to 1094. However, he remained largely uninvolved in politics and left the government in the hands of others. He was seven years old at his accession and thus al-Jarjarā'ī continued to serve as vizier and his guardian. When al-Jarjarā'ī died in 1045 a series of court figures ran the government until al-Yāzūrī ,

#921078