Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/776

752 752 EGYPT [HISTORY. herself a negress, while the command of the latter was taken by Na*ir-ed-Dowleh Ibn-Hamdan, a general of El-Mustansir, more than once governor of Damascus, and at this period governor of Lower Egypt. To this man s unscrupulous ambition was due much of the trouble which ensued. After many battles the Turks succeeded in destroying the power of their adversaries, and their leader assumed almost absolute authority, while they not only ex torted from the caliph immense sums of money and treasure, but even rifled the tombs of his predecessors for the valuables which they contained. At the same time the bulk of the valuable library of the Fatimees was dispersed by these brigands. But the very power of Nasir-ed-Dowleh threatened his overthrow. His sense of security in his position rendered him regardless of the support of the Turks ; and when at length his schemes for the deposition of El-Mustansir brought matters to a crisis, a large portion of the army declared against him. Defeated and driven from the metro polis, he succeeded in possessing himself of Lower Egypt, and a terrible civil war raged between the contending parties. But an even heavier calamity afflicted Egypt. For seven successive years the inundation of the Nile failed, and with it almost the entire subsistence of the country, while the rebels intercepted supplies of grain from the north. El-Makreezee informs us that El- Askar and El-Katae&quot; were depopulated, and that half the inhabitants of El-Fustat perished, while in El-Kahireh itself the people were reduced to the direst straits. Bread was sold for 14 dirhems the 1 ft loaf ; and all provision being exhausted, the worst horrors of famine followed. The wretched people resorted to cannibalism, and organized bands kidnapped the unwary passenger in the desolate streets by means of ropes furnished with hooks and let down from the latticed windows. In the year 462 the famine reached its height. It was followed by a pestilence ; and in the midst of these horrors, Nasir-ed-Dowleh advanced on El-Kahireh at the head of an enormous army ; he was induced to withdraw by the promise of large concessions, only to repeat the attack, and finally to make himself master of the city, after having inflicted a signal defeat on the caliph, who became only the nominal ruler of Egypt, a condition which lasted until the assassination of this powerful rebel in the year 465. While these events were occurring in Egypt, Syria was in a con tinual state of anarchy and war. A distinguished general, the emeer El-Guyoosh Bedr-ed-Deen El-Gemalee, held the government of Damascus during these times ; and now El-Mustansir wrote, recalling him to assume the office of vizir of Egypt. On the condition of being allowed to bring with him a veteran force, he, happily for the country, obeyed the summons, and to his talents was owing the restoration of order and even prosperity which followed. By a massacre of emeers at a grand banquet shortly after his arrival, and by numerous executions, he subdued all opposition in the capital ; and in a series of brilliant victories he annihilated the savage hordes who infested the country throughout its whole extent, having either been called to the aid of the con tending parties, or voluntarily taken advantage of the universal confusion to commit their lawless ravages. In concluding this necessarily extended notice of the reign of El- Mustansir, the invasion of Aksees with an army of Turkumans, Kurds, and Arabs, in the year 469, must be mentioned. Spread ing devastation around them, they encamped near El-Kahireh; and in the first engagement defeated the forces of El-Gemalee ; but fortune favouring him in a second battle, the enemy was totally routed with immense carnage. El-Mustansir reigned 60 years, and died in the year 487. He was a weak prince, solely given up to pleasure. El-Gemalee had governed with almost absolute authority and great ability for a period of 20_ years, dying only a few days before the caliph. While admiring El-Gemalee s talents, we cannot but condemn his severity. He built the mosque which gives its name to the mountain immediately S.E. of the citadel of El-Kahireh (Gebel-El- Guyooshee), and the second wall of the city, with its three principal gates, Bab-Zuweyleh, Bab-en-Nasr, and Bab-el-Futooh. These gates, which are very fine specimens of architecture, are said to be the work of three Greek brothers. El-Mustaalee bi-llah Abu-1-Kasim Ahmad succeeded his father ; but a son of El-Gemalee, El-Afdal, had the principal management of the affairs of tho kingdom. This caliph s reign is memorable for the First Crusade. El-Afdal had taken Jerusalem from the Turks in the year 491 (A.D. 1098) ; and a few months later it yielded to the Crusaders, after a siege of 40 days. El-Afdal arrived shortly after its fall with a reinforcement of 20,000 men, but he was defeated in the battle of Ascalon. Later, an Egyptian army, commanded by Saad-ed-Dowleh, was worsted by Baldwin, count of Edessa, and the general was killed in the action. From this period, with the exception of some efforts made in the next reign, to the time of _Salah-ed-deen (&quot;Saladin&quot;), Egypt was too much occupied with intestine troubles to equip expeditious against the various partie-s who now struggled for the possession of Syria. El- Mustaalee died in the year 495. He is stated to have been a Sunnee, a strange anomaly in a dynasty of Shiya ees. His son El-A mir bi-ahkami-llah Aboo- Alee Mansoor came to the throne at the age of five years, and until his arrival at man hood the government was conducted by El-Afdal. The first act of the caliph, however, on taking it into his own hands, was to put his minister to death, and appoint in his stead a man whose wickedness obliged him to imprison him and afterwards condemn him to death. The rule of El-A mir was chiefly remarkable for his impiety and tyranny, and for the successes of the Crusaders, who, having reduced many of the principal coast-towns in Syria, medi tated the conquest of Egypt, and crossed the frontier, but were deterred from the prosecution of their enterprise by the illness of Baldwin, whose death took place at El-Areesh, on his way back to Jerusalem. El-A mir was put to death in 524, at the town of El- Geezeh, it is said by partisans of El-Afdal, whose son then usurped the entire government, setting up, as caliph, El-Hafijlh li-deeni- llah Abd-El-Megeed, a grandson of El-Mustansir (El-Amir having left no male issue), but without the usual ceremonies of installation. This vizir, Aboo- Alee Ahmad, even forbade the mention of El- Halidh in the public prayers, and inserted his own name in his stead. He perished in a popular tumult, roused by his extortions and arbitrary rule, and El-Hafidh was duly declared caliph and received the oaths of allegiance. After the death of Ahmad, he successively appointed three other vizirs ; but these proving equally refractory, he at length dispensed with that office altogether. He reigned nearly 20 years. The licentiousness of his son and successor, Edh-Dhafir bi-aadai-llah Aboo- Mansoor Isma eel, occa sioned his death in four years and seven months at the hand of his vizir El- Abbas. El-Farz bi-llah Abu-1-Kasim Eesa Ibn- Alee was, on his accession in 549, only five years of age, and the history of his times pre sents merely the contentions of rival vizirs, of whom the chief were El-Melik Es-Salih Tatae Ibn-Ruzzeyk, and his competitor El- Abbas, before named. The latter, finding his power failing, gathered together the wealth he had amassed and fled to Syria, where he fell into the hands of the Crusaders, who stripped him of all that he had and detained him a prisoner. Eventually he was given up to Tatae and crucified over the gates of the palace. El-Faiz died in the year 555, and El- Adid li-deeni-llah Aboo- Mohammad Abd-Allah, a grandson of El-Hafidh, and the last of the Fatimee caliphs, was raised to what was then but the shadow of a throne, the entire power being in the hands of Tatae, who by his oppression and cruelty well-nigh rendered El- Adid, by nature benevolent and wise, as tyrannical as himself. He was assassinated after a year by the secret orders of the caliph, and the latter to conceal his agency in this act installed his son El- Xdil in his place. At this time the w^ll-kuown Shawir was governor of the Sa eed (or Upper Egypt), a post next in importance to that of prime minister. During the last three reigns the vizirs had been rapidly increasing in power ; and the annals of the period are entirely occupied with the rise and fall of potent grandees, all eager for a post which conferred on its possessor the supreme authority. At length, in the reign of this unfortunai? prince, they consummated the ruin of,the dynasty and overwhelmed themselves in its fall. In 558 El- Adil dispossessed Shawir of his government, and the latter had immediate recourse to arms, marched against his enemy, and succeeded in putting him to death. He then constituted himself vizir, but in his turn was compelled to flee from a more powerful rival, Ed-Dirgham. Noor-ed-Deen (Noureddin), the sultan of Damascus, received the fugitive with favour ; and in the course of the next year (559) despatched an army to Egypt, under the command of Asad-ed-Deen Sheerkooh, to reinstate him. In the meantime Ed-Dirgham had been busy putting to death the great men of the empire ; and having thus weakened his power, he offered but a feeble resistance, was over thrown in a battle near the tomb of the Seyyideh Nefeeseh, on the S. of El-Kahireh, and Shawir was restored. No sooner, however, was this effected, than he forgot the engagements into which he had entered with Noureddin, and threw off his allegiance to him. Sheerkooh retired to the Sharkceyeh, and occupied the town of Bilbeys, and thence threatened Shawir. In this position of affairs the latter had recourse to the Crusaders, Who willingly responded to his call, and Amaury, king of Jcrusiflem, arrived with a con siderable force. With these allies, Shawir besieged his former protector in Bilbeys, until, hearing of Noureddin s successes over the Franks in Syria, they negotiated a peace, and permitted Sheerkooh to withdraw from Egypt. About two years later, Noureddin, determined on punishing the treachery of Shiiwir, again sent Sheerkooh into Egypt with a great army, and accom panied by his nephew, the famous Saladin. Shawir again sought to strengthen himself by an alliance with Amaury, from whom he received the first intelligence of the meditated invasion. Apprised of this knowledge of his movements, Sheerkooh changed his course from Bilbeys, entered the valley of the Nile at some distance above Cairo, and crossing the river marched northwards to El-Geezeh. Here he endeavoured to raise the people against Shawir and his Frank confederates ; and had in some measure succeeded when the superior forces of the enemy