Al-Mustansir

Al-Mustansir inherited the prosperous Fatimid caliphate that flourished around the Mediterranean between the tenth and twelfth centuries. However, he was unwittingly responsible for losing much of the caliphate’s fortune through the incompetence of his advisers, religious infighting, and bad luck.

Early Life
Ma’ad al-Mustansir Billāh, who came to be known as al-Mustansir was the son of Caliph al- Zāhir and a dark-skinned Sudanese concubine named Rasad. At the age of eight months, he was declared successor to the caliphate. Al-Mustansir was raised in splendor and luxury at a palace in Cairo, a city founded a century earlier by the Fatimids, leaders of the then-dominant Shiite faction of Islam, who traced their descent from the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, Fatimah. After his father died, al-Mustansir ascended to the throne in 1036, at the age of seven.
Although al-Mustansir was titular leader to millions of subjects across vast territory, his chief adviser (vizier), Ali bin Ahmad Jarjarai, made most decisions. When the vizier died in 1044, Queen Mother Rasad became her teenage son’s closest adviser, assisted by a succession of mostly short-term viziers of varying degrees of honesty and capability.
In the decade of the 1040’s, trouble arose with a schism in the Islam faith. Many Sht4ites converted to the more conservative, less tolerant Sunni branch. Natural disasters further complicated matters. The usually reliable Nile River ran low for several seasons, devastating crops. Famine was rampant for seven years. Amid the chaos and want, the caliph’s army of mercenary soldiers, recruited from a dozen different territories, revolted. Light-skinned Turkish and Berber troops fought against dark-skinned former comrades from the Sudan. In pursuit of victory, the Berbers burned harvests and disrupted irrigation to worsen the famine and force their enemies to surrender. A plague swept through at the same time, decimating the weakened population.

Mature Wealth
The succession of tragedies affected the caliphate of al- Mustansir, and its territory of influence receded. Beginning in 1043, the Fatimids lost control of Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, and Sicily, and in 1099 would lose Palestine to the first wave of Crusaders.
In the 1060’s, the Turkish mercenaries and their allies were victorious over the Sudanese and marched into Cairo. There, they sacked al-Mustansir’s palace, making off with priceless works of art, jewelry, and other valuables sold for a fraction of their worth. A 600,000- volume library was wantonly destroyed. The caliph’s stables, which once housed thousands of fine horses, were reduced to three scrawny nags. The Fatimid treasury, built up since the early tenth century, was quickly depleted. During their tenure in power, the Turks treated al-Mustansir with contempt, and the caliph had to rely upon charity to eat.
Although the Turkish mercenaries’ revolt was suppressed in the mid-1070’s, al-Mustansir never regained the power, wealth, or territory that circumstances caused him to lose. His mother was eventually removed from power, and viziers ran the government during the remainder of his reign. He died when he was sixty-four, having ruled as caliph in name, if not in fact, for fifty-seven years, longer than any other ruler of an Islam state.

Legacy

Al-Mustansir’s second son, al-Musta‛lī, succeeded his father as caliph in 1094. However, it was an empty title since the Fatimid caliphate had shrunk to roughly the size of modern-day Egypt. The caliphate collapsed in the 1160’s. Saladin conquered Cairo in 1169, and Egypt was incorporated into a Sunni dynasty that would last until 1254, when the Mamluks took control, continuing Arab rule until the advent of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century.
With the passage of time, al-Mustansir’s fame dwindled. The Fatimid fortune that had been acquired through tribute, taxes, and gifts was stolen and scattered. The Shiite-based dynasty that ruled for more than 250 years became extinct, and in the early twenty-first century the overwhelming majority of Muslims adhered to Sunni doctrines.