A Shia and a Sunni
In the 7th century, the Prophet Muhammad founded the Arab Empire of Islam and theocracy, and then expanded vigorously, under the banner of Islam, the Arab iron horse conquered a vast area from east to Central Asia, west to Iberia, across the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, in 632, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims successively embraced four caliphs (Arabic inheritance, both the head of the Arab Empire and the religious leader of the Muslims,) successively came to power, these four caliphs were: Abu Bakr al-Khalifa. Bakr (reigned 632-634) Umar ibn Khatab (reigned 634-644) Osman ibn Afan (reigned 644-656) Ali ibn Abi Talib (reigned 656-661), during the reign of the Four Caliphs. The expansion of the Arab Empire reached its climax.
Establishment of Arab States
Expansion of the Arab Empire
In 656, Uthman was assassinated, and the Muslims succeeded to the throne (reigned 656-661), the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, the last of the four caliphs, Ali.
Ali
However, Ali had more courage and less resources, and his prestige was not as good as that of the previous three caliphs. As soon as he came to power, he was dissatisfied by some Muslims, and the opposition, led by Muhammad's widows Aisha and Muawiyah, raised troops against Ali, who was the son of the Meccan nobleman Abu Sufuyan, under the pretext that Ali had sent people to assassinate Uthman. It has a reputation in the military. In October 656, Prophet Muhammad's disciples Zubair and Telha joined forces with the Prophet's widow, Aisha, to rebel against Ali near Basra, known as the Battle of the Camels. Defeated by Ali. Zubayr and Taylorha were killed in battle, and Aisha was captured and sent back to Mecca under house arrest. The following year, Muawiyah also raised an army to rebel. The two armies fought a decisive battle in Suifen. Just when Ali was militarily superior and was about to end the war, Muawiyah skillfully used a ruse to listen to amr ben As's plan and let the soldiers carry the Qur'an to fight, so that Ali did not dare to fight. Ali was forced to accept a truce that used the Quran to adjudicate differences, which resulted in a major political defeat and a serious split in the Muslim camp. Dissatisfied with Ali's policies, some Muslims who originally belonged to the Ali faction fled from Ali, a group of Muslims who became known as the Khawarijis. (Arabic Exodus). In 661, Ali was eventually assassinated, and Muawiyah established himself as caliph, made the capital damascus, and established the so-called Umayyad dynasty (661-750), which chinese history books call "white clothes and food". However, some Muslims insist that Ali is the orthodox caliph. , did not recognize Muawiyah's position, considering him a usurper. This part of the Muslims later evolved into today's Shiites. The mainstream is called "Sunni."
Muawiyah in Muslim frescoes
The Umayyad Dynasty at its height
During the Umayyad dynasty, Muslims continued to expand outward. In the 1650s, Arab armies occupied Central Asia. In 664, Arab armies occupied Afghanistan and conquered northwestern India. In North Africa, in 670, the Arabs began to build the city of Kairouan in Tunis as the military and political center in North Africa, and in 695, the Arab army joined forces with the local Berbers (i.e., the Numibians of classical times) to conquer the important town of Carthage. A fire burned Carthage into white. However, the Umayyad dynasty was not very popular among Muslims because it did not come from the House of Muhammad (i.e., the Hashemite family). Beginning around 718, the descendants of Prophet Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abdul Al-Mutharib (the Hashemite family) set out to attempt to control the Arab Empire, and through clever propaganda and agitation, they gained the support of many people, especially Iraqi Arabs, Islamic Shiites and Persians, and united into an alliance with the Hashemite family as the leader. Against the Umayyad dynasty.
From 746 onwards, the Abbasids openly rebelled, supported by the Muslims, and the leader of the Hashemite family, Abu Abbas Al-Safah, defeated the Umayyad army at the Battle of the Great Jay River (a tributary of the Tigris River) in 750, and his caliph, Malwan II, was killed after fleeing to Egypt, and other members of the dynasty were also killed, only Abu Darlaman fled to Spain as king, establishing the post-Umayyad caliphate (Córdoba caliphate) with the capital of Córdoba, against the Abbasid dynasty.
In 750, Abbas Al-Safah ascended the throne as the first Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty (reigned 750-754), with the capital at Kufa and the self-proclaimed Sepfara (meaning butcher) because he intended to rule the empire with an iron fist. The establishment of the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258) Chinese history books call it the "Great Food in Black". In 751, Arab armies defeated the then powerful Tang Dynasty at the Battle of Tiros. During the reign of the second caliph, Al-Mansour (reigned 754-775), he built the new capital of Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris River, with Iraq as the center, and moved the capital to this place in 762, reducing the power of the Persians who were in power and strengthening their rule.
The territory of the Abbasid dynasty at its height
The 8th and 9th centuries were the heyday of the Abbasid dynasty, and many famous monarchs emerged, and the famous story of "One Thousand and One Nights" was born in this century. But by the end of the 9th century, many caliphs were faint and incompetent. The state was weakening, many local governors were on their own, and the Arab Empire was torn apart. Throughout the Abbasid dynasty, the shia-sunni struggle never stopped. The Fatimid dynasty is also about to appear in this context.
The division of the Arab Empire
II. Establishment of the Fatimid Dynasty
Although the Abbasid dynasty overthrew the Umayyad kings in part by relying on Shia Muslims, after the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty, the Shiites were repeatedly suppressed and persecuted by the rulers, and the anger of resistance burned among The Shia Muslims, and some Shia Muslims moved en masse to North Africa, where the Abbasid rule was weaker. In 893 AD, the Yemeni Shia Ismailis (one of the Sects of the Ismailis, one of the Shiite sects that advocate the doctrine of the Seven Imams and others), the teacher of the Prophet Abdullah Hussein, accepted the invitation of the Pilgrims of the Berber tribes of North Africa during the Hajj in Mecca, and was sent by the Headquarters of the Ismailis to accompany the Pilgrims to Tunisia and began to spread the Ismaili teachings among the local Kitamai tribes, declaring that the "Mahdi" (the Savior) was about to return to the world and calling on Muslims to rise up and destroy the existing order. Building a fair and just Islamic society. Abu Abdullah Al-Hussein won the support of many believers in the missionary process, so he took the opportunity to form an armed force and became a prominent local political and religious leader. Soon, the Ismaili imam (religious leader) Saeed ibn Hussey, fleeing persecution by the caliphate, disguised merchants from the Ismaili headquarters of Selimyya in northern Syria went to Tunisia to meet Abu Abdullah, but were captured and imprisoned by Emir Ziadayutulla II of the Aghlaib dynasty who ruled North Africa. In 902 AD, Abu Abdullah led a Berber army to revolt and launched a fierce attack on the armies of the Aghlaib dynasty. In March 909, Abu Abdullah led a Berber army to capture Lakkada (present-day Kairouan), overthrew the Aghlaib dynasty, and rescued Said ibn Hussein from prison and was proclaimed caliph. Said claimed to be a descendant of Fatima, the daughter of Ali and the Prophet Muhammad, and claimed to be Imam Ubaidullah Mahdi, so the state was established as the Fatimid Dynasty. The capital was first built in Lakada, and in 920 AD it was moved to the city of Mahdia (on the southeast coast of present-day Kairouan). Because the Fatimid dynasty was still green, Chinese history books referred to the Fatimid dynasty as a green coat.
Fatimid dynasty
After Saeed (reigned 909-934 AD), he politically competed with the Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad. Religiously, he took the Shia Ismaili sect as the state religion, blessed Ali and the Caliph in the prayer of the day of the gathering, and became the religious leader of the Ismaili sect. Although Said fought alongside Abu Abdullah Al-Hussein during the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty, the conflict of interests soon led the two to part ways. Shia Muslims had hoped that Said would become the spiritual leader and hand over the management of secular affairs to Hussein, and Hussein's brother Hassan also encouraged him to overthrow Imam Mahdi Said and regain power. After the Berber commander in Kutama, Ghazwiyya, discovered the plot, he assassinated Hussein in February 911. When Saeed Mahdi heard the news, he wept bitterly, attended Hussein's funeral, forgave him, and comforted his brother. After Hussein's rebellion was quelled, Mahdi Said expanded his territory to Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Sicily, laying the foundation for the strength of the Fatimid dynasty. In 934, Said fell ill and died.
Sayyid Gold Coins
After Said's death in 934, his son Qayim succeeded his father as caliph, and he never left mahdia's royal residence. Nevertheless, under the fanatical ideas of the Ismailis, the warriors of the Fatimid dynasty continued to expand outward, and the Fatimid dynasty became an important force in the Mediterranean. After the reconquest of Sicily, the Roman empire's province of Calabria and the Ligurian coast were also plundered by the Fatimid army, and the Fatimid fleet even reached northern Italy at one point, sacking Genoa.
Nevertheless, fatimid rule in North Africa was virtually unstable, and from 944 to 947, Abu Yazid, the head of the local tribe nicknamed the Donkey Rider, declared himself an imam, entangled local Berber tribes and launched a rebellion against the Fatimid dynasty, plunging the Fatimid dynasty into crisis, and Abu Yazid unified and occupied the Kharijite Berber tribe in the Aurès Mountains of eastern Algeria Ifriqiya。 Taking advantage of the main forces of the Fatimid dynasty to conquer the outside world, at one point the army approached Kairouan and Mahdia, with the help of the navy, the Fatimid army held the city for a year, so that the rebel army finally collapsed, Abu Yazid fled, in 947, the Fatimid army besieged the last stronghold of the rebels, kiyana, Abu Yazid was captured during the breakthrough, 4 days later he was seriously wounded, unfortunately, before the rebellion was suppressed, Qaimu died of illness in the first year of the city. He was enthroned by his son Mansour.
Kaim Gold Coins
Abu Yazid's uprising
Mansour's main energies were devoted to suppressing the rebellion of Abu Ziyad and the rest of his army, and after Abu Ziyad's death, his sons led the remnants of the struggle. It was not until years later, when Mansur was about to die, that it was completely wiped out, and at the same time, a rebellion broke out in Sicily against the Fatimid dynasty. On April 25, 947, with the support of the Romans, an uprising led by the Banu Tabari family of Palermo overthrew Ibn Attaf, the Fatimid governor of Sicily. In response to the uprising, Mansour chose a man who had excelled in suppressing the Abu Yazid uprising, and the Governor of Tunisia, Hassan ibn Ali Karbi, was appointed the new Governor of Sicily. Calbi negotiated with the Romans, stirred up dissension, and temporarily reached a peace pact with the Roman Empire, causing the rebels to lose the support of the Roman Empire, their power plummeted, many rebel leaders surrendered, and then Calby put the "Feast of the Great Gate", put the rebel leaders under house arrest during the negotiations, and quickly suppressed the rebellion After that, Carby and his family almost hereditary Sicily ruled the island as fatima governor until 1053. However, the truce with Rome did not last long. In 949, the Romans and the post-Umayyad dynasties exchanged letters of state at their respective courts, apparently agreeing on an anti-Fatimid alliance: the following summer, the Romans attacked the Fatimid territories in southern Italy, while in 951 the Umayyad fleet captured Tangier, giving the post-Umayyyad dynasty another base in North Africa (along with Ceuta) to exert influence over the tribes and rulers of the western Maghreb and to promote an anti-Fatima alliance between them. Upon learning of the arrival of the new Roman army in Italy, Carbie turned to Mansour for reinforcements. Mansour personally oversaw the preparations for Tunisia, placing the 10,500-man expeditionary force under the command of the Slavic eunuch Faraj (or Farakh). In May 951, the Fatimids landed near Región and attacked Geras, but without success, and the Fatimid army left after the Roman rescue army approached the town. Following the caliph's orders, two Fatimid commanders landed in Calabria again the following spring. On May 7, the Fatimids defeated the Roman army under Gerace near Malakenos and Paschalis and began looting it and Petracucca. As a result, the Romans were forced to extend the armistice and repay pay tribute, and in 953, the sick Mansour died and was taken by his son Muiz.
The army of the Fatimid dynasty
Ruins of the city of Kairouan
III Conquest of Egypt and rule in Egypt
The Fatimid dynasty decided from the beginning to establish the dynasty in Egypt, because Egypt was at the center of the Islamic world, and it was easy to rule the Islamic world with Egypt as the center. After a long and fruitless tug-of-war with the post-Umayyad and Roman Empires, the easy-to-defend Egypt was once again the target of fatimid expansion. In the early period of the dynasty, the Fatimid army attacked Egypt several times, but was repelled by the Ighshed dynasty (935-969) that ruled the local area, and after Muiz came to the throne, he was determined to completely conquer Egypt, he worked hard to prepare 24 million dinars (gold coins) as military expenses, and sent the Sicilian slave general Jawhar Siqilli (~992) to lead the navy and army to launch several western expeditions, and in 967 AD, he eliminated the influence of the Umayyad dynasty in the Maghreb. In 968, Zhao Haier led an army of 100,000 to conquer Egypt. In 969, Chaohair occupied Forstat, the capital of the Ikhshed dynasty in Egypt, and sent his lieutenant generals into Syria, Palestine and Hijaz, which were originally Ikhshed territories, and incorporated them into the Fatimid dynasty. From 970 to 972 AD, Muyiz built a new capital cairo on the northern outskirts of Fuerstatt. In 973 AD, caliph Muyid moved his capital here. The largest mosque, the Al-Azhar Grand Mosque, was built in 972 AD. It then annexed Mecca and Medina. The center of Fatimid rule was transferred to Egypt.
Muez Gold Coins
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Before Muyiz moved the capital to Cairo, Zhao Haier was in charge of Egypt, and after Zhao Haier led the army into Egypt, Qiu did not commit any crimes, ensuring the freedom of religious belief and the safety of residents, he also took measures to stabilize social order, stabilize prices, crack down on hoarding, and even met with the people once a week, personally handled some unjust, false and wrong cases, resolved civil disputes, won the hearts of the Egyptian people, laid a good popular foundation for the Fatimid Dynasty to rule Egypt, and at the same time, he was also responsible for the construction of the new capital Cairo and the Al-Azhar Grand Mosque.
In 973, Muyiz moved the capital to Cairo, and although Muyiz ruled Egypt for only 3 years, it was able to make people's hearts uplifted, society stable, and the country prosperous. In order to strengthen control over the entire occupied territories, Muyiz strengthened the centralization of power, and the court set up a council of ministers, composed of ministers and senior military generals, redivided the provinces, sent military generals as governors, and sent Shia judges and tax collectors to various places, directly under central control. Mosques, religious schools and charities were built throughout the country, Islamic elders were sent to Mecca and Medina to take charge of the religious power of the two holy sites, it was stipulated that the abbasid caliph should be cancelled and the Abbasid caliph should be blessed during the main gathering ceremony of the capital mosque, and Hutubhi preached the teachings of the Shia Ismaili sect and commemorated the Shiite festival. He died in Cairo in 975.
Al-Azhar Mosque
The reign of Muyiz's son Aziz (reigned 955-996) was the heyday of the Fatimid dynasty. Historians record that Aziz was "tall, red-haired and blue-eyed, generous and brave, fond of horseback riding and hunting, and very humane and tolerant." Aziz is known for improving the skills of administrative staff, reforming the fatimid state's finances, standardizing and streamlining the salaries of officials, and taking measures to ensure their integrity. At the same time, he is known for his extravagant lifestyle and obsession with precious objects, rare animals and cuisine; It is said that at one point he asked carrier pigeons to bring him cherries from Baalbek. By expanding streets and canals and establishing a stable currency, Egypt's economy was also nurtured and tax revenues increased as a result. In the elaborate building plan, the overall economic situation is also obvious.
For most of his reign, the most influential official was Ibn Kilis, the first person in Fatimid history to be designated "Prime Minister" (Vizier) in 979. He served as chief minister of Aziz until his death in 991. Like his master, Ibn Killis lived an extremely luxurious life, enjoying an annual salary of 100,000 dinars. Ibn Killis was credited with his ability to manage public finances, and although the luxury-loving caliph spent huge sums of money, he ensured an adequate treasury, arguably the Egyptian version of the "Hezhen", who also acted as a protector of the literati, compiling a book of the Fatimid Code. In contrast, Ibn Kilis's successor did not reign long. Over the next five years, Vizier's positions were occupied by six men, most of whom were mediocre and incompetent.
Aziz also undertook major military reforms. The Berbers, especially the Kutama tribes, were traditionally the mainstay of the Fatimid army and, under the rule of Aziz's predecessor, played a major role in the takeover of Ivrikia and the conquest of Egypt and southern Levant. Until the 970s, the Kutamabers provided cavalry, which consisted of hired Slavic (Ṣaqāliba), Greek (Rūm), and black African (Sūdān or ʿabīd) slaves. However, raids on the Levant exposed the inadequacy of the mainly Kutama-based army, and from 978 onwards, Aziz began to import mercenaries from eastern Islam, especially Turkic and Ghulam slave soldiers (gilmān). The adoption of the Ghulam system had a profound impact, as the Turkic Gulamu quickly assumed high-ranking local positions and began to compete with Kutama for influence, especially after 100 AD, when the flow of recruits from Kutama's homeland weakened. As a result, a fierce confrontation arose between these two groups, known respectively maghāriba ("Westerners") and Mashāriqa ("Orientals"), which broke out in open war after Aziz's death. It weakened the fatimid empire and shook the foundations of the Fatimid dynasty's rule in North Africa. During Aziz's reign, the Fatimid army expanded into Syria, conquering many parts of Syria and the Levant, and even occupying the important city of Aleppo at one point, but excessive attention to Syria and Egypt weakened the Fatimids' attention in North Africa, making the local centrifugal tendencies more and more pronounced. Effective power there had been transferred to Buluggin ibn Ziri (reigned 972-984), the governor of Zirid in Ivridia, whose status had been confirmed by Aziz and his son Mansur (reigned 984-996), and in 992 Aziz had even bypassed the Fatimid court and directly confirmed Mansour's son Badis as heir, thus strengthening the Dynastic succession of the Zirid family and becoming a state within a state. In fact, in addition to still paying tribute and recognizing the Fatimid court as suzerainty, the Zirids became increasingly independent of the Fatimid court in administering their territories, and even fought against Kutama, the former mainstay of the Fatimid regime. In a similar way, Aziz recognized the hereditary status of Governor Calbid of Sicily. Aziz died on October 13, 996. His son Al-Hakim (996-1021) succeeded him as caliph.
Fatima warriors
The Fatimid dynasty at its height
IV The decline of the Fatimid dynasty
The period of Aziz's reign was both the heyday of the Fatimid dynasty and the beginning of the decline of the Fatimid dynasty. Aziz's extravagant and degenerate life greatly aggravated social contradictions and people's burdens, his emphasis on Egypt and Syria also made the dynasty's rule in North Africa begin to waver, at the same time, the Ghulam mercenaries he recruited from the Turks also left a huge hidden danger for the dynasty, and the successor to Aziz was his son Hakim (reigned 996-1021), who was a fanatical religious believer, who opposed the fatimid dynasty's policy of religious freedom, persecuted Christians and Jews, and destroyed Christian churches. Including the famous Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Hakim demanded that his subjects strictly observe the canon, that banquets, drinking, entertainment, music, and even chess and walking were forbidden, and that he turned the clock upside down and allowed only shops to open at night and not during the day, causing great social chaos, and under his rule, the original prosperity and prosperity. In the later years of his reign, in order to strengthen his dominance, he recruited Shiite radical scholars at the court and formed missionary organizations to promote the deification of his rule. He claimed to be the "embodiment of the Allah" and the absolute ruler of the world. Ismaili believers, led by the preachers Hamza and Dalachi, who recognized him as the "living Lord," solicited believers, worshipped him, and made the country miasma, and his own end was so absurd that he disappeared on the night of February 13, 1021, while wandering in the wilderness near Cairo. There is no living person, no dead body, leaving behind a mystery for eternity, and some of his fanatical followers revere him as a "reclusive imam" and commemorate the day of his disappearance. Formed the so-called Druze tribe.
Hakim
Under Hakim's rule, the Fatimid dynasty went into total decline. The ruling classes fell to each other, the state power fell into paralysis, with the weakening of central power, the local forces gradually divided themselves, North Africa was in fact independent of the Fatimid dynasty, and after Hakim's death, he was replaced by Ali Zahir (reigned 1021-1035), who was faint and incompetent, had a low sense of existence, and soon died of illness, and the newly enthroned Mustansur (reigned 1035-1094) was equally incompetent, greedy for pleasure, drunk and dreaming of death. Mustansur was only 7 years old when he ascended the throne (1036), and the actual rights were exercised by the prime minister of the father king and the mother of a Jewish slave girl. During this period, there were frequent fierce battles in Egypt between various forces, generally between ethnic groups such as the Sudanese and the Turks, who supported different politicians. Attacking each other greatly weakened the fatimid dynasty, and although he marched several times, he was powerless to change this situation. In 1073 he privately granted military power in Egypt to the Armenian general Bydel Jamali, who defeated various military factions, executed many Egyptian politicians, and restored relative calm and prosperity. However, real power fell into the hands of Bader and other military generals after him, and Mustansur was powerless to do anything about it, and he himself simply abandoned himself, indulged in alcohol, and did not care about political affairs, and it was said that his palace had 30,000 slaves of all kinds. The Influence of the Fatimid Dynasty outside Egypt was waning, and the Roman Empire took the opportunity to launch a counterattack against the Fatimid Dynasty, and the Famous Roman General George Maniac repeatedly inflicted heavy damage on the Fatimid army. In 1071, normans from northern Europe captured Sicily.
The Evolution of the Fatimid Empire
V The Seljuks and the Crusaders
The Seljuk Turks were a branch of the Turks. It originally lived in Central Asia. Around 1000, the Seljuks, led by their leader Seljuk, migrated from Central Asia to Persia. In 1040, under the leadership of Seljuk's grandson Tugrilberg. It occupied almost the entire Iranian plateau, and the forces penetrated into the two river basins. In 1055, Tugril Beg led the Turks to capture Baghdad, the capital of the Arab Empire, and the Turks did not abolish the caliphate. Instead, he was used as a puppet. Establishment of the so-called Seljuk Empire (1037-1194 its side of the Rom Sultanate ruled Asia Minor until the end of the 13th century). Although the caliph remained supreme leader, the Arab Empire and the Seljuk Empire coexisted, but the power was in the hands of the Seljuks. The caliphate conferred on the Seljuk chieftain Sultan (the supreme ruler of Islam, equivalent to a king) and the title of king of the East and the West. In 1071, at the famous Battle of Manchikerke, the Seljuk army defeated the Roman army, captured the Roman Emperor Romanus IV, and captured almost all of Asia Minor.
Seljuk migration route
Tugril Berg in Persian frescoes
While sweeping through the Two Rivers Valley, the Seljuk army launched an attack on the Fatimid region of Syria, and when Sultan Arp Arslan (reigned 1063-1072) and his son Maliksha (reigned 1072-1092), the empire reached its peak and was well-established in martial arts. In 1064, ani, the capital of the Byzantine Armenian province, was captured. In 1070 Arslan led an army to capture Aleppo, expanding its power to Jerusalem and Damascus, and seizing the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from the Shiite Fatimid dynasty. In 1073, the Seljuk army captured Jerusalem, slaughtered the city, and plundered it. Expelled almost all fatimid forces from Syria and the Near East.
Turkic cavalry
In 1095, faced with the threat of the Seljuks, the Roman Emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for help, hoping that the Christian countries of Europe would help Rome recover Anatolia from the Seljuks. The countries of Western Europe have called accordingly. Urban II summoned the bishop on 27 November, and the nobles gave a speech in Clement, France, calling on the Christians to go and conquer the pagans in the East and retake the Holy Land, thus triggering the First Crusade. This meeting is also known as the Clements Conference. The Conference of Clement marked the beginning of the Crusades. The following year, a formal crusade of nobles set out. The main leaders were Raymond, Count of Toulouse, Robert Kossos (son of Robert II William the Conqueror), the Norman chief Bohemond, the Duke of Lower Lorraine, Godfrey of Bouillon of the House of Flanders, and the Baldwin brothers of Bouillon, with a total of 5,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry, and began the Crusade, and the Crusaders, with the support of the Roman Empire, traveled through Asia Minor and defeated the siege and interception of the Seljuk army. In 1098, the Crusaders broke through Antioch, and in June 1099, the Crusaders (15,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry) arrived under jerusalem, which was ruled by the Muslim dynasty of Fatimid, which ruled Egypt. The Muslim soldiers and civilians in the city desperately resisted, the Crusaders besieged the city, on July 18, the crusaders entered the city, burned and plundered, did nothing wrong, slaughtered tens of thousands of Muslim soldiers and civilians, the Crusaders elected Godfrey, who had a high prestige, as king, Godfrey declared himself the "Guardian of the Holy Sepulchre", and established a crusader state that imitated the French political system, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was the largest and strongest of the crusader states.
The Crusaders besieged Jerusalem
Not to be outdone, the Fatimids attempted to counterattack, and in August, an Egyptian army of 50,000 actually more than 20,000 was counterattacked by the Egyptian general Avdar, stationed in Ashkelon, very close to Jerusalem. The Crusaders went out of the city to meet the battle. The two sides fought a decisive battle.
Battle of Ashkelon 1099
Comparison of troop strength
Crusaders 15,000 infantry 5,000 cavalry
Muslim 25,000 (claimed 50,000)
The Crusaders were at a slight disadvantage
The two armies are arranged as shown in the picture. The Crusaders, led by Robert (i.e. Robert) and Godfrey, were divided into nine detachments, distributed in finished glyphs, supporting each other. After contact with the Egyptian army, it lined up.
Fatima Army
The Muslim army was in front of the archers, the cavalry in the rear, and the Bedouin cavalry on the right flank occupied the high ground in an attempt to detour. The two armies went to war, and the Muslim archers shot a rain of arrows, but it had little effect on the crusaders armed to the teeth. The Crusader infantry first attacked, crushing the Bedouin cavalry. Then, the Crusader knights lined up, launched a charge, roared, the Muslim archers could not resist, defeated, rushed to the rear of the cavalry formation, the Crusaders took advantage of the chase, the Muslims were defeated, many people were driven into the sea by the Crusaders and drowned. The Crusaders were victorious. For a long time thereafter, the Fatimid dynasty did not dare to launch an attack on the Crusader states.
V. The Fall of the Fatimid Dynasty
Mustaari (reigned 1094-1101) was succeeded by Mustari (reigned 1094-1101), the youngest of his brothers-in-law, mustathari became caliph through the machinations of his brother-in-law, Prime Minister Afdar (avdar above), who was the de facto ruler of the country throughout his reign. Mustari's eldest brother Nizar disobeyed Mustaly and revolted in Alexandria, but was defeated and executed. This led to a major split in the Ismaili movement, with many communities, especially in Persia and Iraq, splitting off from the officially backed Mustaris and forming their own Nizari sect, which regarded Nizar and its descendants as legitimate rulers. During the reign of al-Musta'li, the First Crusade arrived in the Levant, leading to the fall of Jerusalem and a crushing defeat at the Battle of Fatima Ashkelon. This has swept the prestige of Avdal and others. Many Syrians took the opportunity to break away from the Fatimid dynasty, causing further social unrest and famine, and in a state of internal and external troubles, Mustaly finally fell ill and died in 1101, and was succeeded by his son Amir Akhkamila. (reign 1101-1130)
Mustaly Gold Coins
Akhkamira was from 1101 until his death in 1130. Until 1121, he was a puppet of Avdal. When the latter was murdered in 1121, it was most likely at the behest of Akhkamila, who after Afdar's death appointed Al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ih as Vizier (prime minister), but soon after, in 1125, Ahkamila abolished vizier. Under his rule, all Fatimid strongholds in Palestine, with the exception of Ashkelon, were gradually occupied by the Crusaders. He was assassinated in 1130, leaving only his young son as heir apparent, which plunged the Fatimid regime into a near-collapsed succession struggle. In 1132, Amir's cousin li-Din Allah established himself as caliph, and the Fatimid dynasty resumed its rule, but its decline was inevitable.
With a series of civil unrest and crusader invasions, Khafiz (reigned 1130-1149) and several subsequent caliphs were almost completely emptied, and the local governors were heavily armed, and the caliphs' orders were almost impossible to get out of Cairo. At the same time, the Zangi dynasty became a force to be reckoned with in the Near East. In 1127, the Seljuk general, A slave-born Zanghi, was given the title of Mosul (Mausul) Atabeg (Taifu and Protector) by the Seljuk Sultan for his meritorious service against the Crusaders, and received the three major cities of Aleppo, Haran and Mosul. Soon, based on these regions, they supported themselves and established the so-called Zangi Dynasty as a vassal of the Seljuk Empire. He ruled Syria and northern Iraq. After Zanji's death in 1146, his second son, Nurdin Mahmoud, took al-Alepo as the capital and took possession of Syria. Nurdin continued his father's strategy against the Crusaders. A call for a "holy war" against the Crusader states.
The territory of the Zanji dynasty
In 1144, the Seljuk and Zangi armies besieged the Crusa stronghold of Edessa, and Josephine II, Count of Edessa (Josserine's son), was isolated due to a fallout with Antiochus and Tripoli. Abandon the city and flee. Edessa fell, Muslim armies slaughtered the city, and the kingdom of Edessa fell. In 1154, Nurdin defeated the Antioch army and captured Bohemond III, Duke of Antioch. Capture of Damascus in 1154. Western European vibrations. The Crusader states appealed to Western Europe for help, and the Pope called for another crusade. In 1147, King Louis VII of France and Holy Roman Emperor Conrad formed a coalition to launch the Crusade, the Second Crusade. The early Silla Crusaders were defeated by the Turks in Asia Minor. The French Crusaders besieged Damascus for a long time, and in 1149, they were forced to retreat. During the retreat, he was ambushed by the Turkic army and suffered heavy losses, and Josephine II, Count of Edessa, who joined the Crusades, was captured by the Turks and died in prison, and the Second Crusade failed. Nevertheless, the Crusaders were victorious in the war against the Fatimids, and in 1154 the Crusaders again defeated the Fatimid army, captured Ashkelon, and then attacked Egypt west along the Mediterranean Sea.
Second Crusade
Route of the Second Crusade
The Fatimid dynasty could not resist, so it had to lure the wolf into the house and ask the Zangi dynasty for help, and in 1164, Nurdin, at the request of Adid, the last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt, sent his Kurdish general Shirku and his nephew Saladin to Lead an army to Egypt to meet the Crusaders, winning many victories, expelling the Crusaders, and the two uncles and nephews successively served as fatimid ministers. After the death of The Fatimid caliphate in 1169 and 1171, after the successive deaths of Shirku and Adid, Saladin relied on the Kurds he had brought with him to establish himself as king in Egypt. Establishment of the Ayyubid dynasty. （1171-1250）。 Saladin's rise to power also marked the final demise of the Fatimid dynasty. Then Saladin, who had established himself as Sultan of Egypt, united with the Muslim forces to launch an attack on Jerusalem, triggering the famous Third Crusade, which would be another legend
Sultan Saladin of Egypt
bibliography
General History of Egypt Wang Hailey
Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. .
(Zhilan Society)