Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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(5) Al-ʿAzīz (A.D. 978). The dominions recently acquired by al-Muʿizz were secured to the Fatimide K͟halīfahs by the wise government of his son, al-ʿAzīz, who took several towns in Syria. He married a Christian woman, whose brothers he made patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem.

(6) Al-Ḥākim was only eleven years of age when he succeeded his father in A.D. 996. He is distinguished even among Oriental despots by his cruelty and folly. His tyranny caused frequent insurrections in Cairo. He persecuted the Jews and Christians, and burnt their places of worship. By his order the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem was destroyed (A.D. 1009). His persecutions of the Christians induced them to appeal to their brethren in the West, and was one of the causes that led to the crusades. He carried his folly so far as to seek to become the founder of a new religion, and to assert that he was the express image of God. He was assassinated in A.D. 1021, and was succeeded by his son.

(7) Az̤-Z̤āhir (A.D. 1021) was not so cruel as his father, but was addicted to pleasure, and resigned all the cares of government to his Vizirs. In his reign the power of the Fatimide K͟halīfahs began to decline. They possessed nothing but the external show of royalty; secluded in the harem, they were the slaves of their vizirs whom they could not remove, and dared not disobey. In addition to the evils of misgovernment, Egypt was afflicted in the reign of az̤-Z̤āhir with one of the most dreadful famines that ever visited the country.