al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
985 CE–1021 CE · Cairo
Abu Ali al-Mansur, who reigned under the title al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ("the Ruler by God's Command"), was the sixth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty — a Shia Ismaili line that ruled Egypt and counted its rulers as divinely guided imams. Born in Cairo in 985 CE (375 AH), he was the first Fatimid to be born in Egypt, and he succeeded his father al-Aziz in 996 CE at the age of eleven. His long reign is among the most debated in Islamic history. He founded the Dar al-Ilm ("House of Knowledge") in Cairo around 1005, a library and teaching institution open to the public. He also issued a shifting and often harsh series of decrees: restrictions on non-Muslims, bans on wine and certain foods, and, in 1009, the order to demolish the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem — an event later cited among the causes of the Crusades. Historians disagree sharply about his character, some seeing calculated policy where others see erratic cruelty. From around 1017, preachers including Hamza ibn Ali and al-Darazi proclaimed al-Hakim a manifestation of the divine — teachings he is not securely shown to have endorsed, and which became the seed of the Druze religion. In February 1021 he rode into the Muqattam hills outside Cairo on one of his night excursions and never returned; only his mount and bloodstained garments were found. The Druze hold that he entered occultation and will return.
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CairoקהירEgypt
What they did here
Born in Cairo (al-Qahira, the Fatimid capital) on 13 August 985 CE (375 AH) as Abu Ali al-Mansur, son of the caliph al-Aziz. He was the first Fatimid ruler born in Egypt rather than in the dynasty's earlier North African seat.
Cairo in this era
Under the Fatimid caliphs (969-1171) Cairo was the capital of an empire reaching across North Africa and into Syria. Al-Azhar (970-72) and the House of Knowledge founded by al-Hakim in 1005 made it a centre of Ismaili learning, and the scientist Ibn al-Haytham worked here in the early 11th century.
About Cairo
Cairo, at the head of the Nile delta, grew from two foundations: Fustat, the garrison town built by the Arab conquerors in 641, and al-Qahira ('the Victorious'), the walled city founded by the Fatimid dynasty in 969, where the mosque of al-Azhar opened in 970-72 and became a great centre of learning. Under the Ayyubids (from 1171) and the Mamluks (1250-1517) it was one of the largest cities of the Islamic world. Fustat's Jewish community, home to Maimonides in the 12th century, left the Cairo Geniza, a vast store of medieval documents. Later ruled by the Ottomans and, from 1882, under British occupation, Cairo is the capital of modern Egypt.
Across the traditions, in Cairo at the same time
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
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