Nizar ibn al-Mustansir
c. 1045 CE–c. 1095 CE · Cairo
Nizar ibn al-Mustansir was a prince of the Fatimid dynasty, the Cairo-based Shia Ismaili caliphate that then ruled Egypt. He was the eldest son of al-Mustansir, who held the joint office of caliph (political ruler) and imam (spiritual leader). Reliable sources report that al-Mustansir at one point designated Nizar his heir through nass, the formal naming of a successor that Ismaili doctrine regards as binding.
When al-Mustansir died at the end of 1094, the powerful army commander and vizier (chief minister) al-Afdal Shahanshah instead installed Nizar's younger half-brother, who took the throne as al-Musta'li. Nizar fled to the port of Alexandria, where the governor and townspeople backed him; he proclaimed himself caliph under the regnal title al-Mustafa li-Din Allah ("the Chosen for God's Religion"), a claim confirmed by a gold coin found in 1994. His revolt failed: he was besieged, surrendered, was carried back to Cairo, and there killed by being walled up alive (immurement), reportedly in 1095.
Whether the designation of Nizar or of al-Musta'li was the valid one is a matter on which Ismailis themselves divide, and this site does not adjudicate it. The dispute produced a permanent split: Ismailis who upheld Nizar's claim became the Nizari branch, whose imamate is traced by tradition through his line down to the Aga Khans. Those who recognized al-Musta'li formed the Musta'li branch.
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CairoקהירEgypt
What they did here
Nizar was born, by the standard account, on 26 September 1045 in Cairo, the Fatimid capital, as the eldest son of the caliph-imam al-Mustansir. Sources: F. Daftary, The Isma'ilis; EI2.
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.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Nizar ibn al-Mustansir’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
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