Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:11 am Post subject: FATIMID ERA
If you are interested in knowing about the intriguing Fatimid Period, read
"EXPLORING AN ISLAMIC EMPIRE" by Paul E. Walker. This book presents a really thorough account of the glory of the topic period.
If you just want to know the basics, then "A short history of the Ismailis" by Dr. Farhad Daftary is an excellent source.
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 2:48 am Post subject: Why we lost that Glory.
Imam SMS had made a Farman which explained why we lost that glory.
"Murido na himmat thaiya"
(Murids lost their courage)
Definition of Himmat from Imam
Kalame Mowla "Himmat badi Iman nishani" (Courage is a strong sign of Iman)
Imam SMS " Je koi himmat karine savarna Jamatkhanama aavi Bandagi kare che....."
(Whosoever courageously comes to khane in the morning to do bandagi...)
Something to reflect upon......
Last edited by shamsu on Fri May 02, 2003 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total
<P>When Fatmids were witnessing downfall, their followers "Soomras" were ruling <BR>Sindh (then an independent country now a province of Pakistan). Soomras ruled<BR>Sindh upto 1351 AD. Till then they had drifted away from Ismailism. <BR> </P>
Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 6:30 pm Post subject: Re: Why we lost that Glory.
i am a researcher about the relationship between educatioin and politics during the Fatimid era i egypt , can u help me by sending me any manuscript or books related to this topic. my email is: <A href="mailto:ramdanet@hotmail.com">ramdanet@hotmail.com</A><BR>
shamsu wrote:
Imam SMS had made a Farman which explained why we lost that glory.<BR><BR>"Murido na himmat thaiya"<BR>(Murids lost their courage)<BR><BR>Definition of Himmat from Imam<BR><BR>Kalame Mowla "Himmat badi Iman nishani" (Courage is a strong sign of Iman)<BR><BR>Imam SMS " Je koi himmat karine savarna Jamatkhanama aavi Bandagi kare che....."<BR>(Whosoever courageously comes to khane in the morning to do bandagi...)<BR><BR>Something to reflect upon......
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 3:16 am Post subject: The Fatimid Dynasty and Its Contributions
Dear Asya:
I was curious to see your interest in Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah’s words about the loss of the Fatimid dynasty. While it is in Gujrati, an explanation might be helpful in English.
Let us first note that the Fatimid dynasty, according to historical records, started with Imam Mehdi and ended with the death of Al Adid. Now although in theory this is correct, it does not reflect the complete version of events.
The Fatimid dynasty was the beginning of an era where Imam Mehdi, the descendant of Fatima, openly declared his leadership and involved himself in public affairs. He wanted the freedom to protect the rights of his followers and carry on his work in both material and spiritual capacities.
After Imam Mehdi the succession of Imams are: Qaim, Mansur, Moez, Aziz, Hakim bi Amrillah, Zahir, and Mustansirbillah. It was during the time of Imam Mustansirbillah that history takes an interesting twist. A conflict arose as to who is the rightful successor – Nizar or Must’ali. Nizar, who was clearly declared at first, was matched by his brother Must’ali who had the support of the vizier Afdal al Gamali. Afdal argued that Mustansirbillah had declared Nizar to be his successor but at his death bed there was a change of mind.
This conflict led to a split between Nizaris and Must’alians. Historical records seem to always point out that the Fatimid dynasty ended through the Must’alian line, but rarely points out that it was not the only line accepted as truly Fatimid. Nizaris claim that the Fatimid dynasty, although not in name, was not lost but continued its succession to the present leader – the Aga Khan.
Today Must’ali’s blood lineage does not exist because it came to an end at the death of Al Adid; whereas the lineage of Nizar still continues. It is very important to respect our Must’alian brothers, at the same time certain points of history must be clarified.
Let it also be noted for historical purposes that the Fatimids were very important to the development of modern education. Too many times in western education the contribution of Muslim thinkers is absent. The west has formed an intellectual patent on historical contributions and refuses to acknowledge that Muslims, originating from so called “primitive races”, could have ever contributed anything of significance by themselves.
Western education teaches students that Muslims were uncivilized and that the simply copied the works of the Greeks and transmitted it to the western world. That clearly contains bias and a slight tease of racism towards Muslims and Islam itself.
May we remind western historians to remember that Greeks were far more primitive in mathematics than most civilizations of that time. Thanks to the Chinese, Indians, and Arabs new knowledge in computation flourished.
Modern science had one special miracle that propelled it from the old world to the new and that was the introduction of the current decimal system. What would life be like if the decimal system was not used today?
The Greeks, with all the credit given to them, could not even conceptualize zero into their mathematics. Without such a system Greek computation was cumbersome and incapable of higher computations. Why are we not using the Greek-Roman numerals today? If they were so superior then why not continue their legacy? In the end whose numerals are we using today? We are using Indian-Arabic numerals.
Western historians must also give credit to intellectuals such as Al Kwarizmi from whom the word algorithm came from. It was his book which contained the word al jabr which came to be known as Algebra.
Medicine was another field where Muslims excelled. During Fatimid times there were too many superstitious views in the western world as to why humans fell sick. Ibn Sina, considered the father of medicine, wrote the Canon of Medicine who’s first scientific approach to healing did away with concepts of sin and evil and replaced it with experimental reasoning.
The very word Chemistry is Arabic in origin. It comes from Al Chemy, or alchemy, as western historians call it. True racism and bias can really be shown when explaining to students the history of the subject. They go so far as to say that Arabs, not mentioning the word Muslims, were primitive in their thinking of chemicals. They somehow sat all day and night trying to turn base metals into gold and mistakenly fumbled upon certain concepts. Once again reference is made to the Greeks as the basis of western thinking, the Muslims simply copied them, and their texts were transmitted to the west.
In the Christian world there was much debate over creation vs. evolution, in the Islamic viewpoint that wasn’t the case. Intellectuals such as Galileo and Copernicus led a movement of disbelief in the church and its doctrine. Such debates as the earth being flat and the universe not being in constant movement led to further accusations against the concept of an existing God. Darwin epitomised that movement and has ever since created a separation in the western world between those who accept creation and those who deny it.
Western historians go even further as to say that Al Azhar University was not the first modern university in the world. Such a claim would mean that Muslims were intellectually advanced than those of the western world.
This all stems from a hidden belief amongst western thinkers that Islam and those who follow it are wrong in faith, absent in intellect, inferior in race, and asset poor. It is a propaganda that the British used while on its colonial expansion.
For the British, true faith and path to heaven was only Christianity and other faiths were wrong and dammed to eternal hell. Education was given to the western world by the Greeks and no other race could have contributed anything of significance. Muslims simply copied the Greeks and preserved it so that it could be used once again by the west.
The only superior race according to the British was the white race; all other races were primitive and inferior. They constantly referred to the Bible claiming that the children of Shem shall be superior. This led to mass export of African slaves to the new world and a systematic eradication of their language, history, culture and religion.
Indians still have an inferiority complex which was instilled in them by the British. Learning English is still more highly respected than Hindi or any other language in India. What would the west think if there was a white man, who spoke English, who ruled England, and was Muslim? Even in the United States the notion of having a Muslim President is unthinkable to a vast majority.
Pluralism and the need for the human family to embrace each other intellectually and physically is the most important undertaking of our time. It will take many generations for the world to become truly global, to accept one another as equals, and to understand that which binds us as human beings. Perhaps we can learn from the Fatimids and the legacy they left behind.
ya ali madad,Intresting............we hardly hear how the downfall came,it was definitely the ismailles who brought the downfall.........as the setup was solidyfied by the time of imam muiz....and sadlly enough it was not the lack of comitment ,it was over committing to a point of ownership and permenance,ofcourse with the ismailly pride and boostfulness...and the claim that.................ALI SAHI ALLAH........inspite of the Imams not wanting it mentioned in the physical contexture........beware we are just about ready for the second resserection...............! Will we follow our forefathers and be the same proud,boostfull,inconsiderate and no sense of united decitions.wanting to be the top honjoo all the time........
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:04 am Post subject: Salam alikom...
Salam alikom...
Thanks for the wonderful topic in this whole forum, may Allah bliss us all
I found something on a site under the name URL Egypt conditions under the Fatimid Caliphateand wish to know whether true or not, if someone here knows...
I found an article saying that "the weakness of the Abbassid Dynasty led to the foundation of the Fatimid Dynasty......... Moreover, the Alides helped the Fatimids in getting rid of the Abbasids and they made good relations with the former in order to participate in their government. ....."
need more explanation please...
Pomp and Celebration in Fatimid Egypt During the Flooding of the Nile
By John Feeney
When the Nile reached its peak, the golden parasol was unfurled, trumpets sounded, and the caliph, “mounted and clothed in sapphires and emeralds,” emerged to the wonderment of his subjects…it was difficult for many spectators to catch even a brief glimpse of the passing caliph. But the very act of seeing him, it was believed, conveyed blessings upon the beholder.
Hoard of Crusader gold found in ruins
Posted On: July 26, 2012 - 4:00pm
A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University has uncovered a hoard of real-life buried treasure at the Crusader castle of Arsur (also known as Apollonia), a stronghold located between the ancient ports of Jaffa and Caesarea, in use from 1241 to its destruction in 1265. The hoard, comprised of 108 gold coins, mostly dinars dated to the Fatimid Period (ca. 900 to 1100 AD), was discovered in a pot by a university student. The coins bear the names of sultans and blessings, and usually include a date and a mint name that indicates where a coin was struck.
The Crusaders' last stand: Pot of gold worth £300,000 found in fortress where it was buried by doomed force of Christian knights
•Pot of gold 'Dinals' were buried by Crusaders as enemy forces closed in
•100 coins worth up to $5000 each
•Remained hidden in fortress since 1265
•Hidden inside broken jug to prevent conquerors taking treasure
By Rob Waugh
The Ramadan Lantern – A Fatimid Tradition
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Photo: Heba Helmy, almasryalyoum.com
Fanous Ramadan (the Ramadan lantern) is an essential part of Ramadan’s magical atmosphere in Egypt. Some sources date the fanous back to a celebration during the Fatimid dynasty when Egyptians welcomed the arrival of the Fatimid Ismaili Imam/Caliph Muizz to Cairo by lighting hundreds of lanterns. Since that time, the fanous lanterns and lamps of various kinds, of many hues and degrees of brightness, and even both real and imaginary, have always been special to Egypt. Before the coming of electricity, Cairo itself was noted for its spectacular use of lanterns to illuminate the city, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies 35 No.1, University of Chicago Press, 1976, pp 29-40.
Abstract
This paper was delivered at the Congress of the American Oriental Society in Santa Barbara in March 1974. In it, Wilferd Madelung presents his exhaustive research into the origins and sources of a monumental document that was considered lost to history; the Kitab al-idah, Qadi al-Nu‘man's first legal work - a vast collection of legal traditions transmitted from the family of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt), indicating their points of consensus (ijma‘) and conflict (ikhtilaf) and elucidating what was firmly established doctrine in them with evidence and proofs. This article provides an invaluable resource for academics and students of Islamic studies and related fields.
Historical representations of a Fatimid Imam-caliph: Exploring al-Maqrizi’s and Idris’ writings on al-Mu‘izz Li Din Allah
Dr Shainool Jiwa
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in Alifba: Studi Arabo-Islamici e Mediterranei, Vol XXII - the published proceedings of the International Conference on the Fatimids and the Mediterranean held at the University of Palermo, Italy in December 2008.
Abstract
It is a happenstance of history that the two most comprehensive extant sources on the Fatimid era (909-1171 CE) were composed by two 15th Century scholars: Taqi al-Din Ahmad b. Ali al-Maqrizi (d.1449 CE) and ‘Imad al-Din ldris (d.1468 CE). Although they composed their works almost three centuries after the Fatimid dynasty had waned, their writings assume primary source significance as, in constructing their narrative, they draw upon a spectrum of earlier North African, Egyptian and Iraqi, Sunni and Ismaili sources, which have not survived the vagaries of time and circumstance.
Though they were contemporaries and died within two decades of each other, both authors, the first an Egyptian Sunni Shafi‘i jurist, the second a Yemeni, Tayyibi Ismaili Chief Da‘i, have significantly different interests and motivations when writing about the Fatimid era. Their belief in the purpose of history, their methodology in using source material, the focus of their narratives as well as their target audience make their approaches to recording Fatimid history distinctive. This provides a relatively rare opportunity to study two discrete perspectives from which to understand and examine Fatimid historiography.
The reign of the fourth Imam-caliph, al-Mu‘izz li Din Allah (953-975 CE), an exemplary sovereign in whose era Egypt is brought under Fatimid sway, thus transforming their North African state into a Mediterranean empire, has received focussed attention from both al-Maqrizi and Idris. Their respective works, the Itti‘az al-hunafa’ bi-akhbar al-a’imma al-Fatimiyyin al-khulafa’ (Lessons for the Seekers of Truth on the History of the Fatimid Imams and Caliphs)[i] and the ‘Uyun al-akhbar wa Funun al-Athar (Sound Sources and Trustworthy Traditions)[ii] together provide comprehensive coverage of the life and times of al-Mu‘izz, with both writers drawing from sources available to them but which, unfortunately, are no longer extant. An examination of their notions, purposes and expressions of history consequently forms the focus of this paper.
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