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Jawdhar

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Not to be confused with Jawhar al-Siqilli.

Jawdhar (Arabic: جوذر), surnamed al-Ustadh (Arabic: الأستاذ, lit. 'the Master'), was a eunuch slave who served the Fatimid caliphs al-Qa'im, al-Mansur, and al-Mu'izz as chamberlain and chief minister until his death in 973. He was an extremely powerful figure in the Fatimid court, and the accession of al-Mansur was probably due to his machinations. His collected documents and letters were published after his death by his secretary as the Sirat al-Ustadh Jawdhar, and form one of the main historical sources for the governance of the Fatimid state in the period.

Origin and early career

Jawdhar was a eunuch slave of Slavic origin (Saqaliba) who entered the service of the Aghlabid dynasty that ruled Ifriqiya.[1] When the Aghlabids were overthrown in 909, the new Fatimid ruler, Caliph al-Mahdi Billah (r. 909–934) entered the Aghlabid capital, Raqqada, and had the Slavic palace slaves mustered before him, assigning them to various family members.[1] Jawdhar evidently made an impression on al-Mahdi, who assigned him to the household of the Caliph's son and designated successor, al-Qa'im (r. 934–946).[1]

In this capacity, Jawdhar accompanied his master in the unsuccessful invasions of Abbasid-ruled Egypt in 914–915 and 919–921.[1] Later, during al-Qa'im's campaign into the western Maghreb, Jawdhar was left behind at the Fatimid capital of al-Mahdiya as the steward of the heir-apparent's palace.[1] After al-Qa'im's accession in 934, Jawdhar became the supervisor of the clothing storehouse and the treasury.[1]

Under al-Mansur

The Fatimid-era Great Mosque of al-Mahdiya

According to the official Fatimid accounts, al-Qa'im died on 17 May 946,[2] at a critical moment for the Fatimid Caliphate, when a large-scale rebellion under the preacher Abu Yazid had overrun Ifriqiya and was besieging al-Mahdiya itself.[3] He was succeeded not by his oldest son, but by the younger Isma'il, who became the new caliph as al-Mansur (r. 946–953). Jawdhar insists in his memoirs that he was the trustee of al-Mansur's secret nomination as his father's heir already at the time of al-Qa'im's own accession in 934, but modern historians of the Fatimid period, such as Heinz Halm and Michael Brett, suspect that al-Mansur's unheralded rise to power was the result of a palace intrigue headed by none other than Jawdhar, with the participation of other figures from al-Qa'im's harem.[4][5]

Jawdhar himself played a prominent role in safeguarding al-Mansur's position: the new caliph ordered the confinement of all his uncles and brothers to the palace under Jawdhar's supervision.[6] Halm qualifies his role as "majordomo",[7] and when al-Mansur managed to break the siege of al-Mahdiya and pursued the retreating rebels inland, Jawdhar remained behind in charge of al-Mahdiya.[8] When al-Mansur defeated the rebel forces on 13 August 946, Jawdhar read the victory dispatch before the congregation at the Great Mosque of Mahdiya.[9]

When the rebel leader was finally defeated and captured on 15 August 947, al-Mansur, in the dispatch announcing his victory, set Jawdhar free.[7] For the next quarter-century, writes the historian Michael Brett, Jawdhar would be "the iron man of the administration" as the caliph's right-hand man, a position which earned him considerable antipathy, and few friends. Apart from the agents appointed from his own entourage, his only political allies among the wider Fatimid elites were the Kalbid emirs of Sicily.[10]

Under al-Mu'izz

Gold dinar of al-Mu'izz, minted at al-Mansuriya in 954/5

Al-Mansur was plagued by illness, which would result in his death in March 953, at the age of 39.[11] His son and successor, al-Mu'izz (r. 953–975) also relied on Jawdhar for consolidating his regime, and was allowed to move to the new capital built by al-Mansur, al-Mansuriya.[12] Jawdhar remained responsible for the continued house arrest of the al-Mansur's brothers and uncles in the palace at al-Mahdiya,[13] while the letters preserved in his memoirs shows him continuing to direct the affairs of the mint and textile factories, the arsenal, the prisons, and the treasury at al-Mahdiya.[14] Jawdhar was also active as a commercial agent on behalf of the caliph, amassing a considerable personal fortune in the process.[15]

After the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969, Jawdhar was responsible for preparing the fleet and the caravans that would help move the Fatimid court—including the long imprisoned members of the dynasty—and its possessions to Egypt.[16][17] He also provided al-Mu'izz with 122,000 gold dinars from his own purse to support the Fatimids' takeover of Egypt, possibly when reinforcements under Hasan ibn Ammar were sent into the country in 971 to confront a Qarmatian invasion.[18] At about the same time, Jawdhar was also entrusted with the fact that al-Mu'izz's second son, Abdallah, had been chosen as heir instead of the older Tamim, who had engaged in possibly treasonous correspondence with the uncles and great-uncles of al-Mu'izz still held at al-Mahdiya. During a ceremony welcoming Jawdhar back from al-Mahdiya, in the presence of the assembled members of the Fatimid dynasty, Jawdhar dismounted and kissed Abdallah's foot, thereby revealing his choice as heir.[19][20]

Although the chief aide of three successive caliphs, Jawdhar was not in the running as Fatimid viceroy of Ifriqiya following the court's departure, due to his lack of popularity and allies there.[10] An obvious candidate would have been the long-time Fatimid governor of the Zab province at al-Masila, Ja'far ibn Ali ibn Hamdun, who as a child had been raised by Jawdhar and had been a companion of al-Mu'izz, but in early 971 Jawdhar him of failing to remit the agreed taxes to the treasury, and of harbouring agents of the Umayyads of Cordoba. Rather than present himself at court as ordered, Ja'far defected to the Umayyads.[21][22]

Jawdhar accompanied al-Mu'izz when he set out for Egypt in late 972, although he was heavily ill, and is reported to have had swollen feet. He died on the road at Barqa in March 973.[19][23]

Memoirs

After his death, his private secretary, Abu Ali Mansur al-Azizi al-Jawdhari, compiled his papers and recollections into the Sirat al-Ustadh Jawdhar.[1][24] Along with the work of al-Qadi al-Nu'man, the Sirat Jawdhar is one of the main sources for Fatimid history under al-Mahdi's successors.[25] Two modern editions of this work exist:[26]

  • سيرة الأستاذ جوذر, in Arabic, edited by Muhammad Kamil Husayn and Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Sha'ira (Dar al-Fikr al-Arabi, Cairo 1954).
  • Vie de l’ustadh Jaudhar (contenant sermons, lettres et rescrits des premiers califes Fâtimides), a French translation by Marius Canard (La Typo-Litho et J. Carbonel, Algiers 1958).

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Halm 1991, p. 249.
  2. ^ Halm 1991, p. 276.
  3. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 267–276.
  4. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 276–277.
  5. ^ Brett 2017, pp. 59, 229.
  6. ^ Halm 1991, p. 277.
  7. ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 286.
  8. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 278–280.
  9. ^ Halm 1991, p. 280.
  10. ^ a b Brett 2001, p. 320.
  11. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 298–299.
  12. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 301–302.
  13. ^ Halm 1991, p. 301.
  14. ^ Halm 1991, p. 302.
  15. ^ Brett 2001, p. 262.
  16. ^ Halm 1991, p. 369.
  17. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 317–318.
  18. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 262, 318.
  19. ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 370.
  20. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 318–319.
  21. ^ Brett 2001, p. 322.
  22. ^ Brett 2017, p. 85.
  23. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 325, 329.
  24. ^ Daftary 2004, p. 123.
  25. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 249, 304.
  26. ^ Daftary 2004, pp. 122–123.

Sources

  • Brett, Michael (2001). The Rise of the Fatimids: The World of the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the Fourth Century of the Hijra, Tenth Century CE. The Medieval Mediterranean. Vol. 30. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 90-04-11741-5.
  • Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4076-8.
  • Daftary, Farhad (2004). Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0-8577-1386-5.
  • Halm, Heinz (1991). Das Reich des Mahdi: Der Aufstieg der Fatimiden [The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
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