Delia Cortese’s work, titled The Fatimids: Portrait of a Dynasty, provides a nuanced and multidimensional portrayal of the Fatimids, one of medieval Islam’s glorious yet relatively understudied dynasties. The Fatimids were Ismaili Shiʿi Imam-caliphs who established their caliphate in Ifriqiyya (present day Tunisia and eastern Algeria) in 909 CE, and relocated to Egypt in 969 CE, where they founded the city of Cairo. This served as their metropolis for over two centuries, until the demise of the dynasty in 1171 CE. Their political, cultural, and religious reach extended across North Africa, Egypt, Sicily, parts of Syria and Palestine, and into Arabia, and their influence permeated into South and Central Asia. Named after Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad who was married to ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, the first Shia Imam and the fourth Rightly Guided caliph, the Fatimids upheld their legitimacy to reign over the Muslim community as their designated right through descent from the Prophet Muhammad. They are the only Shi‘i dynasty to have reigned over Egypt. The Fatimid settlement in Egypt transformed the country from one of the many regional provinces under the previous Islamic regimes to the seat of the caliphate, a privilege it retained under the subsequent Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, well into the sixteenth century.
Cortese organizes the book chronologically and thematically, discussing the major contours of the Fatimid life cycle, from their little-known origins to their socio-economic and cultural efflorescence and their protracted decline. She also attempts to situate the Fatimids within the complex Mediterranean and Middle Eastern geopolitical environment of the tenth to twelfth centuries, but this is an aspect of the study that would benefit from a deeper engagement. At the time when the Fatimids assumed the caliphate, there were two other major Muslim empires--the Abbasids with their capital at Baghdad, and the Umayyads who reigned over al-Andalus (present day Spain and Portugal). Alongside these, the eastern Christian Byzantine empire was in its heyday with its capital at Constantinople. While these empires were engaged in political, ideological and military rivalry, they were also magnets for the vibrant exchange of people, goods, and ideas as well as arts, crafts, and fashions of the day.
Cortese’s work draws on a range of primary and secondary sources, across different regions, time-periods, religious affiliations, and disciplines. Unlike the trend in scholarship to oftentimes exceptionalise the Fatimids based on their religious beliefs, Cortese provides an exposition of their Ismaili identity in a predominantly Sunni landscape. She explores their Ismaili theological underpinnings and how these shaped the Fatimid weltanschauung as well as their policies. She also discusses the challenges posed by sectarian conflicts and how the Fatimids navigated these tensions to maintain their power and legitimacy.
Cortese’s portrayal of the Fatimids is enriched by her integration of the cultural, religious, and social history of the Fatimids. These include landmark buildings, such as the al-Azhar Mosque, court-life and ceremonials, material culture, artistic production, and matters related to governance and empire. Cortese’s forte on women in Fatimid society, on which she has published extensively, brings to the fore their roles and visibility in ways that challenge many medieval norms as well as contemporary assumptions. By weaving these dimensions in her portrait of the Fatimids, Cortese transforms what could have been a standard political history into a broader human story.
Cortese’s salient contribution in this work is her reassessment of the enigmatic figure and controversial policies of the sixth Fatimid Imam-caliph al-Hakim bi-Amrillah (r. 996-1021). Defamed in Abbasid historiography, which has formed the mainstay of Orientalist as well as Muslim scholarship, al-Hakim is oftentimes caricatured as the Nero and the Caligula of Muslim history, and in populist discourse, he is parodied as the “mad caliph.” Through a comprehensive review of wide-ranging sources, Cortese provides a reinterpretative, contextual framework that positions al-Hakim in the complex socio-political, economical firmament of the time. Al-Hakim was placed on the caliphal throne when he was an 11-year-old boy, leading to court intrigues by powerful factions to dominate him. This was also the time when the Fatimids were increasingly encroaching on Abbasid spheres of influence, leading the reigning Abbasid caliph, al-Qadir billah (r. 991-1031 CE) to issue a manifesto that was read out at mosques across the Abbasid empire. The Baghdad Manifesto, as it came to be known, aimed to strip the Fatimids from their Prophetic ancestry—the cornerstone of the Fatimid claim to legitimacy to reign over the Islamic world.
As this work aims to reach a wider readership beyond academia, a possible deterrent to that end is that it is over 400 pages long and is published in hardback. Nonetheless, it is an elegant narrative that also includes an array of visual images and maps that will aid the non-specialist reader. Its academic acumen will stimulate a deeper discourse on the age of the Fatimids, and is a welcome addition to the burgeoning field of Fatimid studies.