اخبار الدولة الفاطمية في كتاب الكامل في التاريخ لعز الدين بن الاثير(630ه/1233م)دراسة تاريخية

RP-News of the Fatimid state in the book Al-Kamil fi Al-Tarikh by Izz al-Din Ibn al-Atheer (630 AH/1233 AD), a historical study.PDF

The Fatimid state preoccupied the thought of historians of Islamic history who diligently wrote about the course of events that confronted the Arab Islamic state after the fall of the Umayyad state and the establishment of the Abbasid state, and the extent of its impact on the Arab Muslims, especially after the emergence of new political forces on the scene of events represented by the emergence of states in the East and the Maghreb that were able to To obtain its own autonomy or separation from the body of the Arab Islamic state during the era of the Abbasid state, including what arose in the East, such as the Tahirid emirate, the Saffarid emirate, and the Samanid emirate. As for Morocco, the Fatimid state preceded the emergence of many countries that also separated from the Abbasid state with autonomy or complete independence. Such as the Aghlabid state, the Idrisid, the Almohads, the Almoravids…etc., in addition to that, the establishment of the most dangerous state for the Abbasids is the Fatimid state, which was able to sweep through the Maghreb with its power, trying to overthrow the Abbasid state, to replace it; Because she saw that she was an extension of the Messenger of God, Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him, and Fatimah al-Zahra, peace be upon him, and she was more deserving of the caliphate than the Abbasids, so they were called the Fatimids after “Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her, and to gain money for her from the Shiites, especially those who resented the Abbasid state, so they were able to They establish a state that lasted for about two and a half centuries, during which they extended their influence east and west by spreading the Ismaili call by preachers in most parts of the Islamic world, and they called for the necessity of joining under the legitimate rule of the Fatimids and renouncing the rule of the Abbasids, the usurpers of the caliphate. The sword subdued it, and in that they relied on the support of the Berber Kutama tribe, which provided them with a strong military cover that enabled them to subjugate most of the rebellious tribes there as well as confront the Umayyads in Andalusia, and as a result a great caliphate was formed – which extended to include most of the Far, Middle and Near Maghreb, Egypt and Nubia And the Levant and Hijaz (Mecca and Medina) and the countries of Yemen – had its features and civilization until it became comparable to the Abbasid caliphate in its first roles, but rather competed with it in its position in the Islamic world.
It was able to raise its flag in (Baghdad), the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate itself, in the year (450 AH / 1058 AD). However, the situation quickly changed, as the balance of power turned in favor of the Abbasids in cooperation with their Seljuk allies (the Turks), who were able to restore things to normal in (Baghdad) and then began to expand in Bilad al-Sham at the expense of the Fatimid lands, so they seized Jerusalem, Damascus and other cities, and were able to enter Egyptian lands and threaten Cairo itself in the year (469 AH / 1076 AD).
The balance of power was overturned again in the Islamic world after the arrival of the Crusader-Frankish forces from western Europe to the Levant in the year (490 AH / 1096 AD), who seized the city of (Jerusalem) and other Fatimid Levantine cities, establishing a new entity known as the Kingdom of (Bait al-Maqdis), so there were three The forces complaining of arms, the Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates, and the Crusaders, each lurking in wait for the other, and entered into a race for expansion, in which the Fatimid state was the biggest loser, as the Crusaders gradually seized the Levantine lands belonging to the Fatimid state. Accordingly, the Fatimid state became a small state that ruled in Egypt, which made it coveted by the Crusaders and Nur al-Din Zangi, who competed to annex it to their possessions, so Nur al-Din Zangi was able to seize it in the year (567 AH / 1171 AD), and thus the curtain fell on the Fatimid state and it left the stage of history.
Those external events that led to the fall of the Fatimid state would not have taken place without the bear of weakness in the body of the state internally, especially in the caliphate of Al-Mustansir Billah (427-487 AH / 1035-1094 AD). His era witnessed massive events that ravaged the state, as he assumed power as a young boy of no more than seven years of age, which led to a struggle between his mother and senior statesmen over influence that resulted in administrative chaos and civil war between the military sects, in addition to the suffocating economic crisis that was known as (distress). The Great) (457-464 AH / 1064-1071 AD) Therefore, his reign is considered a turning point in the history of the Fatimid state from strength to weakness and from the era of the powerful caliphs to the era of the influence of the ministers who tyrannized power and interfered in choosing the caliphs, ignoring the principles of the Ismaili faith in the transmission of the Imamate from father to father The eldest son, and the position of the ministry accordingly became coveted by every aspirant to assume it, and the country entered into a spiral of violence over that position, which led to its weakness and eventually its downfall.
Therefore, we note that historians have raced to write about this state, especially the period extending from the second half of the seventh century AH / the thirteenth century AD, as this historical era is considered a right that was marked by the emergence of many prominent historians, including Ibn Al-Atheer, as he wrote about them in his historical works. The topic of the thesis was (News of the Fatimid state in the works of Ibn al-Athir, a study of his analysis) to find out the course of those events with impartial visions, as there are many historians who are unfair in their historical writing due to their flattery and lack of impartiality in writing historical events, although Ibn al-Athir was one of the most prominent Sunni scholars who excelled in legal sciences and specialized in some arts such as history, biographies and genealogies, so he was in the first row of Arab Muslim historians, so Ibn Khalkan () indicated to him that he was an imam in memorizing hadith and a memorizer of advanced and late dates, and Ibn Katheer () mentioned that his complete book is in History is one of the best events, and the state he wrote about contradicts his religious belief, but he wrote impartially about the Fatimid state and transmitted its events in the form of incidents of years arranged sequentially according to the time periods of the caliphs of the Fatimid state, conveying “historical events with all impartiality, so we noticed in the problem of proving the Fatimid lineage, for example, that it is between They are Alawites, so he called them Alawites in his writings, and he did not describe them as some historians of his sect called them Jews or Persians, in addition to that, Ibn Al-Athir was one of the contemporaries of the Fatimid state close to the course of events, as he was born in the Euphrates island in the year (555 AH / 1160 AD) and that the fall of the Fatimid state was The year (567 AH / 1171 AD), that is, Umrah was twelve years old when it fell, meaning that it was close to the historical events that he experienced with the approaching end of the Fatimid state, so we find that he transmitted the most recent of them impartially, and Ibn Al-Atheer () indicated that he had traveled to the country Al-Sham in the year 584 AH / 1188 AD when the army of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi was heading towards the liberation of Jerusalem, and this means that he had met Salah al-Din in Damascus, in addition to that, Ibn al-Athir was always moving between Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad and Jerusalem.