The two most trusted and powerful figures in the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa were Slavs who began life in the Balkans, but were transported as slaves to the North African shores and raised at the Fatimid court, where they rose to prominence. Ustadh Jawdhar (d. 973 CE) became the chief administrator of the Fatimid state in the reign of the Fatimid Imam-caliph al-Muizz li Din Allah (953-975 CE), in addition to being among his highly trusted advisors. Qa’id Jawhar is remembered as the most distinguished of the Fatimid commanders in the mediaeval Mediterranean littoral and the celebrated general who laid the foundations of Fatimid rule in Egypt in 969 CE. These are two notable examples of the significant contingent of the Saqaliba slaves who served at the Fatimid court and in the Imam-caliph’s household in a variety of capacities. Using the many newly published studies and sources for this early period, including the recently appeared edition of Jawdhar’s own personal papers, this paper examines the dialectic between the Fatimid sovereigns and their Saqaliba slaves with whom they formed a close bond. In doing so, it also explores relevant facets of Fatimid interactions within and across the Mediterranean As well it examines the social and political dynamics that enabled the rise of Slavic slaves to power and influenced their role at the Fatimid court. Important questions here deal with attitudes toward slaves and slavery and the religious dimension in the slaves’ loyalty to the imam-caliph.

Despite a general rule that severely limited the freedom of authorities of lesser rank than the imam-caliph to speak for the Fatimids on religious matters, notable exceptions did exist. Among them are Qadi al-Nu’man, in the reign of al-Mu’izz, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, during the period of al-Hakim, and al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi in the middle of the 11th century. All three actively engaged the opponents of the Ismaili da’wa by composing specific and pointed refutations. An especially interest example comes from al-Kirmani, who, in a little used work of his, as yet unpublished, the Tanbih al-hadi wa’l-mustahdi, confronts a list of groups he considers deviant, one among them the ghulat sects, particularly the Nusayriyya. While those he takes pains to reject (among which are the Philosophers, the Mu’tazila, the Ash’ariyya, Ithna ‘Ashariyya and Zaydiyya), to judge by the space allotted to them, the Nusayriyya were usually important. Surely he regarded them all as a threat to the Fatimids but perhaps none more so than the Nusayris. Were they, prior to the advent of the Druze near the close of al-Hakim’s imamate, the most prominent example of a trend to ghuluw extremism, a tendency the Fatimids understood as especially dangerous at the time? Significantly the caliphate then ruled most of Syria. If so the doctrines of theirs al-Kirmani cites and refutes may provide a valuable insight both to them and the official Fatimid reaction to what they advocated.

It is widely accepted that, while under Fatimid rule, the population of Egypt had remained Sunni. The Upper Egypt region, however, is a distinctive exception to this rule since Shi'ism (though not necessarily the Isma'ili brand) enjoyed growing popularity and—for a short period—even became the majority denomination in cities like Aswan. My paper (a) explores the influence that Fatimid governance had in shaping the cultural, religious and intellectual life of the region, and (b) appraises the reasons that caused Shi'ism to rise. From the reign of the imam-caliph al-Mustansir until the mid of the 12th century, Upper Egypt came to occupy a strategic role as the nerve centre of a flourishing international community of traders, scholars and pilgrims, following the Fatimids’ establishment of da‘wa, political and trading alliances with their Isma'ili vassals in Yemen, the Sulayhids. The favour that Shi‘ism enjoyed in Upper Egypt in the period under discussion was not due to doctrinal preferences among locals resulting from da‘wa activities but was rather established through the traffic of people who converged in the region for mundane/practical reasons. While Shi‘ism became the denomination of choice for trading and administrative purposes, it was the output of the Sunni community that continued to influence the cultural, religious and scholarly landscape. I draw from textual, documentary and material sources. My methodological approach is socio historical, blending elements of prosopographical and urban histories. Beside the most widely used primary sources such as, for example, the works of al-Maqrizi, I base my research on biographical dictionaries. Particularly relevant is al-Udfuwi’s al-Tali‘ al-sa‘id which is dedicated to the leading figures in Upper Egypt in the pre-modern period. The social history of Upper Egypt under the Fatimids has remained so far understudied; my contribution builds on the limited existing research produced from varied perspectives, including contributions by J-C. Garçin (urban history), J.M. Bloom (architecture) and D. J. Stewart (socio-linguistics).

The Maliki scholar al-Turtushi (d. 520/1126) left al-Andalus in 476/1083, travelling to the East where he visited Egypt, Syria and Iraq, performing the pilgrimage in 480/1087. Next, he lived in Jerusalem and Damascus between the years 481/1087-490/1096, and finally moved to Egypt, settling in Rushayd (Rosetta) and afterwards in Alexandria. He never returned to al-Andalus. Among the many works he wrote, his Kitab al-hawadith – which was highly influential in Abu Shama’s al-Ba`ith `ala inkar al-bida` wa-l-hawadith - has been twice edited (by M. Talbi and A.M. Turki), and a number of studies devoted to some of the practices he dealt with in it. What has not been noticed until now is that many of the innovations described can be shown to refer to the Fatimid context in which al-Turtushi lived during his stay in Egypt. My paper will be a ‘Fatimid’ reading of al-Turtushi’s text, with the aim of identifying which practices were considered by the Andalusi scholar to be dangerous – and therefore ‘innovated’ - and why, thus shedding light into his perception of the boundaries of Sunnism.