Consequently, a number of them embraced Islam. He then forbade the custom of kissing the ground and prohibited praying for him in sermons or in written correspondence, substituting instead the mere greeting of “peace be upon him.” (1)

It is said that Ibn Bādīs (2), the ruler of the Maghrib, sent words of censure to him over various matters. Hoping to win the emir over, al-Ḥākim put on an air of erudition: he carried notebooks up his sleeve, summoned two jurists to his court, and ordered them to teach Mālik’s jurisprudence in the congregational mosque. Before long his mood shifted and he had the pair executed by slow slaughter. (3)

He allowed the Christians whom he had forced into Islam to return to disbelief. In 404 AH he expelled all astrologers from his dominions (4) and barred women from leaving their homes—thereby shutting down the women’s footwear trade altogether. The ban remained in force for seven years and seven months. (5)

After some time he reversed himself yet again, ordering the reconstruction of the churches he had destroyed and instructing all who had accepted Islam to revert to Christianity. (6)

He built the congregational mosque in Cairo, a project his father al-ʿAzīz had begun. (7)

Abū Rakwah (8)—al-Walīd ibn Hishām al-ʿUthmānī al-Andalusī—rose in rebellion against him in the province of Barqah; the Berbers rallied around the insurgent and his movement swelled, so al-Ḥākim mustered an army to march against him,