the people of Egypt, attacked their beliefs, and branded them mere pretenders. It went on to state that their claim of descent from Imām ʿAlī was false and fabricated; that the claimant reigning in Egypt at that time and his forebears (1) were unbelievers, libertines, and heretical zanādiqah; that they adhered to a dualist creed, had suspended the prescribed penalties (ḥudūd), made illicit relations permissible, shed blood with impunity, reviled the prophets, and even laid claim to lordship. A large number of scholars affixed their signatures to the document—among them al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, his brother al-Murtadā, the judge Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Akfānī, Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāʾīnī, the jurist Abū Muḥammad al-Kashfulī, al-Qudūrī, al-Ṣaymarī, and several others. (2)

The director of the dīwān, the vizier Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Maghribī, fled Egypt after al-Ḥākim had killed his father and uncle. He became al-Ḥākim’s sworn enemy and worked relentlessly for the downfall of his rule. (3) He persuaded Mufarrij al-Ṭāʾī, emir of the Bedouin, to rise against al-Ḥākim. Mufarrij complied, but the commander of his army was killed. They then resolved to pledge allegiance to the Alid ruler of Mecca; the matter nearly came to fruition, but it soon collapsed. (4)

In 403 AH the Iraqi delegation was seized, the waterways were diverted, and roughly thirteen thousand Muslims perished. Some measure of retribution was later exacted from the Bedouin, and a number of them were killed. (5)

King Maḥmūd ibn Subuktikīn sent a letter to the caliph informing him that he had received a missive from al-Ḥākim inviting him to give the pledge of allegiance; he had, he wrote, torn the letter to shreds and spat upon it. (6)

In 404 AH al-Ḥākim appointed as his heir apparent his cousin ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn