and its broken surface appeared brown with a yellowish cast (1). Al-Ẓāhir died in 427 AH. I have come across little reliable information about him. His son al-Mustansir succeeded him. It is also said that al-Ẓāhir was steeped in amusement, wine, and concubines.

72 – al-Mustansir bi-Llāh Maʿadd ibn al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh *

The ruler of Egypt was the caliph al-Mustansir bi-Llāh, Abū Tamīm Maʿadd, son of al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh ʿAlī, son of al-Ḥākim Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr, son of al-ʿAzīz, son of al-Muʿizz, an Egyptian of the ʿUbaydid (Fatimid) line.

He assumed power after his father at the age of seven, in Shaʿbān 427 AH, and his reign extended for sixty years and four months. Midway through his rule, in 451 AH, the Friday sermon on the pulpits of Iraq invoked his name as “Commander of the Believers.” The Abbasid caliph al-Qāʾim bi-Amrillāh sought refuge with the Emir of the Arabs, who granted him protection; a year later the caliph returned to his throne (2).

Al-Ḥākim had earlier demolished the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Al-Mustansir therefore allowed the Byzantine emperor to rebuild it, concluded a truce with him for the release of five thousand Muslim captives, and contributed funds toward its reconstruction (3).