Al-Hakim Kills Barjawan: Fatimid Power Consolidated by Blood

The teenage caliph stabbed his own chief minister in a bathhouse. Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah was just sixteen when he ordered the assassination of Barjawan, the powerful eunuch who'd controlled Egypt's government since al-Hakim was eleven. The young ruler personally participated in the killing, ending years of regency in blood and steam. What followed wasn't stability. Al-Hakim's personal rule became infamous for erratic decrees that banned everything from women's shoes to certain vegetables, destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and sparked centuries of religious tension. The boy who couldn't wait to rule alone would vanish mysteriously on a donkey ride twenty-one years later, his bloodstained robes the only trace. Sometimes the puppet cuts his own strings too soon. Al-Hakim was the sixth Fatimid caliph, ruling Egypt and much of North Africa from Cairo. Barjawan had served as his regent since 996, managing the empire's affairs while the boy caliph attended ceremonial functions. The eunuch was competent but increasingly resented by al-Hakim, who chafed at being controlled. The assassination in March 1000 was swift and apparently planned in advance, with loyalists positioned to secure the palace immediately afterward. Once in full control, al-Hakim's behavior became unpredictable. He ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1009, an act that outraged Christendom and is sometimes cited as a contributing cause of the First Crusade ninety years later. He banned women from leaving their homes, prohibited chess and certain foods, reversed religious policies repeatedly, and executed officials on whims. His disappearance in February 1021 during a nighttime ride into the Mokattam Hills outside Cairo was never explained. The Druze religious community considers him a divine incarnation and awaits his return.