318 
EGYPT. 
and fell unexpectedly upon the Saracens, whom they de¬ 
feated with great (laughter. Yezid died, and was fuc- 
ceeded by the caliph Hakim, who appointed Ha'ntele ben 
Seffran governor of Egypt, A. D. 741. This Arabian ge¬ 
nera', with the whole power of Egypt, added to the Sara¬ 
cen’s troops, was ordered to march againft the infurgents, 
whom he defeated with.great (laughter, and regained pof- 
feflion of Cairoan, the Arabian capital of Africa, founded, 
as above-mentioned, by Akbal. The revolt foon after re¬ 
viving, Ha'ntele again conquered the rebels, whofe army 
was conducted by Abdel-wahhad. The uftial exaggera¬ 
tion of the Arabian authors, (againft which the ferious 
reader fhould be conftantly guarded,) computes the infur¬ 
gents (lain at no lefs than 160,ooo ! and Bantele, in giving 
an account of his operations to the caliph Hakim, declared 
that a more fanguinary battle hadjtever been fought. 
In the year 749, after confiderable warfare and ftruggle, 
(which fee under Arabia,) the feeptre of the caliphs 
parted from the houfe of Ommiyah to the houfe of A 1 
Abbas, tlience called Abbartides ; upon which Abd-al- 
rahman, the Saracen commander in Africa, and heir oF 
Ommiyah, refufed the tribute, aflembled the people in 
the mofque of Cairoan, tore his robe, abjured the autho¬ 
rity of the new Abbartide caliph, and procured himfelf to 
be proclaimed caliph in the welt; but being (lain by his 
brothers, a civil war arofe, which was finally curbed by 
Dawud governor of Egypt, who conquered the Berbers 
or Arabs of the weft, and once more reftored tranquillity 
to Cairoan the capital. The family of Abdalrahman ne- 
verthelefs continued to aflume the dignity of caliphs, as 
defeendants of the Ommiades ; which title they carried 
with them into Spain, and exercifed the regal authority 
in their palace at Cordova. 
In confequence of an attempt to affartinate the caliph 
A 1 Manfur, or Almanfor, in the palace of Damafcus, 
the prince was induced to remove his court from that city 
to Bagdad ; about which time, A. D. 800, began the dy- 
nafty of the Agglabites in the perfon of Ibrahim ben el 
Aghleb, governor of Africa, who threw oft the yoke of 
the caliphate, fortified himfelf in Cairoan, and was fuc- 
ceeded by his fon Afoul.Abbas, in 811. Ziadat Ullah 
fucceeded him, and fubdued Sicily ; but died-’A. D. 837, 
when Abu Akkal afeended the African throne. The 
next prince, named after his great anceftor Abul Abbas, 
began to reign in the year 840, and was humane, liberal, 
and a lover of juftice. He reigned thirty-four years; and, 
having obtained from his brother Irttak, in the mofque of 
Cairoan, a formal renunciation of all claim to the crown, 
left the fuccefiion to his fon. But on his death, Ifhak 
ilew the young prince, and affirmed the fovereignty of 
Africa. In 877, he befieged Syracufe, which he plun¬ 
dered of immenfe treafures, and put the inhabitants to 
the fword. The Egyptians, dill faithful to the caliphs 
of Bagdad, were ordered by the defeendants of the famous 
Harun al Rafhid, to invade Africa, and befiege Tripoli; 
but on the approach of Ifhak with his negro army, t;he 
Egyptians retired, and were quickly driven back to their 
own country. Ifhak was a moft cruel prince : he put to 
death, in one day, fixteen of his own natural daughters 
by different concubines. His mother prefenting him with 
two beautiful females, he fent her in return a platter co¬ 
vered with a napkin ; on lifting it up, inftead of jewels, 
which (lie expected, (lie beheld the heads of the two fe¬ 
male (laves. He was fucceeded by his fon Abul Abbas 
Abdallah ; but this prince was cruelly murdered by his 
brother Ziadet Ullah, who feized on the feeptre of Cai¬ 
roan. A revolt was tile confequence ; upon which the 
timid Ullah abandoned his ufurped dominions, and fled 
for (helter to Egypt, then governed by Baft al Nuchifi, 
under Al Moktadi, orMoktadir, eighteenth caliph of the 
dynafty of the Abaffides. With Ziadat Ullah, who died 
in Egypt, A. D. 908, expired tfie dynafty of the Aggla¬ 
bites, which had ruled Africa for an hundred and eight 
years. 
The dynafty of the Fatimites, or IfmaelianS, now fuc¬ 
ceeded. Obeid Ullah, who had feized the authority, 
refigned it foon after to his fon Abul Caflim. Though 
this new family was of Egyptian extraction, it pretended 
to deduce its origin from Fatima the daughter of Maho¬ 
met, through Ifmael the fixth imam of the pofterity of 
Ali. Abul Caffim, affirming the name of Mahadi, or 
real fitccrjfor , and caufing himfelf to be proclaimed at Cai-, 
roan, A. D. 912, attacked Egypt with three armies, in¬ 
tending to add that rich province to his other African 
dominions. The caliph of Bagdad, however, had anti¬ 
cipated his defign, which was fruftrated by the defeat of 
the armies of Mahadi, though he took Alexandria. He 
built a city called after himfelf Mehedie, on the African 
fhore, which lie deftined for the feat of his empire. He 
died in the year 933, and w;as fucceeded by his fon Ach- 
med, who died while his capital Mehedie was befieged 
by infurgents. His fon Ifmail defeated the rebels, af- 
fumed the fovereignty, A. D. 945, and bailt Manfurich 
in Africa. Now fucceeded Abu "Tammin, furnamed 
Moaz, the fon of Ifmail, A. D. 952. This prince deter¬ 
mined on the.conqueft of Egypt; for which purpofe he 
difpatched Jjiafan, or Jeuhar, a Greek general, in 96S, at 
the head of a powerful army, to inveft Memphis, o x 
rah ; which inftantly opened its gates. - Encouraged by 
the inhabitants, Jeuhar refolved to found a new capital 
for Moaz, and directed the building to be begun under 
the horofeope or afeendant of the planet Mars, called 
kakir, or conqueror, by the Arabs.; and hence the city 
was named Kahira, or the vi&orious, now corrupted to 
Cairo. In the mean time Jauhar reduced Egypt; and in 
972, Moaz landed at Alexandria, from whence he ad¬ 
vanced to Kahira, and was welcomed by the acclamations 
of his new fubjeCt's. To this city he removed all his 
treafures, and even the-bodies of 1 1 is forefathers. The 
dynafty of the Fatimites, thus tranfplanted into Egypt, 
ruled till the year 1171, of the hegira 566, when it was 
fupplanted by Salah-cl-din, the famous Saladin ot the 
Chriftian writers on the croisades : which fee. 
Moaz, after he had gained a firm footing in Egypt, and 
affumed the fovereignty of Syria, refigned the kingdom 
of Africa, on condition of homage, to Yurt'.if, or Jofeph 
ben Zeiri, of a family fprung from Arabia Felix, and in 
whom commenced the African dynafty of Zeirites. He 
was fucceeded by Abul Caflim Manfur, who ereCted a 
new palace in the.city of Cairoan, which coft-eight hun¬ 
dred thoufand pieces of gold. His cruelty was manifefted 
by the murder of iiis faithful minifter Abdallah, and in 
the punifhment of the rebel Abul Fuhm, whofe heart this 
prince is faid to have torn from his body and devoured. 
He died in his palace of Cairoan, where his fon and fuc- 
ceflor Abu Menad compelled the nobles to do homage. 
Jealous of the growing magnificence and power of this 
young prince, Moaz, now firft caliph of Egypt and Syria, 
difpatched his general Jeuhar to Abu Menad, with the 
drefs and fabre of Egypt, which he compelled him to 
wear, as a mark of the Egyptian fovereignty over the 
African kingdom. Moaz died at the age of eighty-five, 
after a reign of twenty-one years as fovereign of Africa, 
and of forty "as caliph of Egypt and Syria. His body was ' 
interred in the magnificent mofque of Kahira, or Cairo, 
which he had ereCted, and in which he had depofited the 
bones of his anceftors. 
Moaz was fucceeded by his fon Aziz, A. D. 975, who 
being only twenty-one years of age, deputed the conduct 
of the government to his late father’s favourite general 
Jetshar. Aziz married a Chriftian woman; he had alfo a 
perfon of that religion for his fecretary, and his treafurtr 
was a Jew; both the latter, however, were afterwards 
difearde-d and dripped of their wealth, in confequence of 
the complaints of fome of his courtiers. He carried on 
many wars, in which he was not always fuccefsful ; but 
he never appeared in perfon at the head of his armies. 
Jeuhar, the conqueror of Egypt, a fecond Belifarius, to 
whom Aziz had delegated the concerns of government, 
was, on account of his bad fortune in Syria, difgraced and 
deprived 
