Quṭb al-Dawla Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Jaʾfar ibn Fallāh () () was a

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...

commander and governor in the service of Caliph al-Hakim ().

Life

Ali was a son of Ja'far ibn Falah, a prominent Kutami Berber general. Ali succeeded his brother Sulayman, a general who had served governor of Damascus in the late 10th century, as head of the family. After the death of Sulayman's successor as governor of Damascus, the Berber commander Jaysh ibn al-Samsama, in 1000, Ali became governor. Ali returned to Egypt around 1005 or before. There, he faced a nomadic Arab–Berber army led by the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

leader Abu Rakwa. The latter defeated Ali at Giza and news of his defeat to Abu Rakwa's nomads caused panic in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. Abu Rakwa skipped Cairo to raid the

Fayyum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...

oasis to the south, where he was defeated by a Fatimid army under

al-Fadl ibn Salih Al-Faḍl ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās ( ar, الفضل بن صالح بن علي بن عبد الله العباسي) (740Tabari, Hillenbrand, 1989, p.55.–789) was the Abbasid governor of a number of different pr ...

. Ali most likely is the person credited in an inscription found above the mosque of Salamiyah in central Syria for erecting a mausoleum for one of the Fatimids' "hidden" imams Abd Allah. Ali had captured Salamiyah for the Fatimids and likely built the mausoleum in 1009. It was later repaired by the local chief Khalaf ibn Mula'ib in 1088. In July 1013 the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bestowed the title ''Qutb al-Dawla'' (Axis of the State) on Ali and appointed him at the head of a 24,000-strong, Kutami army to rein in the

Jarrahids The Jarrahids () (also known as Banu al-Jarrah) were an Arab dynasty that intermittently ruled Palestine and controlled Transjordan and northern Arabia in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. They were described by historian Marius Canard ...

, a Bedouin tribe which controlled Palestine. Ali entered Palestine's capital

Ramla Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...

, and the sons of the Jarrahid chieftain Mufarrij ibn Daghfal, Ali and Mahmud, announced their loyalty to al-Hakim. Mufarrij, meanwhile, was poisoned and killed by his secretary on the order of al-Hakim, who afterward executed the secretary. According to the historian

Hugh N. Kennedy Hugh Nigel Kennedy (born 22 October 1947) is a British medieval historian and academic. He specialises in the history of the early Islamic Middle East, Muslim Iberia and the Crusades. From 1997 to 2007, he was Professor of Middle Eastern Histor ...

, Ali was al-Hakim's "most trusted commander ... the great political survivor of the reign," a period in which several high-ranking commanders and officials were executed by al-Hakim. Ali died shortly before al-Hakim, , in a riding accident. Ali's son Safiyy al-Dawla Muhammad served as the Fatimid governor of Aleppo in 1022–1023.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{cite book, last1=Zakkar, first1=Suhayl, title=The Emirate of Aleppo: 1004–1094, date=1971, publisher=Dar al-Amanah, location=Aleppo, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbltAAAAMAAJ 11th-century Berber people Fatimid governors of Damascus Generals of the Fatimid Caliphate Kutama 11th-century Syrian people