Bensalem Himmich - The Theocrat

Ibn al-Qalanisi,

Afterword to the History of Damascus

Sitt al-Mulk was the daughter of the Fatimid caliph. al-‘Aziz bi-Allah. She was much beloved by her father, the apple of his eye, and object of his greatest affection after God Himself. Whenever he felt beset by worries and problems, she would be his stalwart support. When al-’Aziz died, the During the dark years of her brother’s reign (by the same father), Sitt al-Mulk was still able to radiate an aura of beauty, intelligence, and grace. Her star shone with the many hopes not only of the oppressed and cloistered women of Egypt but also of all classes of folk who adored her and referred to her as Mistress of the Kingdom, Sultana, and Lady of All.

Her beauty!

Poets composed odes that extolled her far and wide, to be repeated by bards and buffoons alike at their soirees and clubs. However none of these people (nor her many other admirers) dared mention her by name for fear of coming to a quick and gruesome end at the hands of her vengeful brother, lord and master of all. So they took to using various kinds of allusive phrase, such as: Treasuretrove of Glamor, Maid of Sunrise, Visage to Die For. They would vie with each other to describe her, pointing to her magnificent hair, her wonderful poise, exquisite waist, beautifully apportioned shoulders, and straight back. Her eyes were compared to those of gazelles and fawns, her neck to that of a silver ewer, her legs to palm branches, and her hair either to thick, unplaited silk or to clusters of ripe grapes. In addition to poets there were others who wrote belles-lettres and rhyming prose about her, penning such passages as, “She is slim, svelte and lovely, taut as a whip and lively, tall as a reed and comely.” They would make use of prophetic imagery to describe her: “Her leg is visible from beyond the flesh of beauty.” Adherents to the faith noted that certain unbelievers only needed to set eyes on Sitt al-Mulk’s lovely face in order to regard its exquisite form as sure evidence of God’s existence; they immediately expressed a belief in God and became Muslims of the Fatimid persuasion. Those people who had neither access to descriptive eloquence nor a portion of the pearls uttered by renowned poets could only gaze on every limb of her blessed body and proclaim, “All praise be to God!”

Based on evidence from everyone who was fortunate enough to attend her councils or stand close to her whenever she appeared, passed by, or spoke, Sitt al-Mulk used to radiate scents of perfume and musk People are unanimous in stating that these fragrances emanated from the holy plants of paradise itself; they were not the products of human craft but came solely from her unique body and the scents that wafted through the gardens of her small palace. Everyone who approached her was stunned. “Can such fragrance really be for me?” they would ask themselves, whereupon they would render her all obeisance and admiration. Among the most prominent of these admirers were Najd al-Husayn ibn Da’us, chief of the Kutamis; Abu al-Hasan ‘Ammar Khatir al-Mulk, senior minister; Muzaffar, who had charge of her majesty’s shade; Nasim, master of her majesty’s closet; Ibn Miskin, lancer-in-chief, and others. As a rule Sitt al-Mulk paid no attention to poetry written about her, but some of the more brilliant odes did manage to reach her ear in extracts. Some of these she would cherish; those that were the most sincere and modest she committed to memory. Here is an example; the majority of the poem is lost, as is the identity of its author and transmitter. When she was on her own or feeling downhearted, isolated flashes of poetry would come to her:

From the handsome knight who courts the rose,

These words; I come to you after season of decline and gloom

To declare that the bitter cold will no longer hold sway,

Nor the iron grip of drought. Dearly beloved, I beseech you

To root out the absurdity that controls your steps, one by one,

By the sea and the Lord of the Ka’ba I beseech you.

From Dhu al-Nun al-Hamza, ascetic of tattered garments,

The eater of barley on plates of exile.

The lover who has lost kerchief and felicity,

The ecstatic dwarf,

The notebook of wounded hero

Where before his death he recorded:

From the handsome knight who died close-to the rose

While the caravan encamped at twilight in difficult terrain,

These words: So where am I now regarding the burned book?

Has the stony night set me apart from the sweet lady of the rising sun?

And then there is her intelligence and composure! Sitt al-Mulk was never especially conscious of her own beauty nor did she exploit it in her relationships or general conduct. Instead she employed her own intellect and composure to focus on things that were more important than her own beauty; she was interested in more useful and enduring matters, in particular those principles and fundamentals upon which the Fatimid dynasty was grounded. She was especially happy to link this tendency on her part to Fatima al-Zahra’ (peace be upon her memory!) from whose example she adopted principles of justice, enlightenment, and belief in the one God. One of the clearest signs of her intelligence and composure was that she quickly pledged allegiance to al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah even though he was very young at the time. During the early part of his reign she was the one who nurtured him lovingly, showed him affection, gave him sound advice, and provided him with costly, wonderful presents. That was the way she chose to celebrate his ascent to the throne and to express her own pride in the dynasty of Fatima al-Zahra’. Historians record that, when al-Hakim was acknowledged as caliph, she gave him thirty caparisoned horses, one of them encrusted with jewels, another with crystal, and the rest with gold. She also gave him twenty mules with saddle and harness; fifty servants, of whom ten were Serbs; a jeweled crown and skullcap; boxes of perfumes; and a garden in silver planted with varieties of miniature trees.[24] Sitt al-Mulk never displayed aversion or hatred toward her brother; any such bitter sentiments would have had a negative impact on her intelligence and composure. Eventually, however, she became all too aware of his tyrannical moods and bloodthirsty instincts. She used to watch in horror and dismay as he proceeded to slaughter God’s own creatures with no just cause, thus making a complete mockery of the spiritual heritage of the Fatimid dynasty and demolishing its record through his intrigues and dark deeds. The very essence of the state was exposed to ruin.

How incredibly beautiful Sitt al-Mulk was! The series of troubling issues that she took on her shoulders only served to enhance its dignity and prestige. The few strands of white hair that sprouted from her head in no way diminished the number of her devoted admirers, nor did a few wrinkles in her complexion diminish the sparkle that radiated from her smile and her eyes, Then there was her intelligence! God be praised, it was only reinforced by her experiences and strengthened by the whole cluster of trials and crises that were the result of her brother, al-Hakim’s, grim moods. She kept hoping for release from these misfortunes and spent many sleepless nights in prayer and supplication, cloistering herself with her own contemplations and anxieties. From time to time she would whisper secret prayers to God in a desperate quest for eventual triumph and release, saying,

“Shi’i martyrs from across the history of travail,

The face of the Lord of Sorrows is in a pit of mud,

His people’s women are locked up, complaining of violence at home. His people’s women are locked up, complaining of violence at home.

This dire treatment brings them nothing but misery, languor, and boredom.

Lord of martyrdom and sorrow,