THE ‘MAD’ CALIPH
How the most holy church in Christendom was destroyed
In 996, an 11-year-old boy became the ruler of Fatimid Egypt. His regnal name was al-hakim bi-amr Allah and he would prove to be one of the most divisive rulers in Muslim history. To his apologists, he was a divinely guided figure; to others he was, quite simply, mad.
Unlike most rulers of his time, al-hakim lived modestly, sometimes wandering the streets talking to ordinary people or withdrawing into the hills to pray alone. But on the evening of 12 February 1021, al-hakim rode off but never came back. His horse was later found and some of his clothes, stained with blood, but no body was ever recovered. During his reign, al-hakim mixed whimsy with draconian displays of power. Being a nocturnal soul, he ordered that his populace should sleep during the day and work at night. And to encourage women to forgo public baths, he had the largest and best-attended public bath in Cairo bricked up – with its patrons still inside.
Al-hakim had a particular dislike for the religious minorities in his realm, Jews and Christians alike. In 1008, he forbade the Christians in Jerusalem from holding their annual Easter procession. The next year, al-hakim ordered his governor in Jerusalem to completely destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. For Christians, this church was the holiest site of their religion, being built where Jesus was crucified, buried and then resurrected. Destruction was not limited to this one church. Thousands more were desecrated and demolished, while a similar campaign against Jews saw Torah scrolls burned and synagogues razed.
While al-hakim’s successor allowed the Byzantine emperor to effect some repairs, the church remained largely in ruins, a symbol of the danger inherent in having an unsympathetic ruler control of the Holy Land.