Posted by Imam al-Mansur succeeded his father to the Imamat in May 946. He commissioned the building of a second Fatimid capital (the first being al-Mahdiyya) directly south of Qayrawan (in present-day Tunisia), naming it al-Mansuriyya. The new royal city served as the dynasty’s capital from 948 to 972, when Imam al-Mu’izz transferred the capital to Cairo, a city he founded.
Information about the city is known exclusively from the accounts of medieval geographers, who describe the city as round with the Imam-Caliph’s palace at its centre, and at least four iron gates with special names: Bab Wadi Qassarin (‘Gate of the Qassarin stream’), Bab al-Futuh (‘Gate of Conquests’), Bab Kutama and Bab Zuwayla, names of tribes who had supported the Fatimids. The city had abundant supply of water, “numerous and extensive garden palaces, private houses…and fine markets” (City Walls p 234).
Mansuriyya had a mosque (also called al-Azhar) which was the seat of the Friday public teaching sessions. “Foreign visitors were impressed by the magnificence of al-Mansuriyya palaces which were described as splendid structures with water pools and gardens” (Women and the Fatimids p 71).
Imam al-Mansur strengthened the bond between the operations of the da’wa and the judiciary as demonstrated by the office held by the Fatimid jurist and da’i, al-Qadi al-Nu’man (d. 974), who had begun to serve Imam al-Mahdi in various capacities, and was appointed the supreme judge and chief missionary in 948 by Imam al-Mansur. Hence, the responsibility for explaining “the zahir, or the commandments and prohibitions of the shari’a and interpreting its batin or inner meaning, were united in the same person under the overall guidance of Ismaili Imam of the time” (The Ismailis An Illustrated History p 82).
Al-Nu’man, the founder of Ismaili jurisprudence, prepared lectures on the external according to the Ismaili school of jurisprudence (madhab), which was accessible to everyone during the public teachings sessions at the mosque in Mansuriyya every Friday after mid-day prayers. His main work, the Pillars of Islam (Da’a’im al-Islam) remains the classic of this school.
The lectures in the batin, or the ‘sessions of wisdom’ (‘majalis al-hikma‘) which were only accessible to Ismaili initiates, were held in a special room at the Fatimid palace on Fridays following the afternoon prayers. Lectures of the majalis al-hikma had to be pre-approved by the Imam-Caliph himself. “What the Qadi al-Nu’man taught in his majalis al-hikma has come down to us in his work ‘The Interpretation of the Pillars of Islam (Ta’wil da’a’im al-Islam), the esoteric counterpart to his exoteric compendium of Ismaili law” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 29).
A mint also operated in al-Mansuriyya, beginning in 948 ; the last Fatimid coins from this mint date to the mid-11th century.
The gold dinar of Imam al-Mansur has the kalima on the front centre field and a marginal inscription of Qur’an 9:33:
He it is Who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion, however much the idolaters may be averse.
The centre field on the back contains his name and titles and the marginal inscription gives the mint name and date (Mansuriyya, 341/952-953).
Imam al-Mansur died in 953 and was succeeded by his son al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah (r. 953-975). Imam al-Mu’izz spent the major part of his life in Mansuriyya, from where he led an extensive network of da’is who were working in Iraq, Iran, and the Indian subcontinent.
Sources:
Delia Cortese and Simonetta Calderini, Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam, Edinburgh University Press, 2006
Heinz Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning, I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 1997
Jonathan Bloom, “Walled cities in Islamic North Africa and Egypt,” City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective, Ed. by James D. Tracy, Cambridge University Press, 2000
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