Al-Adid

Part of a series on Islam Isma'ilism
Concepts Quran Batiniyya Ta'wil Imamate Ẓāhir Bātin Nūr 'Aql ʿIlm Daʿwa Dāʿī Bāb Hujja Satr Taqiya Pīr Numerology Theology Reincarnation Titles
Seven Pillars Walayah Purity Prayer Charity Fasting Pilgrimage
Musta'lism and Nizarism Branches/sects Musta'li Tayyibi Dawoodi Bohra Progressive Hebtiahs Bohra Atba-i-Malak Bohra Badar Vakil Sulaymani Bohra Alavi Bohra Qutbi Bohra Hafizi Nizari Seveners Qarmatians Assassins Satpanth States Qarmatian state of Bahrayn Fatimid Caliphate Multan Sulayhid dynasty Zurayid dynasty Hamdanid dynasty Nizari Ismaili state People Hamdan Qarmat ibn Faraj ibn Ḥawshab ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani ibn Mansur al-Yaman Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi Abu Tahir al-Jannabi Qadi Numan al-Nasafi al-Sijistani al-Kirmani al-Shirazi al-Naysaburi Nasir Khusraw Pamiris Queen Arwa al-Sulayhi Dhu'ayb ibn Musa Hasan-i Sabbah Hassan Ala Zikrihi's Salam Rashid ad-Din Sinan Pir Sadardin Aga Khans Khojas Dā'ī al-Mutlaqs Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai Centers Cairo Anjudan Nizārī strongholds Alamut Atashgah Gerdkuh Lambsar Masyaf Maymun-Diz Rudkhan Qalaat al-Madiq Other Palace of Queen Arwa Queen Arwa Mosque Nizārī Constitution Delegation Ginans Holy Du'a Jama'at Khana Qiyama Abbasid-Baghdad Manifesto House of Knowledge Women
Early leaders Ali Hasan Husayn al-Sajjad al-Baqir Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar al-Mubārak Muhammad ibn Ismāʿīl ash-Shākir ʿAbad Allāh (al-Wāfī Ahmad) Ahmad (al-Taqī Muhammad) Ḥusayn (ar-Raḍī ʿAbd Allāh) ʿAbd Allāh al-Mahdī bi'l-Lāh al-Qāʾim al-Manṣūr Maʿad al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh Nizār al-ʿAzīz biʾllāh, Manṣūr al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh ʿAlī al-Ẓāhir li-iʿzāz Dīn Allāh Maʿad al-Mustanṣir bi'l-Lāh Nizār al-Muṣṭafā li-Dīn’il-Lāh / Aḥmad al-Mustāʿlī bi'l-Lāh Manṣūr al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām’il-Lāh ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Ḥāfiz li-Dīn Allāh / Abu'l-Qāsim al-Tayyib
Incumbent leaders Nizārī Ismā'īlī Imām: Aga Khan IV Musta'li Ismaili-Taiyabi Dā'ī al-Mutlaqs: Alavi Bohra: Haatim Zakiyuddin Dawoodi Bohra: Mufaddal Saifuddin Qutbi Bohra: Taher Fakhruddin
Islam portal
v t e

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ (Arabic: أبو محمد عبد الله بن يوسف بن الحافظ‎; 1151–1171), better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh (Arabic: العاضد لدين الله, lit. 'Strengthener of God's Faith'), was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, and the twenty-fourth imam of the Hafizi Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam, reigning from 1160 to 1171.

Like his two immediate predecessors, al-Adid came to the throne as a child, and spent his reign as a puppet of various strongmen who occupied the vizierate. He was a mostly helpless bystander to the slow collapse of the Fatimid Caliphate. Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, the vizier who had raised al-Adid to the throne, fell victim to a palace plot in 1161, and was replaced by his son, Ruzzik ibn Tala'i. Ruzzik was in turn overthrown by Shawar in 1163, but the latter lasted only a few months in office before being overthrown by Dirgham. The constant power struggles in Cairo enfeebled the Fatimid state, allowing both the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Sunni ruler of Syria, Nur al-Din, to advance their own designs on the country. The Crusaders repeatedly invaded Egypt, extracting tribute and ultimately aiming to conquer it; in turn, Nur al-Din supported Shawar's bid to retake the vizierate from Dirgham, and sent his general Shirkuh to counter the Crusaders. For a while, Shawar played the Crusaders and Syrians against one another, but in January 1169, Shirkuh overthrew Shawar, occupied Cairo and became vizier. When Shirkuh died shortly after, he was succeeded by his nephew, Saladin.

Saladin was initially conciliatory towards al-Adid, but quickly consolidated his hold over Egypt, and proceeded to gradually dismantle the Fatimid regime. Fatimid loyalists in the army were purged and replaced with Syrian troops, culminating in the failed mutiny of the Battle of the Blacks. Members of Saladin's family were installed as governors, the civilian bureaucracy was largely won over to the new regime, and al-Adid was sidelined even from ceremonial roles. Finally, Isma'ilism was progressively abolished as the state religion in favour of Sunni Islam, culminating in the official proclamation of Abbasid suzerainty in September 1171. Al-Adid died a few days later. His family was placed under house arrest, and Isma'ilism persecuted by Saladin's new Ayyubid regime, so that within a century after the fall of the Fatimid regime it had almost disappeared in Egypt.