Jawhar al-Siqilli
Jawhar al-Siqilli was the Fatimid general, a slave of Sicilian or Slavic origin, who conquered Egypt for the caliph al-Muizz in 969 with an army of a hundred thousand Berbers and almost no fighting, and who the same summer marked out with ropes on the plain north of Fustat the walled palace-city he called al-Qahira, the Victorious, which is Cairo. He governed Egypt for four years as viceroy until his master arrived, founded the mosque of al-Azhar, and struck the coinage in the Fatimid name. He had been a scribe, which is one of his names, al-Katib, and a freedman of the caliph al-Mansur, and al-Muizz made him commander of the western campaign of 958, in which he took Fez, reached the Atlantic and sent back fish from the ocean in a jar as proof. Egypt had been in famine and disorder since the death of the Ikhshidid regent Kafur in 968, the Nile had failed, and the notables of Fustat were ready to negotiate. Jawhar marched from Ifriqiya in February 969 with the treasury of the state in his baggage, and the Egyptians sent envoys to meet him at Alexandria with terms: security for persons and property, freedom of religion for Sunnis, Christians and Jews, and the maintenance of the mosques. He entered Fustat on 6 July after a skirmish at Giza and camped to the north, and the foundation of the new city was laid, the tradition says, at an hour the astrologers had chosen and then spoiled, when ravens set off the bells on the ropes before the signal. The ascendant was Mars, al-Qahir, hence the name. He had the khutba said for al-Muizz, dropped the Abbasid name from the prayers, built the walls of mud brick and the two palaces, began al-Azhar in 970 as the mosque of the new city, and beat off the Qarmatians of Bahrain, who invaded from Syria in 971 and reached the walls before they were driven back. Al-Muizz came in 973 and took the government from him, with honour and then with coldness, and he lived on in retirement at Cairo, rich and unemployed, was briefly recalled as commander against the Qarmatians and Syrians in 975 and beaten at Ascalon, and died in 992. His son Husayn was later vizier and executed; his own grave was in the city he had drawn.
- Lived: 911 CE – 992 CE
- Nationality: Sicilian
- Roles: general, statesman
