Historical representations of the “Shīʿī Century” in the Islamic West: Fāṭimid discourses of legitimacy during the Maghribi phase (AH 297–360/909–969 CE)

The present thesis is a study of Fāṭimid discourses of legitimacy during the Maghribi phase (AH 297–360/909–969 CE) of the caliphate. Specifically, it examines two perspectives: caliphal legitimacy as represented by the Fāṭimid Imām-caliph himself and the caliphal legitimation discourse produced by the Fāṭimid jurist and historian al-Qādi al-Nuʿmān under the patronage of the Fāṭimid Imām-caliph. Fāṭimid discourses devoted to the production of legitimacy advanced the caliphal ambitions of the Fāṭimids during the “Shīʿī century,” or 4th/10th century, when Ismāʿīlī-Fāṭimid political and cultural identity was established through the rhetoric of restoring ʿAlī’s caliphate. To this end, the present work is divided into two parts. The first part investigates the construction of caliphal legitimacy by the Fāṭimid Imām-caliphs through two key aspects: the regnal title or ‘laqab’ and the sermon or ‘khuṭba’. These significantly contributed to legitimising the Fāṭimid dynasty and delegitimising their opponents. The second part explores the construction and consolidation of Fāṭimid caliphal legitimation discourse by discussing two historical treatises written by al-Qādi al-Nuʿmān. Beginning with a historical analysis of Iftitaḥ al-Daʿwa, a treatise that serves as a space for formulating Fāṭimid historical and cultural memory, which produced and sustained the foundations of Fāṭimid legitimacy from clandestine movements to the reign of al-Muʿizz, the subsequent discussion examines al-Manāqib wa’l-Mathālib, which consolidates Fāṭimid legitimacy during the conflict with the Umayyads of al-Andalus through a historical-polemical discourse. The treatise addresses the question of how al-Qādi al-Nuʿmān portrays the house of Banu Hashim and the Umayyad house in a manāqib and mathalib binary to legitimise the Fāṭimids and delegitimise the Umayyads of al-Andalus. These analyses come together to offer a multilayered examination of Fāṭimid legitimation discourses expressed within regnal titles, sermons and treatises. Moreover, critical scrutiny of the latter proves the connection between the political and epistemological projects of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, which converge on the question of authority, to thus deeply illuminate present-day knowledge of Fāṭimid legitimacy in the discursive and political contexts of the Shīʿī century.