Al-Qa'im (Fatimid caliph)

Al-Qa'im was born in Salamiyah in Syria in 895 with the name Muhammad. After his father Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah (910-934) seized power in Ifriqiya he was named heir to the throne in 912, and helped put down several revolts. However, campaigns into Egypt (in 914–915 and 919–921) faltered against the resistance of the Abbasids, with heavy casualties.

In 934 Al-Qa'im succeeded his father as Caliph, after which he never again left the royal residence at Mahdia. Nevertheless, the Fatimid realm became an important power in the Mediterranean. After the re-conquest of Sicily the Byzantine province of Calabria and the Ligurian coast was plundered and the city of Genoa sacked.

From 944 to 947 the realm was plunged into crisis by the revolt of Abu Yazid, who had united the Kharijite Berber tribes of the Aurès Mountains of eastern Algeria and overrun Ifriqiya. Imam Al-Qa'im was able to hold out in Mahdia with the help of the navy for over a year, but died (13th Shawwal 334 AH (Mahdiyya)/17 May 946) before the revolt could be put down.

He was succeeded by his son Ismail al-Mansur (r. 946-953).

He was married already at an early age, before his family left Salamiya. His wife, Umm Habiba, apparently was still a child when she accompanied him to the Maghreb.[1] He also had six known concubines, of which one, Karima, became the mother of his successor al-Mansur.[1]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Al-Qa'im (Fatimid caliph)

• List of Ismaili imams
• Ali ibn Muhammad al-Iyadi

• Brett, Michael (2001). The Rise of the Fatimids: The World of the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the Fourth Century of the Hijra, Tenth Century CE. The Medieval Mediterranean. 30. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 9004117415.
• Halm, Heinz (1991). Das Reich des Mahdi: Der Aufstieg der Fatimiden [The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
• Halm, Heinz (2015). "Prinzen, Prinzessinnen, Konkubinen und Eunuchen am fatimidischen Hof" [Princes, Princesses, Concubines and Eunuchs at the Fatimid Court]. In Pomerantz, Maurice A.; Shahin, Aram A. (eds.). The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning. Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi (in German). Leiden and Boston: Brill. pp. 91–110. ISBN 978-90-04-30590-8.
• J. J. Saunders. "The Turkish Irruption". A History of Medieval Islam. Routledge. Retrieved 2007-08-25.