Al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah

At the time of al-Hakim's disappearance on 14 February 1021, his sister, Sitt al-Mulk, took the reins of power. She disregarded the previous appointment of a cousin, Abu'l-Qasim Abd al-Rahim, as heir apparent by al-Hakim, and instead raised al-Hakim's 16-year-old son Ali to the throne. Ali received the public oath of allegiance on 28 March, with the regnal name al-Zāhir li-iʿzāz Dīn Allāh.[4] His rival, Abu'l-Qasim, was recalled from Damascus, where he was serving as governor, to Cairo, where he died—reportedly by suicide—a few months later.[4]

Until her death in February 1023, the government was conducted by Sitt al-Mulk, who according to historian Thierry Bianquis proved "a true stateswoman".[4] Al-Zahir himself never displayed much interest in wielding power, instead spending his days in idle pleasure drinking wine and enjoying the black slaves of his harem.[4] He was the first Fatimid monarch to actively shift the responsibility of governing onto his officials, inaugurating a trend that would eventually lead to the complete political impotence of the Fatimid caliphs.[4]

Under this regime, the Fātimid state slipped into crisis - in Egypt, famine and plague led to anarchy in the years 1023-1025, and in Palestine and Syria, there was a revolt amongst the Bedouin (1024–1029). The coalition of rebels was fragmented by Fātimid diplomacy, after which General Anushtakin al-Dizbari was able to defeat it militarily.

Meanwhile, in 1028 one of the governing circle, ʻAlī ibn Ahmad Jarjarai, was able to eliminate his colleagues and take over the office of vizir, which he managed to retain until 1045. He enjoyed good relations with the Byzantine Empire, even though the suzerainty over Aleppo was constantly disputed, occasionally coming to arms. To improve relations with Byzantium and the Christian subjects of the realm, the rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, destroyed in 1009, was authorised under his caliphate in a treaty with the Byzantine Emperor Romanus III. Actual building work, funded by the Byzantines, was not undertaken until 1042.

The period of his Imamate was sixteen years. After ʻAlī died of the plague 13 June 1036, his son became the eighth caliph under the throne name of al-Mustansir.

• Family tree of Muhammad#Family tree linking prophets to Imams
• List of Ismaili imams
• List of rulers of Egypt

• Bianquis, Thierry (2002). "al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume XI: W–Z. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 391–392. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.
• Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4076-8.
• Canard, Marius (1965). "D̲j̲arrāḥids". In Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume II: C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 482–485. OCLC 495469475.
• Cappel, Andrew J. (1994). "The Byzantine Response to the ʿArab (10th–11th Centuries)". Byzantinische Forschungen. A. Hakkert. 20: 113–132.
• Gil, Moshe (1997) [1983]. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Translated by Ethel Broido. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
• Halm, Heinz (2003). Die Kalifen von Kairo: Die Fāṭimiden in Ägypten, 973–1074 [The Caliphs of Cairo: The Fatimids in Egypt, 973–1074] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 3-406-48654-1.
• Kennedy, Hugh (2004). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century (Second ed.). Harlow: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-40525-7.
• Lev, Yaacov (2003). "Turks in the Political and Military Life of Eleventh-Century Egypt and Syria". In Hidemitsu, Kuroki (ed.). The Influence of Human Mobility in Muslim Societies. Kegan Paul. pp. 43–62. ISBN 0710308027.