1151–1171 · Last Fatimid caliph (1160–1171)
al-Adid
The last Fatimid caliph; throughout his reign power lay with the viziers. In 1169 he appointed Saladin vizier, and shortly before his death the Friday sermon in Cairo began to be read in the Abbasid caliph's name.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
Al-Adid was made caliph in 1160 at the age of nine. In the Fatimid state real power lay in a setting shaped by conflicts between viziers such as Shawar and Dirgham and by the intervention of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Nur al-Din in those conflicts.
Role in the Crusades
Facing Amalric I's Egyptian campaigns in the 1160s, the caliph and his viziers sought help from both the Franks and Nur al-Din. After Shirkuh's death in 1169, al-Adid appointed Saladin vizier. In September 1171 Saladin had the sermon in Cairo read in the Abbasid caliph's name; al-Adid died of illness a few days later.
Historical significance and source problems
With al-Adid's death the Fatimid caliphate of some two centuries came to an end, and Egypt passed to Sunni Ayyubid rule. The connection of his death to Saladin's decision and his last days are told differently in the sources; Ibn al-Athir and al-Maqrizi are the main sources.
Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.