according to Moslem
historians, with much wisdom, but afterwards acquired a reputation for
impiety, cruelty, and unreasoning extravagance, by which he has been
rendered odious to posterity. He is said to have had at the same time
"courage and boldness, cowardice and timorousness, a love for learning
and vindictiveness towards the learned, an inclination to righteousness
and a disposition to slay the righteous." He also arrogated to himself
divinity, and commanded his subjects to rise at the mention of his name
in the congregational prayers, an edict which was obeyed even in the
holy cities, Mecca and Medina. He is most famous in connection with the
Druses, a sect which he founded and which still holds him in veneration
and believes in his future return to the earth. He had made himself
obnoxious to all classes of his subjects when, in the year 397 a.h., he
nearly lost his throne by foreign invasion.

[Illustration: 379.jpg MOSQUE OF HAKIM]

Hisham, surnamed Abu-Rekweh, a descendant of the house of Ommaya in
Spain, took the province of Barca with a considerable force and subdued
Upper Egypt. The caliph, aware of his danger, immediately collected
his troops from every quarter of the kingdom, and marched against the
invaders, whom, after severe fighting, he defeated and put to flight.
Hisham himself was taken prisoner, paraded in Cairo with every
aggravation of cruelty, and put to death. Hakim having thus by vigorous
measures averted this danger, Egypt continued to groan under his tyranny
until the year 411 a.h., when he fell by domestic treachery. His sister
Sitt el-Mulk had, in common with the rest of his subjects, incurred his
displeasure; and, being fearful for her life, she secretly and by night
concerted measures with the emir Saif ed-Dowlah, chief of the guard,
who very readily agreed to her plans. Ten slaves, bribed by five hundred
dinars each ($1,260), having received their instructions, went forth on
the appointed day to the desert tract southward of Cairo, where Hakim,
unattended, was in the habit of riding, and waylaid him near the village
of Helwan, where they put him to death.

Within a week Hakim's son Ali had been raised to the caliphate with
the title of Dhahir, at the command of Sitt el-Mulk. As Dhahir was only
eighteen years old, and in no way educated for the government, Sitt
el-Mulk took the reins of government, and was soon looked upon as the
instigator of Hakim's death. This suspicion was strengthe