th of October 1125 he with his followers was
seized and imprisoned by order of the Caliph Amir, who was now resolved
to govern by himself, with the assistance of only subordinate officials,
of whom two were drawn from the Samaritan and Christian communities. The
vizier was afterwards crucified with his five brothers. The caliph's
personal government appears to have been incompetent, and to have been
marked by extortions and other arbitrary measures. He was assassinated
in October 1129 by some members of the sect who believed in the claims
of Nizar, son of Mostansir.

The succeeding caliph, _Abu'l-Maimun 'Abd al-Majid_, who took the title
_al-Hafiz lidin allah_, was not the son but the cousin of the deceased
caliph, and of ripe age, being about fifty-eight years old at the time;
for more than a year he was kept in prison by the new vizier, a son of
al-Afdal, whom the army had placed in the post; but towards the end of
1131 this vizier fell by the hand of assassins, and the caliph was set
free. The reign of Hafiz was disturbed by the factions of the soldiery,
between which several battles took place, ending in the subjection of
the caliph for a time to various usurpers, one of these being his own
son Hasan, who had been provoked to rebel by the caliph nominating a
younger brother as his successor. For some months the caliph was under
this son's control; but the latter, who aimed at conciliating the
people, speedily lost his popularity with the troops, and his father was
able to get possession of his person and cause him to be poisoned
(beginning of 1135).

His son _Abu'l-Mansur Isma'il_, who was seventeen years old at the time
of Hafiz's death, succeeded him with the title _al-Zafir lia'da allah_.
From this reign to the end of the Fatimite period we have the journals
of two eminent men, Usamah b. Muniqdh and Umarah of Yemen, which throw
light on the leading characters. The civil dissensions of Egypt were
notorious at the time. The new reign began by an armed struggle between
two commanders for the post of vizier, which in January 1150 was decided
in favour of the Amir Ibn Sallar. This vizier was presently assassinated
by the direction of his stepson 'Abbas, who was raised to the vizierate
in his place. This event was shortly followed by the loss to the
Fatimites of Ascalon, the last place in Syria which they held; its loss
was attributed to dissensions between the parties of which the garrison
consisted. Four years later