Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Yazuri (or al-Husayn) ibn Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman (died 1058) was a

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

of the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, i ...

, holding office from 1050 to 1058.

Biography

Al-Yazuri was born in Yazur where he later worked as a judge, before traveling to

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

. When faced with the governor of Ramla, al-Yazuri fled to Cairo and entered service as a eunuch servant to the princess mother of

al-Mustansir Billah Abū Tamīm Maʿad al-Mustanṣir biʾllāh (‎; 2 July 1029 – 29 December 1094) was the eighth Fatimid Caliph from 1036 until 1094. He was one of the longest reigning Muslim rulers. His reign was the twilight of the Fatimid state. The st ...

called Rasad. In 1050, relations between the Fatimids and the

Zirid dynasty The Zirid dynasty (), Banu Ziri (), was a Sanhaja Berber dynasty from what is now Algeria which ruled the central Maghreb from 972 to 1014 and Ifriqiya (eastern Maghreb) from 972 to 1148. Descendants of Ziri ibn Manad, a military leader of t ...

were strained after the Zirids adopted

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

and subsequently recognized the Abbasid caliph. In 1052, Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, ruler of the Zirids, put his own name before the name of the caliph in an official letter and came to the Arab tribes Banu Riyah and Banu Zughba who were plundering Egypt and sent requests for alliances to the tribes of

Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna (), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia, eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (roughly western Libya). It included all of what had previously been the Byzantine province of ...

as well as the

Banu Sulaym The Banu Sulaym () is an Arab tribe that dominated part of the Hejaz in the pre-Islamic era. They maintained close ties with the Quraysh of Mecca and the inhabitants of Medina, and fought in a number of battles against the Islamic prophet Muha ...

tribe of

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

. The

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

and Egypt were at peace for some time, and had an agreement to lead each other aid in the event of famine due to lack of wheat in one of the two territories. In 1055, Fatimid exile al-Muayyad fi l-Din Abu Nasr Hibat Allah was able to intercept Byzantine reports that Seljuk sultan

Tughril Abu Talib Muhammad Tughril ibn Mika'il (), better known as Tughril (; also spelled Toghril / Tughrul), was a Turkoman"The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turkomans at the battle of Malazgirt (Manzikert) is ...

had made a pact with the Greeks against the Fatimids, before coming into contact with the Turkish forces who subsequently promised the help the Fatimid conquest of Baghdad. Shortly after al-Muayyad was sent to Iraq as a Fatimid delegation, and the Fatimid caliph agreed to send troops against Tughril to prevent the conquest of Syria and then Egypt. In 1058, al-Yazuri was arrested and accused of corresponding with Tughril and supporting Fatimid rivals and enemies of the state. He was taken to

Tinnis Tennis or Tinnīs (, ) was a medieval city in Egypt which no longer exists. It was most prosperous from the 9th century to the 11th century until its abandonment. It was located at 31°12′N 32°14′E, on an island in Lake Manzala, southwest ...

where he was executed.

References

* * * {{Fatimid Caliphate topics 1058 deaths 11th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate Viziers of the Fatimid Caliphate Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphate Date of birth unknown