235 (pardon my awkward translation from the French): "Ibn al-Faqīh (who wrote ca. This seems somewhat far-fetched, under the circumstances, so take this report with a grain of salt.Īccording to Antoine Borrut in Entre mémoire et pouvoir, p. However, this same source, I believe, reports that Maslama withdrew from a position of strength, at Leo's pleading, and only after a triumphal entry into Constantinople that included defiling Hagia Sophia with his horse's manure. Ibn al-Faqih (290 AH/903 AD) wrote that there was a mosque in the Praetorium following the siege, built at the demand of Maslama as a condition of his withdrawal. According to Nikephoras, Maslama's forces built a "temporary town" with walls and a mosque during the siege of 717-18 the mosque was left intact by Leo III per Maslama's request when the Muslim forces withdrew, though the rest of the town was razed. Or how easily one Muslim could violate standing policy by his choice of a simply benediction in a Friday sermon.Ĭlick to expand.There's some conflicting information on this.
Yet it is unclear if the Byzantines fully appreciated how a small gesture on their part –allowing a visitor to use the mosque– could cause such an aggressive reaction elsewhere.
He reported this breech of the treaty to Cairo, whereupon al-Mustansir revoked its provisions and ordered that all the goods and possessions in the Holy Sepulcre be seized by the government, leading predictably to a serious deterioration of relations with the Byzantines12. At the same time the qadi Abu ‘Abdallah al-Quda‘i, who was the official representative of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir, happened to be in Constantinople on behalf of his own master. The man went to the mosque on Friday to say his prayer and while there also gave a khutba in the name of the Abbasid caliph al-Qa‚im. Three decades later, in 447/1055, this stipulation remained in effect (or had been renewed in subsequent treaties), when an ambassador from the Seljuk sultan Tughril Beg arrived in Constantinople and asked if he could use its mosque. The mosque in Constantinople is to reopen, it says, and in exchange al-Zahir will permit the reopening of the Church of the Holy Sepulcre in Jerusalem (both were evidently closed in the period prior to this)11. In 418/1027, a treaty with the Emperor made sure that khutbas in the lands of the Byzantines were to name only the Fatimid al-Zahir. However, renewals of this treaty maintained that provision. It is difficult to imagine that the congregation of Muslims in the Byzantine capital was large enough to be significant. In the year 378/988, a treaty concluded with Byzantium stipulated, among other provisions, that the khutba said in the mosque of Constantinople name the Fatimid caliph al-‘Aziz as the Muslim supreme authority10. Fatimid relations with the Byzantines continued, at times with animosity and other periods with peace, for two centuries or more.