The story of Cairo . but the vezirsson el-Afdal succeeded to his fathers power, andgoverned Egypt till 1121, when he was assassinated byorder of the caliph Amir. Afdals son Abu-*Aly heldsupreme power in 1131 in the name of the expectedMahdy,—thus reverting to the old Shia theory ofthe hidden Imam and ignoring all claims of the Fatimiddynasty. When he in turn was murdered on his way tothe polo field, Yanis, an Armenian slave of Afdals,became vezir, and after him Bahram, an ArmenianChristian, retained the office until 1137. By this timethe growing influence of the Armenians had led to theirholdi
The story of Cairo . but the vezirsson el-Afdal succeeded to his fathers power, andgoverned Egypt till 1121, when he was assassinated byorder of the caliph Amir. Afdals son Abu-*Aly heldsupreme power in 1131 in the name of the expectedMahdy,—thus reverting to the old Shia theory ofthe hidden Imam and ignoring all claims of the Fatimiddynasty. When he in turn was murdered on his way tothe polo field, Yanis, an Armenian slave of Afdals,became vezir, and after him Bahram, an ArmenianChristian, retained the office until 1137. By this timethe growing influence of the Armenians had led to theirholding every post worth having in all the governmentdepartments, and their excessive assumption of authorityled to a natural reaction. Bahram and 2000 of hisfellow-countrymen were expelled, and the heyday ofthe Armenians was over. They deserved well of the 1 Published by Mr H. C. Kay, Journal R. Asiatic Soc., ,xviii., from a squeeze which he and T caused to be takenwith some difficulty when we were at Cairo in 1883. MINARETS OVER GATE OF ZUWEYLA ^55 Cairo country, and had ruled, on a whole, both wisely andlarge-mindedly. Firm and yet mild, the virtual sove-reignty of Bedr and his son had rendered immenseservices to Egypt. If they accumulated vast wealth—Afdal is said to have left over ;^3,000,000 in gold,and the milk of his herds of cows was farmed in oneyear for ;z^i5,750—they earned their fortunes by hardand intelligent work ; they were just and generous,and the Copts had much to thank them for. EvenAbu-*Aly, with his eccentric revival of the doctrineof the concealed Imam, who actually figured on thecoinage, inherited the wise tradition of his father andgrandfather, and showed himself tolerant and mild, agood friend to the Christians, and a patron of the time of Bedr, Egypt, it will be realized,had become a country ruled no longer by caliphs butby vezirs. It was the old story of the Merovingianmajor domo translated into Arabic. Indeed, since theterrible de
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