JEWRY UNDER THE FATIMID RULE: TRACING A MEDIEVAL MODEL OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CIVIL SOCIETY AND STATE

Abstract

Though Jews were residents of the Mediterranean long before the advent of the Fatimids in the region, emergence of the Fatimid state particularly created a comparatively more tolerant atmosphere for the former. Consequently, North Africa and then Egypt, served as a favorable ground for Jewish diaspora to establish a well-knit society. The far-reaching degree of communal autonomy enjoyed by the Jews under the Fatimid rule culminated into a Jewish society that carried out numerous welfare activities within their community in Egypt and also served as a base and refuge for Jews living in other parts of the world. The success of the Jewish civil society was mainly attributed to a devised tolerant policy of the Fatimids that centered on furnishing extensive communal autonomy with intervention limited only to security and justice matters. In this context, this study aims to apply the modern concept of a ‘tolerant state policy as an imperative factor for a robust civil society’ to a medieval model of state-civil society relationship viz. the Fatimid state and the Jewish civil society within its jurisdiction. Exploring the design, nature and impacts of state-policy towards the Jewish civil society manifested in the extensive welfare activities of the Jewish community it infers that state-tolerance was the major causal factor in the vitality of Jewish civil society under the Fatimids; it further explores the context in regard to much criticized ‘intolerance’ of Caliph-Imam al-Hakim who, for a limited period of time, reversed this attitude towards the Jews under his reign. Expounding on the aspects of communal autonomy given to the Jewish civil society, and the extent of state intervention and control, the study in conclusion will sketch-out a Medieval model of relationship between civil society and state based on a designed policy of state-tolerance in which the civil society can be seen functioning autonomously and the state monitoring its limits at the periphery without playing an adversarial interventionist role. This qualitative study is based on a number of primary and secondary sources. Particularly the medieval and contemporary Arabic sources of Fatimid history and the ‘Geniza Documents’ discovered from the basement of the Cairo Synagogue will be examined as major sources used for the purpose.