Year 1174 (MCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1174th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 174th year of the 2nd millennium, the 74th year of the 12th century, and the 5th year of the 1170s decade.
Following the Islamic conquest in 641-642, Lower Egypt was ruled at first by governors acting in the name of the Rashidun Caliphs and then the Umayyad Caliphs in Damascus, but in 750 the Umayyads were overthrown. Throughout Islamic rule, Askar was named the capital and housed the ruling administration. The conquest led to two separate provinces all under one ruler: Upper and Lower Egypt. These two very distinct regions were governed by the military and followed the demands handed down by the governor of Egypt and imposed by the heads of their communities.
Asad ad-Dīn Shīrkūh bin Shādhī, also known as Shirkuh, or Şêrko was a Kurdish Mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, then the Fatimid Caliphate and uncle of Saladin. His military and diplomatic efforts in Egypt were a key factor in establishing the Ayyubid dynasty in that country.
The Battle of al-Babein took place on March 18, 1167, during the third Crusader invasion of Egypt. King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and a Zengid army under Shirkuh, both hoped to take the control of Egypt over from the Fatimid Caliphate. Saladin served as Shirkuh’s highest-ranking officer in the battle. This war is Shirkuh's tactic made him win. Accordingly, the army remained at headquarters until the allied forces arrived. Shirkuh concentrated his work in the center and left Saladin Ayyubî here. To the shîrkûh army; "The Egyptian and Crusader forces will think that I am in the center and will attack with all their might. Do not engage them seriously when they attack you. Don't risk yourself by going to war, stay out of their way. When they leave you, follow them immediately. He gave his order. Shirkûh then placed the stronger men of his men on the right flank. When the war finally began, the allies attacked the center. After a small conflict, Saladin and the soldiers under his command deceived the Crusaders and retreated in an orderly manner. This pursuit of retreat by the Crusaders brought their end. Because in the meantime, Shirkuh and his entourage defeated those who remained behind. Those in the middle follow the Muslim Soldiers. When the Crusaders returned, they found their soldiers dead and were defeated. they had to retreat
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ, better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh, was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, and the twenty-fourth imam of the Hafizi Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam, reigning from 1160 to 1171.
Shawar ibn Mujir al-Sa'di was an Arab de facto ruler of Fatimid Egypt, as its vizier, from December 1162 until his assassination in 1169 by the general Shirkuh, the uncle of the future Ayyubid leader Saladin, with whom he was engaged in a three-way power struggle against the Crusader Amalric I of Jerusalem. Shawar was notorious for continually switching alliances, allying first with one side, and then the other, and even ordering the burning of his own capital city, Fustat, just so that the enemy could not have it.
A series of Crusader invasions of Egypt were undertaken by the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1163 to 1169 to strengthen its position in the Levant by taking advantage of the weakness of the Fatimid Caliphate.
Saladin arrived in Egypt in 1163 and ruled it from 1171 until his death in 1193. Egypt was in a state of decay prior to Saladin's rise to power with the political and social situation in shambles. Saladin first arrived in Egypt alongside his uncle Shirkuh on a campaign launched by Nur al-Din. He would rise to prominence under Shirkuh eventually succeeding him as vizier of Egypt. When the Fatimid Caliphate fell in 1171, Saladin was the only remaining authority in Egypt, he would use his increased power and independence to expand his realm and influence.
Abu'l-Hasan Ali al-Adil ibn al-Sallar or al-Salar, usually known simply as Ibn al-Sal[l]ar, was a Fatimid commander and official, who served as the vizier of Caliph al-Zafir from 1149 to 1154.
Najm al-Din Abu'l-Fath Salim/Sulayman ibn Muhammad al-Lukki al-Maghribi, better known as Ibn Masal, was a military commander and official of the Fatimid Caliphate, who served briefly as the de facto vizier of the Caliphate from 1144/45 until he was overthrown and killed by al-Adil ibn al-Sallar and his supporters in the winter of 1149/50.
Kutayfāt, also known as Abu Ali Ahmad ibn al-Afdal or al-Afdal Kutayfāt, was vizier and amīr al-juyūsh to al-Hafiz, Caliph of Egypt, from 1130 to 1131. He seized power by imprisoning al-Hafiz but was murdered by Fatimid forces loyal to the caliph. Kutayfāt was the son of al-Afdal Shahanshah and grandson of Badr al-Jamali, and so the third generation of Armenians serving as Fatimid vizier.
The vizier was the senior minister of the Fatimid Caliphate for most of the Egyptian period of its existence. Originally it was held by civilian officials who acted as the chief civilian ministers of the caliphs, analogous to the original model established by the Abbasids. When a vizier was not appointed, an "intermediary" was designated instead. The enfeeblement of the caliph's power and the crisis of the Fatimid regime under Caliph al-Mustansir, however, led to the rise of military strongmen, who dominated the post from the 1070s until the caliphate's end. These "viziers of the sword" were also commanders-in-chief of the army who effectively sidelined the caliphs and ruled in their stead, often seizing power from their predecessors. The last vizier, Saladin, abolished the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171.
Abu'l Muzaffar Bahram al-Armani al-Hafizi was the vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1135–1137, under the Caliph al-Hafiz li-Din Allah.
Abu'l-Ashbāl al-Ḍirghām ibn ʿĀmir ibn Sawwār al-Lukhamī was an Arab military commander in the service of the Fatimid Caliphate. An excellent warrior and model cavalier, he rose to higher command and scored some successes against the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem as well as against internal rebellions. Despite his close personal ties to the viziers Tala'i ibn Ruzzik and his son Ruzzik ibn Tala'i, he joined Shawar when the latter rebelled against Ruzzik and seized the vizierate. Nine months later, Dirgham betrayed Shawar as well and expelled him from the capital, becoming vizier himself on 31 August 1163. Amidst yet another Crusader invasion in 1164, Dirgham clashed with Shawar, who had gained the support of Syrian troops led by Shirkuh. Deserted by most of his troops, Dirgham was killed sometime in May–August 1164 by Shawar's army.
Muhyi al-DinAbu Ali Abd al-Rahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Lakhmi al-Baysani al-Asqalani, better known by the honorific name al-Qadi al-Fadil was an official who served the last Fatimid caliphs, and became the secretary and chief counsellor of the first Ayyubid sultan, Saladin.
Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd, known by the regnal name of Badr al-Dīn among the Isma'ili faithful, was the 26th and last imam of Hafizi Isma'ilism. Like his father, he spent most of his life in captivity at the hands of the Ayyubid government. He died apparently childless, thereby ending the line of Hafizi imams and of the Fatimid dynasty.
The Battle of the Blacks or Battle of the Slaves was a conflict in Cairo that occurred during the Rise of Saladin in Egypt, on 21–23 August 1169, between the black African units of the Fatimid army and other pro-Fatimid elements, and Sunni Syrian troops loyal to the Fatimid vizier, Saladin. Saladin's rise to the vizierate, and his sidelining of the Fatimid caliph, al-Adid, antagonized the traditional Fatimid elites, including the army regiments, as Saladin relied chiefly on the Kurdish and Turkish cavalry that had come with him from Syria. According to the medieval sources, which are biased towards Saladin, this conflict led to an attempt by the palace majordomo, Mu'tamin al-Khilafa, to enter into an agreement with the Crusaders and jointly attack Saladin's forces to get rid of him. Saladin learned of this conspiracy and had Mu'tamin executed on 20 August. Modern historians have questioned the veracity of this report, suspecting that it may have been invented to justify Saladin's subsequent move against the Fatimid troops.
Baha al-Din Qaraqush al-Asadi al-Rumi al-Maliki al-Nasiri was a eunuch military commander in the service of Saladin. He served as palace chamberlain and gaoler of the deposed Fatimid dynasty, and undertook for his master the construction of the Citadel of Cairo and the fortification of Acre. After Saladin's death, he served as regent of Egypt for the Ayyubid sultans al-Aziz Uthman and al-Mansur, until he was forced to retire. He died in 1201. Although highly esteemed by contemporaries and historians, his posthumous reputation derives chiefly from a satirical pamphlet by a political opponent that lampoons him as a stupid and tyrannical monarch.
In 1173–1174, a conspiracy took place in Cairo in favour of restoring the Isma'ili Shi'a Fatimid Caliphate, which had been abolished by Saladin and replaced with the Ayyubid dynasty in 1171. The conspiracy, which is known only from sources favourable to Saladin, was led by elites of the fallen Fatimid regime, and aimed to seize control over Cairo by taking advantage Saladin's absence from the city on campaign. To this end, they are reported to have contacted the Crusaders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, inviting them to invade Egypt in order to lure Saladin away. The conspirators reportedly also contacted the Nizari Isma'ili Order of Assassins to assassinate Saladin. The veracity of these claims is disputed by modern historians, who consider them inventions aimed to discredit the conspirators. In the event, the conspiracy was betrayed to Saladin, although the sources differ on how exactly. Some even hold that the conspiracy was precipitated by Saladin as a political purge, or as a means of demonstrating to his increasingly hostile nominal master, the emir of Aleppo and Damascus, Nur al-Din Zengi, that Egypt was still unruly and that Saladin was indispensable to keep the opposition in check. The Ayyubid ruler struck on 31 March 1174 and arrested the conspiracy's ringleaders, among them the celebrated poet Umara al-Yamani. The chief conspirators were executed at the Bayn al-Qasrayn square from 6 April until 23 May, while others were exiled. A pro-Fatimid revolt in Upper Egypt followed, but was suppressed in September by Saladin's brother, al-Adil.
Zayn al-Din Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Naja was a Sunni Muslim preacher and close friend of Saladin.