Recruiting Crews in the Fatimid Navy (909-1171)

International audienceRecruiting crews for the fleet was always problematic for medieval rulers. Th e Ismai'le Fatimids were no exception. In spite of every kind of adversity, from civil war to Sunni resistance and the crusades, they succeeded in building one of the most powerful navies of their time (tenth-twelfth centuries). Th e recruitment system, based mostly on financial attraction of crews and the organization of navies, partly explains both the success and the final failure of the Fatimids. Th e actions of fleets navigating under the white pavilion of the Fatimids made a significant impact on Mediterranean maritime history. However, the history of the men serving on the bridge of different ships remains largely unwritten. 1 Th e study of the recruitment of crews and their composition will open up a piece of this history. 2 Th e Fatimid dynasty ruled over what were essentially two territories. From Ifriqiya first of all, between 909 and 969, in keeping with Fatimid religious doctrines, the aims of the dynasty were to take control of Egypt to march on Baghdad, and to drive out the Abbasids. 3 From 969 on, the Fatimids conquered 1 Ibn Khaldūn tells us that under the Fatimids and the Umayyads of al-Andalus, the Mediterranean Sea was considered a Muslim lake. Ibn Khaldūn, Discours sur l'histoire uni-verselle: Al-Muqaddima, ed. and trans. V. Monteil, 3rd ed. (Paris: Sindbad; Arles: Actes Sud, 1997), 397. 2 We shall consider the term " crew " in a general sense: all the men who were employed on a Fatimid ship, sailors, rowers, captains, soldiers, and so on. 3 Farhat Daftary, Th e Ismâhîlîs: Th eir History and Doctrines (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 144-255