Les villes maritimes fatimides en Méditerranée orientale (969-1171)

International audienceThe story of the relations between the Fatimids and their coastal cities has to be set under the seal of ambiguity. Resulting from very ancient foundations, these cities were looking forward to get back their prestigious past. Only the Fatimid military fleets were able to retrieve it by making more secure the commercial maritime routes and by permitting the emergence of powerful urban burgesses. In counterpart, the Fatimids profited by the large amounts of taxes collected in each port which could be in the same time a naval base. Nevertheless, the understanding between the Fatimid power and their coastal cities has never been really friendly. During the two centuries of Fatimid domination these cities were very often centres of autonomist troubles. This situation obliged the Fatimids to elaborate a specific management system which was far from the picture of centralisation that the dynasty wanted to leave in other respects.L'histoire des relations des Fatimides à leurs villes portuaires est placée sous le sceau de l'ambiguïté. De fondation souvent très anciennes, ces cités étaient à la recherche de leur glorieux passé que seules les flottes militaires fatimides purent leur rendre en sécurisant les routes maritimes et en permettant l'émergence de puissantes bourgeoisies urbaines. En contrepartie les Fatimides disposaient d'autant de sources de rentrées fiscales et de bases militaires essentielles. Pourtant, jamais l'entente entre le pouvoir central et les villes côtières ne fut vraiment cordiale et les diverses villes maritimes constituèrent souvent durant les deux siècles de présence fatimide des foyers d'agitation autonomiste. Cela obligea le pouvoir central du Caire à mettre en place un système de gestion loin de l'image de dynastie centralisatrice que les Fatimides ont pu laisser par ailleurs