The soft power of inter-religious learning: negotiating transregional exchanges at the fifth/eleventh-century Fāṭimid court*

While firmly ruling over Egypt (358/969–567/1171) the Fāṭimids’ hold on Syria and Palestine remained intermittent. Owing to limited extant sources, the history of their administration of that region is fragmentarily known. For the period before 462/1070, the religious contours of the relationship between the Fāṭimids and local qāḍīs who governed on their behalf remain little investigated. Here I shed light on this facet of interregional, cross-denominational ruling arrangements as experience by a Twelver Shī‘ī scholar from Ṭarābulus, Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad b. ‘Alī al-Karājikī (d. 449/1057). Al-Karājikī, who travelled to Egypt between 407/1016 and 426/1034–5, emerges as a well-informed participant in and observer of the intellectual and administrative history of his time. His participation in religious learning and debate while in Fāṭimid Egypt helped him after returning to Syria and Palestine to navigate his way across the spectrum of convenient patrons.

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