Al-Fa'iz bi-Nasr Allah

Abu'l-Qasim Isa ibn az-Zafir (Arabic: أبو القاسم عيسى بن الظافر‎; 1149–1160), better known by his regnal name al-Fa'iz bi-Nasr Allah (الفائز بنصر الله), was the thirteenth and penultimate Ismaili shia caliph of the Fatimid dynasty. He was believed by the Hafizi Ismailis to be the 24th Imam.

Caliph of the Fatimid Dynasty
Reign	1154 – 1160
Predecessor	Al-Zafir
Successor	Al-Adid
Born	31 May 1149
Died	23 July 1160
Dynasty	Fatimid
Religion	Ismaili Shia Islam

Following the assassination of his father az-Zafir by the vizier Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh, al-Fa'iz was raised to the throne as a five-year-old child. Abbas was soon forced to flee and was killed through the intervention of Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, who became vizier and regent. Tala'i ibn Ruzzik attempted to address the dominance of the Crusaders in Palestine through an alliance of the Fatimids and the Zengids of Syria under Nur ad-Din Zangi (1140–1174).

Al-Fa'iz never exercised power in his own right with the vizier Tala'i ibn Ruzzik exercising real power, he died aged 11 after suffering an epileptic fit. He was succeeded by his cousin al-Adid the son of Yousuf, also a minor who was appointed by the vizier Tala'i ibn Ruzzik.

See also

• List of rulers of Egypt
• Hafizi-Isma'ili family tree

References

Sources

• Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4076-8.
• Halm, Heinz (2014). Kalifen und Assassinen: Ägypten und der vordere Orient zur Zeit der ersten Kreuzzüge, 1074–1171 [Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades, 1074–1171] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-66163-1.