Abu'l-Fath Yanis

A Christian of Armenian origin, he became a military slave (mamlūk) of al-Afdal Shahanshah,^[1][2] the vizier (and de facto ruler) of the Fatimid Caliphate from 1094 to 1121.^[3] In 1122/3, Yanis was promoted to head of the ṣibyān al-khāṣṣ—a special corps of young men being trained for military service^[4]—and then to head of the treasury (ṣāḥib bayt al-mal) by the vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi.^[1] He rose further to head chamberlain (ṣāḥib al-bāb or ṣāḥib al-majlis), a rank almost equal to the vizierate,^[5] and commander-in-chief of the army.^[1]

Following the death of Caliph al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah on 17 October 1130, the army raised al-Afdal's son Kutayfat to the vizierate. He soon imprisoned the regent Abd al-Majid, deposed the Fatimid dynasty and Isma'ilism and imposed a Twelver Shi'a regime instead. This aroused the reaction of the old Fatimid elites, and members of al-Amir's ṣibyān al-khāṣṣ murdered Kutayfat on 8 December 1131. Abd al-Majid was released and reinstated, initially as regent, but in February 1132 he was raised to the caliphate as al-Hafiz li-Din Allah.^[6][7][8] Yanis emerged as the new strong man, and was named vizier.^[5] This has been seen by some modern historians as a reward for assisting in the murder of Kutayfat and the restoration of the dynasty.^[9] On the other hand, among his first moves was the elimination of about 300 of the approximately 500 ṣibyān, exactly the same corps that had been responsible for Kutayfat's murder.^[5]

This severity was a hallmark of Yanis, a strong personality and disciplinarian who tried to discipline the unruly army by tough measures.^[2][10] At the same time, he relied on a privately raised regiment of military slaves, which was known after him as Yānisiyya.^[10] Yanis' efforts to impose control over the state extended to the administration as well, leading to the imprisonment of several prominent officials.^[10] His growing power alarmed al-Hafiz, and after nine months in power, he had the vizier's ablution water poisoned.^[10] After Yanis' death, the Caliph did not appoint another vizier, and for a time took governance into his own hands. It was not until 1134 that a new vizier was appointed, in the person of al-Hafiz's son and designated heir Sulayman.^[5]

During his tenure, Yanis began constructing two mosques, the Masjid al-Fath and the Masjid Yanis, which were completed by his two sons, whom al-Hafiz took under his protection.^[10]

• al-Imad, Leila S. (1990). The Fatimid Vizierate (979-1172). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag. ISBN 3-922968-82-1.
• Dedoyan, Seta B. (1997). The Fatimid Armenians: Cultural and Political Interaction in the Near East. Leiden, New York, and Köln: Brill. ISBN 90-04-10816-5.
• Dedoyan, Seta B. (2002). "Yānis". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume XI: W–Z. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 281–282. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7980. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.
• 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.
• Stern, S. M. (1960). "al-Afḍal, Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad, surnamed Kutayfāt". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 216. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_0339. OCLC 495469456.