Sitt al-Mulk

Sitt al-Mulk, sister of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and daughter of al-ʿAziz Billah. The books of the people of Egypt, as Ibn al-Jawzi transmits them, relate that she arranged to conceal her brother's killing for three days, then brought his son Ali forward to the oath of allegiance under the title al-Zahir li-Iʿzaz Din Allah; her hand was the higher one in the transfer between the two caliphs. ¹

The account says that al-Hakim feared his close companion Ibn Dawwas, so Sitt al-Mulk contrived a reconciliation between them. Then the body of her brother, who had been killed on Mount al-Muqattam, was brought to her, and she buried it in her assembly room. She circulated that he had been absent for seven days, and she paid members of the Rikabiyya guard who could give the impression that he was still there. ²

She brought out Ali ibn al-Hakim, who was given the oath of allegiance; she installed him and placed on him the crown of al-Muʿizz. She held the mourning ceremony for three days, then had Ibn Dawwas put to death at the hand of Nasim, the man of the curtain and the sword, and had put to death whoever among the servants knew too much. Her standing in the state grew great. ³