Mustansirian Intensity ( Al-Shada Al-Mustansiriya )
- Mustansirian Intensity term indicates a famine that occurred in Egypt, in the time of the Fatimid Caliph "Al-Mustansir Billah" in the second half of the fifth century AH, and the famine occurred as a result of the drying up of the waters of the Nile River in Egypt for a period of seven years called the lean years, although Egypt passed through types of torment, hardship and cruelty throughout history, but the intensity Al-Mustansiriya was the ugliest on Egypt
- The Mustansiriya intensity had several reasons, but the main reason for the Mustansiriya intensity is the low water level in the Nile River, and then other reasons combined to complicate the crisis and make it the most difficult for Egypt over time.
Causes of Al-Mustansiriya distress
.jpeg "the mother of the Caliph Al-Mustansir (Mrs. Rassd)")
- The first reason was the interference of the mother of the Caliph Al-Mustansir (Mrs. Rassd) so much in the affairs of the government, that the position of the head of state was given according to what she and the ministry wanted, so ministers sometimes changed on a weekly or daily basis, which caused turmoil in the political and economic situation in Egypt.
- The second reason was that the soldiers fought each other, so the Turkish soldiers allied with the Berbers and expelled the Sudanese soldiers from Cairo to Upper Egypt, and in Upper Egypt they spread corruption and corrupted the irrigation system, which increased the drought.
- The third reason is the weakness of the Sultanate and the imbalance of the Kingdom's conditions.
During the Mustansiriya distress, many stories occurred that are difficult to even believe from their horror, and the following are the most important stories that happened in 1065 AD and were narrated in 1096 AD
The horrors that the people of Egypt lived
- It is narrated that the minister of the country did not have only one mule left to ride, and Wali guarded his boy, but the boy because of the intensity of his hunger excessive mule and robbed thieves who could not prevent them, the minister was very angry and arrested the thieves so he hanged them and hung them on a tree, and when he woke up in the morning did not find only their bones, it was said that the people of the intensity of their hunger ate their meat.
- It was also narrated that in Egypt there was a lane called the sailors of the dish ( Haret al-Tabaq ) in the city of Fustat, there were twenty houses, each house worth a thousand dinars, and they sold it all for a plate of bread, each house has a loaf, and for this reason it was called the sailors of the dish.
- The crisis reached the caliph himself, so he lost all his animals and sold the marble of his family's graves in order to obtain food, and the case reached the point that he became indebted with his life to the daughter of one of the jurists because she gave him two loaves a day, and thus a third of the population died, people lost their most precious property, and famines prevailed.
Badr El-Din El-Gamali saves Egypt
- Al-Mustansir can no longer bear what happened, especially after he lost several countries and cities that were under his rule, so he pushed this to seek help from a person called "Badr al-Din bin Abdullah al-Jamali" in 1573 AD, who was known for justice and extending a helping hand and assistance to the Fatimid state, so Al-Mustansir appointed him as a minister and came with his men and imposed his control by force and arms with the consent of Al-Mustansir, then he worked to repair the irrigation system and irrigation channels, and took care of agriculture and fought the fighting soldiers and expelled them from Egypt.
- And make the crop for the peasants first three years, and then began to collect in the fourth year, and so fixed the aesthetic situation in Egypt and the accumulations of corruption and hunger over many years previous, then with the wisdom of God overflowed the Nile River again and displaced the crisis, the Egyptians immortalized the mention of this man and named his name on the neighborhood of the most famous areas and neighborhoods in Egypt called the neighborhood of Gamaleya.
The end of the Mustansiriya intensity
- The spread of security and stability in the country led to the revitalization of trade, and Al-Jamali rebuilt the country by restoring Cairo and what was destroyed in it, and built three gates that are among the most prominent monuments of the Fatimids in Egypt so far "Bab Al-Futuh", "Bab Al-Nasr", "Bab Zuweila", and thus the reins returned to their previous era in the hands of Al-Jamali.
الشده المستنصريه الخليفه المستنصر بالله بدر الدين الجمالي