Shawar

Shawar ibn Mujir al-Sa'di (Arabic: شاور بن مجير السعدي, romanized: Shāwar ibn Mujīr al-Saʿdī; died 18 January 1169) was a Sunni Muslim¹ Egyptian military leader and politician. He was the de facto ruler of Fatimid Egypt, as its vizier, from December 1162 until his assassination in 1169² by the general Shirkuh, the uncle of the future Ayyubid leader Saladin, with whom he was engaged in a three-way power struggle against the Crusader Amalric of Jerusalem.³ Shawar was notorious for continually switching alliances, allying first with one side, and then the other,⁴ and even ordering the burning of his own capital city, Fustat, just so that the enemy could not have it.⁵

Biography

An Egyptian hailing from southern Egypt, Shawar became the vizier in the last years of the Fatimid caliphate, while al-Adid was the caliph. In the mid-12th century, the Fatimid caliphate was crumbling, and Egypt had descended into a condition of near anarchy. The official head of state was the Caliph, but the true power was the Egyptian vizier, and various Egyptian governors competed with each other for the position, often with great violence. During the 1150s, Shawar was the Fatimid governor of Upper Egypt for five years, but he made a deal with the Sultan of Damascus, , deserted the Fatimids and joined the in . Shawar initially used the Sultan's aid, took control of Cairo, and quickly killed his predecessor and his predecessor's entire family. But nine months later, Shawar himself was overthrown by one of his lieutenants, . He again sought assistance from Sultan Nur ad-Din, who sent one of his generals, Shirkuh, to settle the dispute. Dirgham was killed, and Shawar was restored to power. However, Shawar then argued with Shirkuh, and allied with the Crusader king, , who at in August–October 1164. The siege ended with a stalemate, and both Shirkuh and Amalric agreed to withdraw from Egypt.