Tala'i ibn Ruzzik

During his tenure the Fatimid Caliphate regained a measure of stability, and was once again able to project its power abroad and pursue its political interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.

[1] Born at the beginning of the 12th century,[2] at first Ibn Ruzzik appears to have pursued a career in Iraq, where he also converted to Twelver Shi'ism, as evidenced by the correspondence he maintained thereafter with Mosul, Kufa, and Hillah.

[1][3] Thereupon the women of the palace, led by al-Zafir's sister Sitt al-Qusur, reportedly cut off their hair and sent it to Ibn Ruzzik, requesting of him to save the dynasty.

Ibn Ruzzik mobilized his forces—the holders of the iqṭāʿ fiefs and allied Arab and Berber tribes—and marched on Cairo, where Abbas' attempts to organize resistance foundered on popular opposition to his regime.

Sitt al-Qusur sent word of their escape to the Crusaders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, however, and Abbas was killed, while Nasr was taken captive and sent back to Egypt, where he was executed by the women of the palace.

[7] This left Ibn Ruzzik, now vizier, as the undisputed ruler of the country; the underage Caliph al-Fa'iz was reduced to a mere figurehead and lived under virtual house arrest.

[3] He was the first Fatimid vizier to assume the honorific laqab of al-Malik ("king"); according to Thierry Bianquis, this was probably in imitation of the earlier Buyid dynasty, who were likewise Imamis and who exercised a similar role as the guardians of, and de facto rulers instead of, the Abbasid caliphs.

[7] Having served long in Upper Egypt, Ibn Ruzzik maintained close ties to it; upon becoming vizier, he financed the reconstruction of the main mosque at Qus.

Newly come to power in Cairo, Ibn Ruzzik initially sought to placate the Crusaders by paying them tribute in exchange for a truce.

[8] In 1158, Ibn Ruzzik sent the ḥādjib Mahmud al-Muwallad to Nur al-Din, proposing an alliance and joint operations against the Crusader principalities,[7] while an army under Dirgham, the deputy chamberlain of the palace (nāʾib al-Bāb), was dispatched to raid into Palestine.

[2][7] These victories emboldened Ibn Ruzzik, who wrote of them to Nur al-Din, exhorting him to join with Egypt in holy war against the Crusaders.

[10] This assessment is largely shared by modern historians; Thierry Bianquis describes him as "the last great man of the Fāṭimid state, who wanted to reconstruct a strong Egypt, which could carry out its own foreign policies".