The Economic Policy of Fatimids and their Religious Failure in the Maghrib

The failure to disseminate the Ismaili religion in the Maghrib is one of the important historical issues of the Fatimid era and when this investigated and explained, the economic agenda of the Fatimids as an important factor, should take into consideration. The Fatimid rulers failed to enforce their revolutionary claims of creating the economic justice in the Maghrib society. By failing to provide the necessary economic backing, in pursuing their religious-political aspirations and establishing an inclusive Fatimid caliphate, they have made unsuccessful attempts that imposed enormous financial costs on various sections of the Maghrib community. In addition, adopting a foreign policy based on hostility and territorial development eliminated the possibility of establishing sustainable economic relations with other Islamic territories. Such policies putted the people in financial straits. Therefore, during the Abu Yazid al-Kharidji uprising against the Fatimid government, the Maghrib inhabitants largely sympathized that and the Fatimid state was on the verge of collapse. Although the Fatimids tried to prevent the financial pressures on the people by changing their financial policies and preventing the profiteering of their governors, but due to the delay of this changes and the transfer of their capital to Egypt, there was little change in the desire of the inhabitants of Maghrib into the Ismaili religion.