Orations of the Fatimid Caliphs

Like their Sunni counterparts in Baghdad, the Fatimid caliphs saw the twice- yearly [Id khutbah (sermon) as an opportunity to set out their views on a range of subjects. Unlike other official pronouncements, these khutbahs had the distinction of usually being composed by the caliph himself. In the latter Fatimid period, the Fatimid caliph might also pen and deliver the Friday khutbahs during the month of Ramadan. It is the remaining texts of some thirteen of these khutbahs, preserved in a range of secondary sources – Isma[ili and Sunni - that are collected, edited and translated here by the Fatimid specialist Paul Walker, nine from the North African phase of the Fatimid caliphate (909-969 CE), and four from the Egyptian (969-1171 CE).