more than simple conjecture, though it must be admitted that none of the native historians attach this deep significance to the introduction of the term _dawla_. It is not necessary to suppose that Barjawan was a devout supporter of Ismaʿilian views, but he certainly was the decided opponent of Ibn ʿAmmar who had curtailed his power and thrust him into the background, leaving him to be no more than the private tutor of the young prince. By force of circumstances he was compelled to become the champion of the young Khalif, so that this first period of al-Hakim’s reign centres in Barjawan’s intrigues to get rid of Ibn ʿAmmar. Very early in al-Hakim’s reign there came to Egypt as a refugee the eunuch Shakar, who had been a servant of the Buwayhid prince Adhad ad-Dawla, but who had been taken prisoner by the rival prince Sharif ad-Dawla, from whom he had escaped. He was a friend of Manjutakin, the governor of Syria, and Barjawan, having enlisted his support, used him as the medium of sending an appeal to Manjutakin to deliver him and the Khalif from the bondage in which they were kept by Ibn ʿAmmar. Manjutakin, who was naturally inclined to be a partisan of the Turks and the Turkish mercenaries whom al-ʿAziz had introduced into Egypt as a counterpoise against the influence of the Katama and other Berber tribes, readily espoused Barjawan’s faction and assembled troops preparatory to an advance upon Egypt. As soon as Ibn ʿAmmar heard of this he treated it as a revolt, and sent out an army under the command of Sulayman b. Jaʿfar b. Fallah, a Berber of the Katama tribe and one of his supporters to check the revolted Manjutakin. Thus the palace intrigue between Ibn ʿAmmar and Barjawan was fought out by their respective supporters in Syria. Sulayman met Manjutakin either at Ascalon or Ramla, and there he inflicted a defeat upon the Turks in which Manjutakin himself was taken prisoner and sent captive to Egypt. He was well received by Ibn ʿAmmar, who wanted to see Berbers and Turks united in resistance to the established Khalifate, and perceived very clearly that his plans could not be successful unless he enlisted the sympathy of the Turkish faction which was very strong in Cairo.