The year of the Princess’ death saw the beginning of a terrible famine in Egypt as the result of a series of bad Niles, and the resultant distress lasted all through 416 and 417. In many cases the starving villages took to brigandage, an evil to which the country is always more or less exposed. Sometimes outbreaks are due, as in this case, to dire distress and consequent recklessness; sometimes it means the revival of ancient feuds between village and village, or family and family, so that it is no more than an outlet for intermittent inter-tribal feuds and private quarrels between villages or families; but in time of distress these become more acrimonious and turn against strangers and travellers. Even the pilgrims on their way through Egypt were attacked. Regulations were passed to prevent the slaughter of cattle for fear that they would be exterminated altogether; camels were scarce as many were killed because it was impossible to provide them with food, and poultry could hardly be procured. Crowds assembled before the palace crying, “Hunger, hunger. O Commander of the faithful, it was not thus under thy father and grandfather.” Then the slaves, starving and miserable, revolted and swelled the numbers of brigands on the roads. In many places the citizens formed themselves into “Committees of safety,” and the government allowed them to arm and slay revolted slaves in self defence. The state treasury was practically empty, for it was impossible to collect taxes, and even the palace slaves and officials were in a starving condition. The misery reached its height in 418 when ʿAli b. Ahmad al-Jarjarai, the same whose hands had been cut off by Hakim, was appointed wazir. As the year began (in the early part of February) the conditions were such that barricades were erected across the streets of Cairo to keep out the brigands and slaves, and the wazir himself was for some time a prisoner in his official palace. Later in the year, however, there was a good inundation, and this restored plenty, so that in 419 the country was once more under normal conditions and order was restored. A curious event of 416 was a persecution of the Malikite school of jurists. At that time the Maliki system was the prevailing school of thought in orthodox Egypt, though now it is for the most part confined to Upper Egypt, the Shafiʿi system replacing it in Lower Egypt. Neither of these, of course, was acceptable to the Shiʿites, who demanded that the problems of canon law should be treated according to the teaching of Jaʿfar as-Sadiq (cf. p. 96 above). Hakim had, in 400, founded and endowed a college for instruction in the Malikite system, but in 404 it was suppressed and its head was put to death. Nothing of this sort was attempted now, but all the canonists of the Maliki school were banished from Egypt. No doubt they were regarded as leaders of the Sunni element as against the Shiʿite Khalifate.