Dissatisfied with his dubious position and the restrictions imposed by the wazir Hafiz plotted against him, and Ahmad was assassinated in the “Great Garden” as he was on his way to play polo on the 15th of Muharram 526 (Dec., 1131). At his death Hafiz received the oath of allegiance as Khalif, and was acclaimed by his bodyguard, the “Young Guard,” although his reign is usually dated from the date of his cousin’s death. At this time al-Hafiz was fifty-seven years of age. He appointed as wazir an Armenian named Yanis who had been a slave of al-Afdal, one of the Armenian mercenaries whom he had brought from Syria. Yanis turned out to be a severe and hard ruler, and in the following year he was poisoned by the Khalif’s order. In spite of the warning of al-Amir’s reign al-Hafiz then resolved to act as his own wazir, and in this he did well and was generally regarded with respect and attachment. His court was, however, divided into factions as the result of quarrels about the heirship between his two sons Hasan and Faʿiz, each supported by one of the two great bodies of negro mercenaries, the elder Hasan by the Rayhaniya regiment, the younger by the Juyushiya. At length these quarrels resulted in open warfare, and the victorious Juyushiya to the number of 10,000 assembled before the royal palace and demanded the head of the prince Hasan. The Khalif was not in a position to refuse this demand and sent for one of the court physicians, a Jew named Abu Mansur, and asked him to poison Hasan, but the Jew prudently declined the dangerous task. He then sent for a Christian physician named Ibn Kirfa who performed it, and the dead prince’s head was given to the rebels. But the Khalif never forgave Ibn Kirfa for what he had done, and before long an excuse was found to imprison the Christian physician, and in due course he was executed. After their successful revolt the troops elected as wazir the Armenian Bahram. But he very soon made himself unpopular by showing marked favouritism towards his fellow countrymen who, for the most part, had entered the country in the company of the Armenian Badr al-Jamali. As a result he was deposed and most of the Armenians expelled from the country. Bahram ended his life as a monk. In 532 Rudwan was appointed wazir and was the first official in Egypt to assume the title of “king.” But he held office only for a few months, and in 534 was cast into prison.