Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 13, 2023

Al-Hafiz (c. 1075 – 1149) was the eleventh caliph of the Fatimids from 1132 until his death. He rose to power as regent after his cousin al-Amir was killed in 1130 leaving an infant son. The army seized power, imprisoning al-Hafiz, but he was freed a year later. In 1132, he proclaimed himself caliph and imam. Many Isma'ili followers abroad refused to recognize him as imam, breaking away as the Tayyibi sect. There were repeated uprisings even in Egypt, although his reign saw little foreign aggression. He tried to restrain his overmighty viziers, with mixed success. He was repeatedly forced to give way to the demands of various military factions, and although for the last decade of his reign he ruled without a vizier, he was ultimately unable to halt the evolution of the vizierate into a de facto sultanate, independent of the caliph. His successors would be reduced to puppets at the hands of powerful viziers, until the end of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171.