Ch. III THE CALIPHATE AND THE ARAB STATES 95 
 
 
they accepted it as a fact that the Selchükid power put all dreams of
territorial expansion out of court, the only military action which they took
outside Egypt was to recover its naval bases at Acre, Tyre, and other ports
(1089), and to maintain a defensive bridgehead in Palestine. On the approach
of the crusaders, Tyre and Sidon were refortified, and Jerusalem was recaptured
in 1098 from the Artukid Turkoman chiefs who held it as a Selchflkid fief.
The assumption that al-Afdal attempted to negotiate a division of Syria with
the crusaders seems to be belied by the fact that the Frankish envoys who
went to Cairo in that year were imprisoned. It is more probable that he saw
in their es tablishment in northern Syria a useful counterpoise to the am
bitions of the Selchukids. 7 
 In effect, Egypt, from being the intended springboard for a universal Shicite
empire, was re-formed as a closely knit .and selfcontained kingdom. Although
the parties in opposition to the Selchükids in Syria continued to recognize
the Fãtimid caliphate, no serious attempt was made to capitalize on
their religious allegi ance for political ends. So far from this, indeed,
were Badr and al-Afdal that they would almost seem to have deliberately under
mined the whole Fãtimid mission organization, except in the Yemen.
It was an essential article of Ismãdilite doctrine that the spiritual
office inherited by the descendants of ~Ali passed in a direct line from
father to son by explicit nomination; and it had hitherto passed always to
the eldest, or eldest surviving, son. Thus Nizãr, the eldest son of
the caliph al-Mustansir, was regarded in the mission as his destined successor,
and may even have been so proclaimed; and a vigorous militant propaganda
on this under standing had already achieved its first successes in Persia
by the foundation of the new "Assassin" movement. Yet, on the death of al-Mustansir
in 1094, al-Af lal recognized his youngest son as his successor, with the
title of al_Mustadli, and Nizãr's revolt in Alex andria was crushed.

 It can hardly be supposed that so intelligent a governor as al AfçIal
was not aware that the consequence of this act would be to split the Fãimid
mission into two rival sections, and that the militant eastern section would
support the claim of Nizãr. We can only surmise, therefore, that among
the reasons for his action was a desire to dissociate the Fãtimid
caliphate in Egypt from the terrorist activities already initiated by the
Assassins, and thus to avoid a conflict with the Selchükid sultanate,
whose imminent 
'  But on this see below, chapter X, pp. 315—316.