ABSTRACT
Abu ’l-Faraj Ya‘qub ibn Killis—statesman, administrator, and intellectual—was born a Jew in Baghdad in 930 CE and died in Cairo in 991. During his youth, his family settled in Ramle, Palestine, where he engaged in commerce, achieving the important post of wakil al-tujjar (representative of the merchants). Bankruptcy forced him to flee to Egypt, where he entered the service of the regent Kafur and worked his way up to chief financial administrator. After Kafur remarked that, were Ibn Killis a Muslim, he would be worthy of being vizier, Ibn Killis converted to Islam in 967 and became an avid student of scripture andlaw.However, his patron’s death the following year and the jealousy of the vizier Ibn al-Furat caused him to seek refuge in the Maghreb, where he entered the service of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu‘izz. Ibn Killis’s firsthand knowledge of Egyptian affairs proved invaluable to the Fatimids, who were planning an invasion of Egypt.
