Disappearance of Caliph al-Hakim

February 13, 1021

The erratic Fatimid ruler, who had persecuted Christians and Jews, banned chess, and fasted until he hallucinated, rode out of Cairo one night into the Muqattam hills and never returned. His followers insisted he was in hiding; his cult would become the Druze faith of the Lebanese mountains. Only his donkey and bloodstained garments were found, and the mystery of his fate has never been solved.