During the same year that al-Ḥākim disappears in 1021, Hamza goes into retreat and delegates the third leading figure, Baha'u d-Dīn as-Samuqī ("al-Muqtana Baha’ud-Dīn") to continue the missionary movement.

Baha'u d-Dīn continues public preaching with the approval of Hamza, who is in a disclosed location known only to Baha'u d-Dīn and few other missionaries.

Near Cairo, Hamzah begins to build a strong missionary organization.

Cosmic ranks are given to members of its hierarchy, and a class of missionaries is organized to spread the teachings.

Hamzah claims to be representing not just another sect but rather an independent religion, one that supersedes traditional Islam.

Hakim has displayed a growing inclination toward asceticism in the final years of his reign, and withdraws for meditation regularly.

At the age of thirty-six on the night of 12/13 February 1021, Hakim leaves for one of his night journeys to the al-Muqattam hills outside of Cairo and never returns.

A search finds only his donkey and bloodstained garments.

His disappearance has remained a mystery.

Sitt al-Mulk becomes regent for her younger brother Al-Hakim's son and successor Ali az-Zahir in 1021.

She had tried with the help of a cousin to force Al-Hakim from the throne after the death of their father Ali al-Aziz (975–996), but had been arrested by the eunuch Barjuwan.

Al-Hakim's administration is tolerant at times.

During famines, he distributes food and tries to stabilize prices.

He also founds mosques and patronizes scholars and poets.

Al-Hakim, who is already accorded the position of imam, a divinely appointed and authoritative spokesman for Islam, had begun in 1017 to encourage the teachings of some Isma'ili missionaries.

Al-Hakim claims to be the embodiment of the Godhead—a state beyond name and beyond good and evil, the final maqam (Arabic, “location”) or incarnation of God.

This act establishes the Druse (or Druze) religion, named for al-Hakim's first missionary, Muhammad ibn Isma'il ad-Darazi, who wins many converts in Syria and Lebanon.

Al-Darazi's rival Hamzah ibn 'Ali Ibn Ahmad, however, becomes the Druses' first imam.

Considerable resistance to the new doctrines appears, and when ad-Darazi publicly proclaims the doctrine in the principal mosque of Cairo, rioting ensues that quite probably leads to his own death in 1019.

Sitt al-Mulk has for two years continued to wield influence as an advisor after Ali az-Zahir came of age, as evidenced by the very generous appanages that have come her way.

After the assumption of power and the elimination of her rivals, she had abolished many of the strange rules that Al-Hakim had promulgated in his reign.

She has also severely persecuted the Druze religion, which believes in Al-Hakim's divinity, eliminating it entirely from Egypt, and restricting it to the mountains of Lebanon.

She has worked to reduce tensions with Constantinople e over the possession of Aleppo, but before negotiations can be completed she dies on February 5, 1023, at the age of fifty-two.

A group of her favorites takes power after her death.

Under this regime, the Fātimid state slips into crisis as famine and plague lead to anarchy.

Various revolts erupt in North Africa under Ali az-Zahir, the seventh Fatimid Khalif.

When Abul Kamal Tumin, rebelling against Fatimid rule, conquers Fes in 1032, killing six thousand Jews in the process, the Moroccan city’s Jewish community is decimated.

The Pisans launch a naval assault in 1035 against the Saracen pirates strongholds in the Lipari Islands.