The Fatimids (909–1171)

A branch of Shi'a Islam that the Fatimids belonged to; it awaited a divinely guided imam and formed the religious basis of Fatimid legitimacy.

The secret Isma'ili missionary network that spread religious teaching and built loyal support across North Africa, Yemen and Persia before the Fatimid state existed.

The da'i Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i converted them; this gave the Isma'ili movement the military force that overthrew the Aghlabids in 909.

909, by Abd Allah al-Mahdi, who took the title al-Mahdi Billah and proclaimed himself caliph and imam.

Political: weak, unpopular Aghlabid rule. Economic: heavy Aghlabid taxation angering the population. Social: Kutama Berber grievances providing a ready fighting force.

The general Jawhar al-Siqilli, on the orders of Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah.

Egypt's Nile-valley wealth and its strategic Mediterranean–Red Sea position, combined with Ikhshidid weakness from famine, plague and succession disputes.

Al-Qahira (Cairo), meaning 'the Victorious' — built as a new Fatimid capital beside the existing city of Fustat.

973, four years after the conquest, permanently shifting the dynasty's centre from Mahdia in Ifriqiya to Egypt.

The Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad, Sunni), the Fatimid Caliphate (Cairo, Isma'ili Shi'a), and the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (Spain, Sunni).

Genealogy — descent from Fatima (the Prophet Muhammad's daughter) and Ali, which they argued gave them a stronger claim than the Abbasids.

With relative pragmatic tolerance — most Egyptians stayed Sunni, and Coptic Christians and Jews were often employed in state administration, though this was not constant (al-Hakim later reversed it).

A powerful group of Muslim traders who carried spices and goods between India, Yemen and Fatimid Egypt; the state taxed and protected their trade rather than running it directly.

To move Indian Ocean trade away from the 'Abbasid-controlled Persian Gulf and through Egypt instead, boosting Fatimid customs revenue via the port of Aydhab.

The chief minister who ran day-to-day administration, finance and the army on the caliph's behalf, especially important when caliphs were young or weak.

The Fatimid network of Isma'ili religious missionaries who spread support for the Fatimid caliph as the true imam, even in lands the Fatimids did not directly rule.

Founded in 1005 by al-Hakim; a Cairo institution combining a major library with public lectures on law, science and Isma'ili theology.

The 'great calamity' — a severe famine caused by low Nile floods in the 1060s that devastated Egypt's food supply and tax base, coinciding with army factional conflict.

Succession crises with weak or child caliphs, and violent factionalism between Turkish and African/Berber army regiments.

Seljuk Turkish expansion into Fatimid Syria from the 1070s, and the First Crusade's capture of Jerusalem in 1099.

Unpredictable rule, including destroying the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1009), but also founding the Dar al-'Ilm and patronising scholars like ibn al-Haytham.

The longest Fatimid reign, spanning the empire's greatest territorial extent in the 1040s–50s and then its sharp decline through famine, army civil war and loss of Syria.

In 1171, the vizier Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate and restored Sunni 'Abbasid authority in Egypt.

al-Hakim ruled briefly and unpredictably but founded a lasting institution (Dar al-'Ilm); al-Mustansir ruled far longer, presiding over both the empire's peak and the start of irreversible decline.