TheFatimid Caliphate was ruled by theal-Fātimiyyūn (Arabic:الفاطميون) dynasty from 5 January 909 to 1171. It was anArabShi'a dynasty It ruled the fourth and finalArabcaliphate. In different times different areas of theMaghreb,Egypt, and theLevant belonged to the caliphate.
The Egyptian city ofCairo was made the capital. The termFatimite is sometimes used to refer to the citizens of this caliphate as well. The ruling elite belonged to theIsmaili branch of Shi'ism. The leaders were alsoShia Ismaili Imams. They had a religious significance to Ismaili Muslims. They are also part of the chain of holders of the office ofCaliph, as recognized by most Muslims, the only period in which theShia Imamate and theCaliphate were united to any degree. There was only one other exception: the Caliphate ofAli himself.
The Fatimids were famous for religious tolerance towards non-Ismaili sects of Islam as well as towardsJews,Maltese Christians andCoptic Christians,[1] but there were some exceptions nevertheless.
Abdullāh al-Mahdi's control soon extended over all of centralMaghreb, an area consisting of the modern countries ofMorocco,Algeria,Tunisia andLibya, which he ruled fromMahdia, his newly-built capital in Tunisia.
In the 1040s, theZirids (governors of North Africa under the Fatimids) declared their independence from the Fatimids and their conversion toSunni Islam, which led to the devastatingBanū Hilal invasions. After about 1070, the Fatimid hold on theLevant coast and parts ofSyria was challenged first byTurkic (Seljuk) invasions, then theCrusades, so that Fatimid territory shrank until it consisted only of Egypt.
After the decay of the Fatimid political system in the 1160s, theZengid rulerNūr ad-Dīn had his general,Shirkuh, seize Egypt from the vizierShawar in 1169. Shirkuh died two months after taking power, and the rule went to his nephew,Saladin.[2] This began theKurdishAyyubid Dynasty.
