Fatimids

Fatimids, dynasty of Muslim caliphs, claiming descent from Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, and her husband Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph. Founded by Ubayd Allah, who proclaimed himself caliph in Tunisia in 909, the Fatimid dynasty professed Shiism, and rejected the authority of the Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad which was regarded by the contemporary Sunni Muslim world as the authentic caliphate of Islam. As Shiite Ismailis, the Fatimid caliphs were held to be infallible and sinless imams, the divinely chosen perpetuators of the true faith. They therefore attacked the Abbasids as usurpers.

Missionary activity gradually spread Ismaili support through Yemen and the area of modern Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia during the 9th century, creating the power base which allowed their imam Ubayd Allah to make his declaration in 909. The Fatimids were soon in control of North Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily, but had difficulties with their Sunni and Kharijite subjects, as well as with the more militant Ismaili missionaries. Fatimid forces gradually advanced towards Egypt, conquering the Nile Valley in 969 and founding Cairo as their capital, then seizing the Muslim holy cities of Medina and Mecca. Once established, the Fatimid empire maintained pressure on the Abbasids and their supporters, using a sophisticated state missionary organization for subversion of Sunni regimes. Fatimid power extended to Yemen, Syria, and the Red Sea, and missionaries were sent to India and Central Asia. In 1057 a rebel general in Iraq declared for the Fatimid caliph and briefly took Mosul and Baghdad, but the Fatimids were unable to prevent his defeat by Turkish Seljuks in 1059. By this point Fatimid power had already begun to decline, not least as a result of the eccentricities of the sixth Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amrih Allah (caliph 985-1021), or al-Hakim, who announced himself at Cairo about 1016 as the earthly incarnation of God. Under his vizier Hamzah ibn Ali ibn Ahmad, his cult developed into the modern faith of the Druze, but his actions had already undermined Fatimid authority. Feuding between different racial groups weakened the Fatimid armies, and by the second half of the 11th century government in Egypt was collapsing.

Supported by the reigning caliph, the general Badr ar-Jamali seized power in 1073 in a savage palace coup and centralized control of all state departments in himself, but his efforts to reassert Fatimid control of Syria and the Arabian Peninsula ended in defeat. His successors kept the Fatimid caliphs as puppets. On the death of the caliph al-Mustansir in 1094, a succession struggle broke out between supporters of two rival candidates, which destroyed Fatimid unity. Syria and Yemen broke free of Cairo's control, and the sect of the Assassins began campaigns of terrorism and murder against the caliphs in Egypt. In 1171 the last Fatimid caliph died and his vizier, Saladin, took power as sultan of Egypt, ending the dynasty.