The Fatimids rose to political dominion in North Africa in 909 AD after a long period of clandestine struggle in various regions of the Islamic world. The Fatimids formally proclaimed their caliphate soon after in 910.
The new caliph, Abu Muhammad Abdallah al-Mahdi was the 11th Imam of Shi’a Ismailia but, until then, he had not actually rule a politically defined territory.
In 969 they succeeded in peacefully conquering Egypt, where they founded Cairo as their new capital. Cairo with its magnificent palaces and grand mosque was an imperial city designed for imperial pageants.
The third Fatimid caliph, al-Mansur built a new capital city named Mansuriyya, after himself. Situated near Sabra to the south of Qayrawan, Mansuriyya served as the Fatimid capital from 948 until 973.
As a dynasty of caliphs, the Ismailia imams were called Fatimids because they traced their genealogy to the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and hence to Prophet himself.
The reign of the Fatimid imam caliphs was one of the most brilliant periods of Islamic history both politically and in terms of its literary, economic, artistic and scientific achievements.
In 1171, over two hundred years and sixty years after the foundation of Fatimid dynasty, Salah a-Din, the most famous of the Muslim opponents of the Crusaders, who was at that time wazir to the last of the Fatimid imam-caliphs, finally abolish the dynasty.
Early History of Fatimid Dynasty
