The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ili Shia caliphate ruling from 909 to 1171, founded by Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah, whose dynasty claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima. Its capital moved from Raqqada to Mahdia, then to al-Mansuriya, before the caliphate conquered Egypt in 969 and established Cairo as its seat in 973. At its height the caliphate stretched from the western Mediterranean to the Red Sea, encompassing Egypt, varying portions of the Maghreb, Sicily, the Levant and the Hejaz, and it built extensive Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade networks. The Fatimids went into decline from the late eleventh century onward, and in 1171 Saladin abolished the dynasty's rule and founded the Ayyubid dynasty in its place, formally reintegrating Egypt into the Abbasid Caliphate's nominal authority.
Facts
Government TypeHereditary monarchy (caliphate) 1 Government type (class) Government type (class) Classification
Status (Extant or Former) FAQs
Who actually held power in the later Fatimid state?
From 1074 onward the viziers held real power and the caliphs usually did not.
In the early Fatimid period the caliph served as civilian head of government, commander in chief and religious leader, with a vizier as one of his three key counselors beside the commander of the armies and the guide of the missionaries. That changed in 1074, when the caliph al-Mustansir made Badr al-Jamali, the governor of Acre and a freed slave of Armenian origin, his vizier to restore order after years of incompetent rule. Under Badr the vizier's authority grew until he effectively controlled all three areas of the caliph's responsibility. After Badr, the viziers became the actual rulers of Egypt, and the caliphs exercised true authority only in scattered periods. By the end of the dynasty in 1171, Egypt was ruled by powerful viziers assisted by factions of the army.
Connections
In Era
Source Wikipedia: Fatimid Caliphate
Succeeded By
Source Wikipedia: Fatimid Caliphate
In the Other Atlases
Government Type
Also in Society and Culture Atlas: the government type of this subject.
Also in Society and Culture Atlas: the government type of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Fatimid Caliphate
WikipediaInfobox
Government: Hereditary monarchy
Fatimid Caliphate: Status
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ili Shia caliphate ruling from 909 to 1171, founded by Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah, whose dynasty claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima.
- Succeeded By: Ayyubid Sultanate
In Era: The Post-Classical and Medieval Period, lead paragraph and infobox, existence dates
The Fatimid Caliphate (; Arabic: الخلافة الفاطمیّة, romanised: al-Khilāfa al-Fāṭimiyya), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate that existed from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty.
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