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Fatimid Cairo

Type Object Region Egypt Time 969–1171

Fatimid Cairo (al-Qahira), founded in 969 CE on the Nile's east bank, was the political center of the Shi'a Ismaili regime and remained one of the ea…

Timeline

  1. 969–1000Cairo · CairoFatimid caliph al-Mu'izz ordered the construction of the new city of Cairo northeast of Fustat, a closed palace city of high walls, palace gates, and a north-south avenue, replacing the old capital as the symbolic capital of the Fatimid Shi'a regime.
  2. 1071–1080Cairo · CairoAt the end of caliph al-Mustansir's reign of over half a century, Cairo was still the trade and crafts center of the eastern Mediterranean, with flourishing markets and active scholarship at al-Azhar, but the seven-year famine of the 1060s and Bedouin raids had weakened palace finances, and city governance tended toward warlordism.
  3. 1171Cairo · CairoSaladin overthrew the last Fatimid caliph and abolished the Shi'a caliphate; Cairo passed to Sunni Ayyubid rule, parts of the Fatimid palace city were demolished or altered, but the city's status as Egypt's capital continued and expanded further.

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