Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Marcia K. Hermensen, “Fatimeh as 

a Role Model in the Works of Ali Shariati.” In Women 

and Revolution in Iran, edited by Guity Nashat, 87–96 

(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1983); Jane Dammen 

McAuliffe, “Chosen of All Women: Mary and Fatima in 

Quranic Exegesis.” Islamochristiana 7 (1981): 19–28; 

Susan Sered, “Rachel, Mary, and Fatima.” Cultural 

Anthropology 6, no. 2 (1991): 131–146.

Fatimid dynasty

 

(909–1171)

The Fatimids were a medieval Ismaili Shii dynasty 

that ruled over a band of territory that stretched 

from t

Unisia

 in North Africa to e

gypt

, the Red Sea 

region (including m

ecca

 and m

edina

), p

alestine

,

and s

yria

. They rivaled the Sunni dynasties of the 

Abbasids in i

raq

 (750–1258) and the Umayyads 

of  a

ndalUsia

 (756–1009), both of which they 

unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow. Their first 

capital was Mahdiyya, on the Tunisian coast, but 

in 969, they shifted eastward and founded a new 

capital in Egypt, next to the flourishing commer-

cial city of Fustat. The name they gave to their 

new royal city was c

airo

 (Qahira, “conqueror”). 

The name of the dynasty itself was derived from 

that of Muhammad’s daughter F

atima

 (d. 633), 

and they traced their lineage to the Prophet’s 

household through the seventh i

mam

, Ismail (d. 

ca. 762), the son of J

aaFar

 

al

-s

adiq

, the sixth Shii 

Imam. The first Fatimid Imam or 

caliph

 was Abd 

Allah (r. 909–934), who was considered to be the 

m

ahdi

, the promised deliverer sent by God. Sun-

nis did not accept this claim and instead remem-

bered him by the derogatory name of Ubayd 

Allah, “little servant of God.”

The Fatimids sponsored an active program 

of religious outreach and propaganda (

daawa

) 

throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and 

northwest India to promote their cause but failed 

to win large numbers of followers, even in Egypt. 

Nonetheless, Egypt prospered for nearly a cen-

tury under Fatimid rule. Ismailis were able to 

practice their tradition of Islam in public, while 

other Muslims and non-Muslims enjoyed relative 

tolerance. Jews and Christians as well as Sunni 

Muslims held high positions in government. The 

famed Geniza documents, a collection of medi-

eval writings recovered from Cairo’s Ben Ezra 

synagogue, have yielded valuable details about the 

daily life of Jews and their social and economic 

relations with non-Jews at this time. Intellectual 

life also thrived, in part a result of Ismaili efforts 

to articulate their messianic doctrines and refute 

Sunni attacks. Important works on 

philosophy

, 

religion, history, 

biography

, and the 

science

s were 

composed and collected in private libraries. The 

Fatimid palace alone had a House of Knowledge 

that contained a reading room, a meeting place for 

scholars, and a library containing several hundred 

thousand scholarly books. Rulers also supported 

the formation of a distinct tradition of Ismaili reli-

gious law, which was explained in public sessions 

after Friday 

prayer

 at 

al

-a

zhar

 and other major 

mosqUe

s in the capital.