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The Art of the Fatimid Period (909–1171)

In the tenth to twelfth centuries, an area including present-day Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, Egypt, and Syria came under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty (909–1171), an offshoot of a Shi c i sect from North Africa. The Fatimid rulers traced descent from Muhammad's daughter Fatima (hence Fatimid) via Isma c il, the seventh Shi c i imam, and thus presented a threat to the political and religious authority of the orthodox Sunni c Abbasid caliph. The circular design of the city of al-Mansuriya, one of their first capitals, founded in 947, can be interpreted as a deliberate challenge to the round city of c Abbasid Baghdad, the "city of peace" ( madinat al-salam ). This opposition became more significant following the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969. At this time, the Fatimids founded the city of Cairo (al-Qahira, "the triumphant") and established it as their new capital (973). While Egypt came to enjoy enormous prosperity primarily due to its intermediary role in the lucrative trade between the Mediterranean and India, Cairo soon rivaled the c Abbasid capital of Baghdad.

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Associated subjects: glass (+), figural forms (+), decorative arts (+), vegetal (+), geometric decorations (+), muhammad (+), clocks (+), seljuq iran (+), treatise (+), armor (+), islamic-style bookbindings (+), into arabic (+), talismanic powers (+), mamluk sultanate (+), carpets (+), safavid (+), ayyubids (+), seasons (+), ilkhanids (+), portraits (+), ottoman empire (+), enameled glass (+), commercial and diplomatic relations (+), c abbasid (+), crusaders (+), islamic world (+), ottomans (+), fatimid caliphate (+), isfahan (+), mamluks (+)

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