Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

One of the most thrilling and complex chapters in Muslim History is undoubtedly framed in the events taking place from the rise of the Fatimid Dinasty in Egypt (969 AD) until the fall of the Seljuq Empire in Persia (1194 AD). A Muslim World deprived of its earlier sense of territorial coherence found its centre of gravity in the ideological dispute between Fatimids and Seljuqs, and their mutual aspiration to control the entire dar al-Islam.1 Indeed, the Fatimid caliph-imams aimed to be recognized as the religious authority (which is no different than being recognized as the political authority) of the Muslim umma.2 In spite of the animosity of the Ummayads in Spain and the rivalry with Byzantines for the control of the Mediterranean,3 the Fatimids managed to stretch from Egypt to Sicily, and from Yemen to the Hijaz;4 they also succeeded in developing a commerce network to India passing through the Red Sea, in opposition to the Abbasids who used the Persian Gulf as a trade route.