1. 960s Fatimids prepare 969 Fatimids to take Egypt take Egypt
Ja‘far al-Sadiq
Musa al-Kazim ‘Abd Allah Isma‘il
Imami Imams Muhammad
al-Mahdi
Fatimid Caliphs
Al-Qahira (Cairo)
Fustat

2. Carmathians
Zirids
Muhammad
al-Darazi
(d. 1019)
Duruz = Druze
Muwahhidun =
Unitarians
973 Al-Mu‘izz (r. 956-
976) arrives in Cairo
Reign of
al-Hakim
1009 Al-Hakim orders
destruction of Holy
Sepulchre
1021 Al-Hakim disappears

3. mid-11th c. Factional fighting in Fatimid army
1063 Plague hits Egypt
1069 Ruler of Mecca changes allegiance to
‘Abbasids
1073 Badr al-Jamali becomes new vizier,
imposes order

4. 1090 Hasan-i Sabbah takes Alamut
1092 Assassins kill Nizam al-Mulk
1094 Death of Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir
(r ). Al-Afdal chooses al-Musta‘li
as caliph. Nizar (hier apparent) killed.
Hasan-i Sabbah and followers claim to
host Nizar’s son, rule as his hujjas
(“proofs”/deputies)
hashishiyyin/hashishin = assassins

5. Al-Andalus Maghrib Ifriqiya
mid-11th c. Normans raid Ifriqiya, while
Bedouin immigrate into region.
1058 Zirids driven out of power by Normans
and Bedouin
Robert and Roger Guiscard conceive
designs on Sicily and S. Italy. Robert
takes S. Italy while Roger takes Sicily

6. 7th-9th c. Foundation of many ribats in
Spain and N. Africa, inhabited by
murabitun (sing. murabit)
c ‘Abd Allah ibn Yasin converts some
of Sanhaja Berbers to strict form of
Islam. Movement spreads
Yusuf ibn Tashfin leads Sanhaja
Berbers in campaign of expansion.
Makes capital at Marrakesh (1062)

7. Reign of ‘Abd
al-Rahman III
976 Hisham becomes
caliph at age of 11
1031 Collapse of Umayyad
caliphate of Cordoba
Ibn Abi ‘Amir
‘Abd al-Rahman
muluk al-tawa’if
(party kings)
Leon, Castile and Navarre

8. 1082 Muslim scholars appealing to Ibn Tashfin for aid
against Christians
1085 King of Castile takes Toledo. Ruler of Seville
also appeals to Ibn Tashfin
1086 Ibn Tashfin defeats Christians but fails to take
Toledo
Ibn Tashfin takes most of al-Andalus.
Conquest completed by son in 1110, bringing
al-Andalus into empire of murabitun/Almoravids