For the first century of the Crusades in the Middle East, Christian forces took on the mighty Fatimid caliphate. The Knights Templar found them to be a formidable foe. Yet by the 1160s, this Shia Muslim empire was tottering. What replaced it was a far stronger enemy that would eventually retake Jerusalem.
Who were the Fatimids?
Today, we think of the Sunni branch of Islam dominating north Africa, the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, and much of the Levant while Shia Islam dominates Iran, parts of Iraq and Lebanon. But from the 10th to the 12th centuries, a Shia-based empire ruled from Tunisia through to the Levant.
The Fatimids traced their lineage to Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, and they established their own caliphate in opposition to the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate. Led by Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi, they established their caliphate in Tunisia in 909 CE, and then expanded their territory, conquering Egypt in 969 CE and making Cairo their capital.
Under Fatimid rule, Cairo became a thriving centre of learning and the arts. They patronised scholars, artists, and architects, leading to the creation of magnificent structures like the Mosque of al-Azhar (now al-Azhar University), which is considered one of the oldest universities in the world. While the Fatimids promoted their own Ismaili Shia faith, they also demonstrated a degree of religious tolerance towards other Muslim sects, as well as Jewish and Christian communities, during certain periods of their rule. Although there were occasional periods of intolerance.
This map shows how the Fatimid empire expanded over the centuries.
The first major challenge to the Fatimids came from the Sunni Muslim Seljuks. They were a Turkic people, originating in central Asia, who had converted to Islam and crashed through the Abbasid caliphate before seizing Syria. The Fatimids even lost control of Jerusalem to the Seljuks in 1071 before managing to retake it, only to have crusaders show up in 1099.
DISCOVER: Who was Jacques de Molay?
The crusaders arrive – Templars versus Fatimids
The Christian armies that appeared in the region during the First Crusade were able to take advantage of the political and religious fault line that left Shia Fatimids on one side and Sunni Seljuks on the other. The new crusader kingdoms exploited these divisions, weakening the Fatimid position.
By the 1160s, Fatimid Egypt was on the verge of collapse. Taking a keen interest in the future of the Fatimid realm was Syria under Nur ad-Din, the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Byzantine Empire. They keenly observed the poisonous court politics in Cairo wondering how to deal the decisive death blow to the faltering Fatimids.
In 1163, Amalric – king of Jerusalem – had attempted to invade Egypt and the Fatimids had responded by literally opening the flood gates and unleashing the river Nile at the enemy. Drenched – they retreated. Yet Amalric was back three years later besieging Cairo. It began to look as if Egypt could fall to Christian forces.
In 1168 – according to the Arab chronicler Al-Maqrizi – the Fatimid vizier decided there was only one way to deter the crusaders, Templars, and Hospitallers from taking his capital, Cairo. He set the city on fire. Some claimed the inferno raged for an astonishing 54 days.
The Fatimids were not just under attack from Christian forces, Nur ad-Din had sent Syrian forces deep into Egypt and in 1169, an ambitious senior officer – Saladin – took control of this military expedition. He forced Cairo to make him the vizier (chief minister) and then in 1171, abolished the Fatimid empire. Saladin declared himself the new ruler of Egypt – the first of the new Ayyubid dynasty. Eventually, uniting Syria under his new empire and beginning a war against the crusaders that would see Jerusalem revert to Muslim control.
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