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--- Islam in Egypt --- |
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| After the Prophet Muhammad,
Peace and Prayers be upon Him, died, his followers quickly pushed out of
Arabia and into the lands nearby - first Iraq, then Syria, Palestine, and
finally Egypt. The Muslim invasion of Egypt came on 641. At that time,
Egyptians were unhappy with the Byzantine Empire’s rule, which made it
easier for the Islamic army to overrun Egypt. |
Amr Ibn El As with 4,000 cavalry, rode across
the Sinai Desert, and attacked the fort of Babylon. Ibn El As made his
headquarters at Fustat, a new town located in what is now Old Cairo, which
became afterwards the capital of Egypt instead of Alexandria. Under the
Muslim rule, most Egyptians in time converted to Islam.
In the beginning, Muslim Egypt was under the caliphate at Medina, then
Damascus. But due to internal conflict, its power declined, and in 868
Egypt became more or less independent under its governor Ibn Tulun. His
dynasty ended in 905, when the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad
invaded. From 935 until 969, Egypt enjoyed semi-independence under
Ikhshidid Dynasty. The Ikhshidids had survived several attacks by the
Fatimids from the west, but in 969 the Fatimids struck a final blow. They
made Egypt the center of their expanding empire and broke all ties with
the Abbasid state.
The Fatimids founded the city of Al Qahirah (Cairo) and made it their
capital in 973. Under their rule, Egypt became prosperous and an
illustrious center of Islamic culture. By the mid-1100s, the Fatimids were
weakened by fighting among the various factions, and they were threatened
by a new danger from across the Mediterranean - the crusaders |
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