For most of the next 200 years, Egypt was a

For most of the next 200 years, Egypt was a province of the
greater Muslim Abbasid caliphate, based in Baghdad (modern
Iraq). The caliphs taxed, but otherwise neglected, Egypt. They
found themselves unable to rule it effectively and appointed
control of Egypt and other provinces to Turkish military
officers. One of these Turkish generals, Ahmad Ibn Tulun,
briefly made Egypt independent of Baghdad around a.d. 870.
His successors were not as strong, and Baghdad once again
reasserted control. But in a.d. 969, a new Muslim power
invaded from the west and took control away from the Abba-
sids. These were the Fatimids, whose base was in Tunisia.
Unlike most Egyptians, they were Shiite rather than Sunni
Muslims, believing that the Prophet Muhammad’s succes-
sors, the caliphs, should have been his blood relatives rather
than elected officials. With one notable exception, however,
Fatimid rulers were tolerant of the country’s Sunni Muslims,
as well as its Christians and Jews. Although there had been an-
cient Egyptian, Roman, and Byzantine settlements in the area,
the Fatimids are credited with founding the city of Cairo. Its
Arabic name, al-Qahira, means the “Victorious City.” The
Fatimids encouraged and grew wealthy from regional trade,
and Egypt again enjoyed prosperity