O’Leary begins with the Shi’ite schism, the secretive Ismaili sect and the Qarmatians, then follows the Fatimid dynasty from its seizure of power in North Africa through the caliphs of Kairawan to al-Mu’izz, the conquest of Egypt and the building of Cairo, and on to the eccentric al-Hakim and the later decline of the caliphate.
A concise narrative of one of the great medieval Islamic dynasties, published in Trübner’s Oriental Series. Download the free EPUB.