The Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171 CE) was a major Islamic dynasty of North African origin that established one of the most powerful and culturally vibrant states of the medieval Islamic world. Founded by ʿUbayd Allāh al-Mahdī Billāh in present-day Tunisia, the Fatimids claimed descent from the Prophet’s daughter Fāṭima and promoted Ismaʿili Shiʿism in rivalry with the Sunni Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad. At its height, the caliphate controlled vast territories from North Africa to Sicily, Egypt, the Levant, and the Hijaz. The Fatimids made Cairo their capital in 969 CE, where they built the al-Azhar Mosque and established it as a major center of Islamic scholarship. Their rule fostered trade, art, architecture, and intellectual exchange, though they were often challenged by internal dissent and external threats from Seljuks, Crusaders, and others. The dynasty gradually declined, and in 1171 Saladin, serving under the Sunni Abbasid banner, formally ended the Fatimid Caliphate, incorporating Egypt into the Ayyubid dynasty.