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Islam in Egypt
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When 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.
An Arabian general named 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
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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