24 - The Fatimid Caliphate

A fugitive Imam in a remote prison in the Sahara was an unlikely candidate to establish the most powerful state in the Muslim world. With the Abbasid Caliphate in decline, the Isma'ili Shi'a established a rival Caliphate whose capital, Cairo, would grow to be the largest city in the world and the center of the Arab/Islamic world for centuries.  Although we associate Shi'a with Iran and Persia today, this Arab Shi'ite empire would be the foundation of the modern Arab world as we know it.