Ancient Egyptians rejoiced in the thought that their country was without history. Their view of the world was static: the best life was one in which everything was always the same. The Nile rose, flooded and receded; the sun crossed the sky. Today, we know Egypt has been burdened with more history than almost any other nation, a still ongoing process with the Arab Spring and its repercussions…
For several centuries after the Arab conquest, under the caliphs who ruled the new Islamic domains from their capital at Baghdad, Egypt was a province of a far larger empire. But late in the ninth century the Nile valley became independent again, under a dynasty called the Tulunids. In the centuries that followed, Egypt once more developed an independent culture, and its capital, Cairo, grew into the metropolis of Islam. In the year 988 the academy which was to evolve into the greatest university in the Moslem world was founded in the city. By the eleventh century, Cairo was famous for its wealth, its learning, and the beauty of the mosques. “He who has not seen Cairo,” wrote the famous medieval Arab scholar ibn-Khaldun, “does not know the grandeur of Islam.”
That grandeur was challenged by the Crusaders, whose arrival in the Middle East affected Egypt profoundly. It was the Crusades that gave Egypt one of its greatest rulers, Saladin, who gained his throne and established his dynasty by his skill in fighting what modern Egyptians might call a Western imperialist colonial incursion into Arab territory. Among the “Western imperialist adventurers” who visited Egypt during the Crusades were two saints, Francis of Assissi, and Louis King of France. Francis came to preach Christianity to one of Saladin’s successors, the amiable and tolerant sultan al-Kamil. A few years and sultans later, Louis invaded the country and was taken prisoner with some of his men. As a captive, he was on hand to witness the unhappy end of Saladin’s dynasty,when Turan-Shah, the last of the line, was killed by his stepmother’s slaves in the river Nile.
ADDENDUM:
( see link at end) With the end of the only recognized Shi’ite Caliphate in Islamic history, the Fatimid Shi’ite Caliphate in Cairo, the last and only caliphate whose rulers were descendants of the Prophet Muhammad was destroyed. All the hopes and the millennial aspirations of the Shi’ite Muslims for the coming of the Shi’ite messianic Madhi (Hidden Messiah) and the future Islamic messiah, Isis ben Miriam, were destroyed with it. The last of this genealogical legacy is found today with the Ismaili sect of Shi’ite Islam in the reign of the 49th Aga Khan, His Highness Prince Karīm al-Ḥussaynī Āgā Khān IV.
The Shi’ite Fatimid dynasty in Cairo Egypt was recognized by most scholars as the only major Shi’ite Caliphate in Islam whose rulers were descendants of the Prophet Mohammad. The exception to this was the Shi’a Safavid Dynasty (1501-1736) in Iran whose genealogical roots were linked to the daughter of the last king of the Second Persian Empire, This dynasty pre-staged the modern attempt of the current Ayatollah regime in Iran to re-establish a Shi’ite Caliphate in Iran linked to the descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. Read More:http://www.biblesearchers.com/prophecy/daniel/daniel8-82.shtml#SunniAyyubid