It was in the Tenth Century that the Abbasid Caliphate was again challanged. This time, the new leader was a Shiite who established his strong political and military platform in Tunisia and moved eastward. His legitimacy was supported by his claim (whether or not true) of being a direct descendent of the prophet Mohammed's daughter, Fatima. His name was Al-Muez Ledin-Ellah, he who strengthens the religion of Allah, or "Al-Muez" for short. In 969, he sent his most skilled general Gawhar, or Jewel, on a campaign to capture Egypt. Gawhar was a former slave from Sicily who converted to Islam.
Let us stop here for a while and elaborate on the status of slavery in the Islamic Empire. Strictly speaking, in the Islamic religion, only prisoners of war are to be taken as slaves. By the Tenth Century, however, young men and women from neighboring territories such as the Caucasus and Central Asia were constantly kidnapped and sold in markets. With these two "abundant" sources, the slave market was quite active in the Middle East and North Africa during the Abbasid Caliphate. Unlike in the Western World, slaves in the Islamic Empire were civil servants rather than hard labor workers. Their status would tremendously rise if they converted to Islam. The younger were treated like family members, and the older would become confidants, civil servants, political aides, and even military officers, such as Gawhar. Even Egypt's famous governor Ahmad Ibn-Tulun was the son of a slave, while Kafoor was a former slave himself.
On August 5, 969, what remained of Al-Fustat was easily captured by Gawhar who decided to build a new capital. The Sicilian general did not know he had just founded a city that would survive for the next millenium. He did not know his city would grow to become one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. He just knew he had laid the foundation for his new capital, Al-Mansureya, which Al-Muez later renamed Al-Qahira, Cairo, The Triumphant. The new capital was situated a couple of kilometers north of Al-Fustat, and was better protected by the Muqattam Hills. It had a small port on the Red Sea Canal, near today's Railway Station (At the time, the Nile was flowing further to the East, and changed its course over the years). And although it started as a private mansion for the Caliph, its doors were open later for common citizens.
The rule of the Fatimids was one of the most controversial in Egyptian history. Under Al-Muez, the construction of Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest in the world and still present to this day, began. His son, Al-Aziz, was a supporter of arts and astronomy, and was known to be a tolerant ruler since he himself married a Christian. During Al-Aziz's 20-year rule, bridges, palaces, and mosques were built, and canals were dug out. But the rule of Al-Hakem, Al-Aziz's son and successor was quite a different story. The new ruler had such a temper that he killed many of his aides, forbade women from going out, prohibited the sale of certain foods including grapes, honey, and "mulokheya", still a popular dish in Egypt. He randomly ordered slaves and citizens to be killed, and even tough his mother was a Christian, Copts suffered most under his persecutionist rule. After he was mysteriously killed, Al-Hakem was succeeded by Al-Zaher who seems to have inherited a lot from his father. Things later improved slightly under Al-Muntaser's rule, but a seven-year drought hit the country badly, causing a widespread plague and a sharp decrease in population.
When the situation slightly improved in 1073, Al-Muntaser, with the help of his new governor Badr Al-Gamali, revived Cairo. It was then then the new gates were built: Bab-el-Nasr, Bab el-Fotooh, and Bab Zuweila. After Al-Muntaser's death, the Fatimid Dynasty rapidly crumbled, and it was less than a hundred years before one of the most powerful figures in Medieval history emerged to put an end to the Shiite rule of the Fatimids.