Inscription

The Fatimids founded a Shi’ite caliphate in North Africa, centred in Cairo, following their conquest of Egypt in 969. For a time, large portions of Syria, the Arabian Peninsula and Sicily were a part of it. Although surviving fortifications provide us with a good idea of their defensive architecture, little survives of the Fatimids’ treasures owing to the destruction of their palaces and libraries. Calligraphy is mainly preserved in stone inscriptions.