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Follow Egypt from the Arab conquest and Fustat through the Fatimids and Cairo, Saladin's Ayyubids, and the Mamluk Sultanate to the Ottoman conquest.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Islamic Egypt · 641–1517
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Islamic Egypt

From the Arab conquest and the founding of Fustat through the autonomous Tulunid and Ikhshidid emirs, the Shia Fatimid caliphate that founded Cairo and al-Azhar, Saladin and the Ayyubids who restored Sunni Islam and fought the Crusaders, and the warrior Mamluk Sultanate that halted the Mongols at Ayn Jalut, to the Black Death and the Ottoman conquest of 1517. Slide across nine centuries in which Egypt became an Arabic-speaking, Muslim land and Cairo a great city of the Islamic world.

641 AD
The Arab Conquest
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In the year of Our Lord

641 AD

The Arab Conquest
  • Political

    The founding of Fustat

    Having taken Egypt for the Caliphate, the general Amr ibn al-As establishes the garrison city of Fustat beside the old fortress of Babylon, the seed of future Cairo.

9 milestones
Full Chronicle

Islamic Egypt

From the Arab conquest and the founding of Fustat through the autonomous Tulunid and Ikhshidid emirs, the Shia Fatimid caliphate that founded Cairo and al-Azhar, Saladin and the Ayyubids who restored Sunni Islam and fought the Crusaders, and the warrior Mamluk Sultanate that halted the Mongols at Ayn Jalut, to the Black Death and the Ottoman conquest of 1517. Slide across nine centuries in which Egypt became an Arabic-speaking, Muslim land and Cairo a great city of the Islamic world.

  1. The Arab Conquest

    • The founding of Fustat

      Having taken Egypt for the Caliphate, the general Amr ibn al-As establishes the garrison city of Fustat beside the old fortress of Babylon, the seed of future Cairo.

  2. Tulunids & Ikhshidids

    • Ahmad ibn Tulun and Egyptian autonomy

      The Turkish governor Ahmad ibn Tulun makes Egypt effectively independent of Baghdad, founding a short-lived dynasty and a magnificent mosque.

  3. The Fatimid Caliphate

    • The Fatimids found Cairo

      The Shia Fatimid caliphate conquers Egypt and founds a new royal city, al-Qahira — Cairo — as the capital of an empire stretching across North Africa.

  4. The Fatimid Caliphate

    • The reign of al-Hakim

      The eccentric caliph al-Hakim presides over Fatimid Egypt at its height in learning, yet his erratic decrees, including the destruction of churches, leave a dark legacy.

  5. The Ayyubid Dynasty

    • Saladin and the rise of the Ayyubids

      Saladin abolishes the Fatimid caliphate, restores Sunni Islam in Egypt, and makes the country the base of his war against the Crusader states.

  6. The Mamluk Sultanate

    • The Mamluks seize power

      The slave-soldiers of the Ayyubids overthrow their masters and establish the Mamluk Sultanate, a warrior state ruled by an elite of freed military slaves.

  7. The Mamluk Sultanate

    • Ayn Jalut halts the Mongols

      At Ayn Jalut the Mamluk army under Qutuz and Baybars defeats the seemingly invincible Mongols, saving Egypt and the Islamic heartland from conquest.

  8. Plague & Crisis

    • The Black Death strikes Egypt

      The Black Death sweeps through Egypt, killing perhaps a third of its people and beginning a long demographic and economic decline of the Mamluk state.

  9. The Ottoman Conquest

    • The Ottomans conquer Egypt

      Sultan Selim I defeats the last Mamluk sultan and annexes Egypt to the Ottoman Empire, ending nine centuries of rule from Cairo.