ery
available means, and then substitute the name of the Abbasid for his in
public worship. Saladin and his ministers were at first afraid lest this
step might give rise to disturbances among the people; but a stranger
undertook to risk it on the 17th of September 1171, and the following
Friday it was repeated by official order; the caliph himself died during
the interval, and it is uncertain whether he ever heard of his
deposition. The last of the Fatimite caliphs was not quite twenty-one
years old at the time of his death.

(5) _Ayyubite Period._--Saladin by the advice of his chief Nureddin
cashiered the Fatimite judges and took steps to encourage the study of
orthodox theology and jurisprudence in Egypt by the foundation of
colleges and chairs. On the death of the ex-caliph he was confirmed in
the prefecture of Egypt as deputy of Nureddin; and on the decease of the
latter in 1174 (12th of April) he took the title sultan, so that with
this year the Ayyubite period of Egyptian history properly begins.
During the whole of it Damascus rather more than Cairo counted as the
metropolis of the empire. The Egyptian army, which was motley in
character, was disbanded by the new sultan, whose troops were Kurds.
Though he did not build a new metropolis he fortified Cairo with the
addition of a citadel, and had plans made for a new wall to enclose both
it and the double city; this latter plan was never completed, but the
former was executed after his death, and from this time till the French
occupation of Egypt the citadel of Cairo was the political centre of the
country. It was in 1183 that Saladin's rule over Egypt and North Syria
was consolidated. Much of Saladin's time was spent in Syria, and his
famous wars with the Franks belong to the history of the Crusades and to
his personal biography. Egypt was largely governed by his favourite
Karakush, who lives in popular legend as the "unjust judge," though he
does not appear to have deserved that title.

Saladin at his death divided his dominions between his sons, of whom
'Othman succeeded to Egypt with the title _Malik al-Aziz 'Imal al-ain_.
The division was not satisfactory to the heirs, and after three years
(beginning of 1196) the Egyptian sultan conspired with his uncle Malik
al-'Adil to deprive Saladin's son al-Afdal of Damascus, which had fallen
to his lot. The war between the brothers was continued with intervals of
peace, during which al-'Adil repeatedly changed sides: ev