e Obaid Allah, a real
or pretended descendant of Ali and Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad,
established themselves in the North of Africa, and consolidated their
power there. In A.D. 972 Al-Moizz, or Abu Tamim, a great-grandson of
Obaid Allah, the founder of the Fatimite dynasty at Tunis, sent his
general Jawhar with an army to invade Egypt. The country was
conquered, the city of Cairo built, the seat of government was
transferred there, and the title of Khalif assumed by the Fatimites.
There they remained as reigning Khalifs until A.D. 1171, when
Salah-ad-Din (Saladin) usurped the sovereignty, and founded the
Ayoobite dynasty of Kurds, till its last ruler, Melik-al-Ashraf, was
deposed in A.D. 1250 by the Mamlook El Moizz, who in that year founded
the Baharite Mamlook dynasty, which lasted with variations in the
families till A.D. 1377. But in A.D. 1260 Ez-Zahir Beybars, a Mamlook
slave, secured the throne, and brought the then representative of the
Abbaside Khalifs (the family having been dethroned by the Mughals at
Baghdad in A.D. 1258) to Egypt, and recognised him as possessing
spiritual authority alone, but nothing else. From that time until the
taking of Egypt by Sultan Selim I. in A.D. 1517, the Abbaside Khalifs
retained the spiritual power first under the Baharite, and then under
the Circassian or Borgite Mamlooks. When Egypt became a Turkish
pashalic, Selim, the conqueror, compelled the representative of the
Abbaside Khalifs, by name Al-Motawukkel, to leave Cairo and reside in
Constantinople; and on his death the Ottoman Sultans assumed the title
of Khalif, which they hold to this day, and are recognised by the
Sunnis as the head of the Muhammadan religion, and the successors of
Muhammad.

As regards Syria and Palestine (two countries more or less closely
connected, owing to their proximity and absence of distinct and
defined boundaries), on the termination of the rule of the Omaiyides
at Damascus in A.D. 750, they remained nominally under the Abbasides
till A.D. 969, when Syria was conquered by the Fatimites, who were
succeeded by the Seljuks, who captured Damascus about A.D. 1075, and
Antioch A.D. 1085. The struggles with the Crusaders commenced in A.D.
1096, and continued until Saladin's famous victory at Hattin in 1187,
when he became master of nearly the whole of Syria and Palestine.
Fighting still went on in these countries between the Franks and
others until A.D. 1518, when Selim I. conquered the country