Islamic Egypt

The city of a thousand minarets

In 639 an Arab army led by Amr ibn al-As entered Egypt. The Byzantine fortress of Babylon surrendered in 641 and Alexandria soon followed. Beside the fortress Amr founded a new capital, Fustat, and built the mosque that still bears his name, the first in Egypt and in Africa. Egypt became a province of the caliphate, ruled first from Medina, then from Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad. Over the following centuries Arabic gradually replaced Coptic as the everyday language and Islam became the faith of the majority, while the Coptic Church lived on.

Tulunids and Fatimids

In 868 Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Turkish governor sent from Baghdad, made Egypt practically independent. His great mosque, completed in 879, is still one of the oldest and largest in Cairo. In 969 the Fatimids, a Shia dynasty from North Africa, conquered Egypt. Their general Jawhar founded a new walled royal city, al-Qahira (“the Victorious”), which gave Cairo its name, and in 970 work began on the mosque of Al-Azhar, which grew into one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world. The Fatimid gates of Bab Zuwayla, Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr still mark the old city. Fatimid Cairo was a closed palace city for the caliph and his court, while ordinary trade and daily life continued in Fustat, whose port linked Egypt with India, the Mediterranean and East Africa.

Saladin and the Ayyubids

In 1171 Salah al-Din (Saladin) ended Fatimid rule, restored Sunni Islam and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. Famous for his campaigns against the Crusaders, he began the Citadel on a spur of the Muqattam hills in 1176. It remained the seat of Egypt’s rulers for some 700 years. His successors also built walls and colleges, and the Ayyubid madrasas helped to spread Sunni teaching across Egypt.

The Mamluks

In 1250 the Mamluks, slave soldiers trained by the Ayyubids, seized power. Sultan Baybars and his successors defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260 and drove the last Crusaders from the Levant. Cairo became the richest city of the Islamic world, and the Mamluk sultans filled it with mosques, madrasas, hospitals and mausoleums. They include the complex of Sultan Qalawun on Al-Muizz Street, the monumental Madrasa and Mosque of Sultan Hassan (1356–1363) and the many works of Sultan Qaitbay (reigned 1468–1496), who also built coastal forts at Alexandria and Rashid. The Black Death of 1348 and later the shift of trade routes weakened the state, and in 1517 the Ottoman sultan Selim I conquered Egypt. Today the historic districts built by these dynasties together form Historic Cairo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Where to see it today

• Al-Muizz Street, Historic Cairo
• Madrasa and Mosque of Sultan Hassan
• Saladin Citadel
• Citadel of Qaitbay at Alexandria and Citadel of Qaitbay at Rashid
• Museum of Islamic Arts, Cairo
• National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), built in Fustat

Last checked October 2026. Sources: britannica.com, britannica.com, britannica.com, britannica.com, britannica.com.