This Presentation is all about some important dynasties of Islamic history.....

2. 1. Fatimid dynasty:
The most stable of the
successor dynasties founded in 9th and 10th
centuries was that Fatimid's, a branch of
Shia’s. Fatimid dynasty which ruled in parts
of northern Africa, Egypt and Syria from
909 to 1171, and founded Cairo as its capital
in 969. Fatimid was a dynasty of Muslims,
descended from Fatima (R.A), daughter of
Muhammad (S.A.W) and Hazrat Ali, her
husband, this dynasty is also called Fatimite
(A descendant of Fatima and Ali). The
Fatimid's won their first success in North
Africa, where they established a rival
caliphate at Raqqadah near Kairouan and, in
952, embarked on a period of expansion that
within a few years took them to Egypt.

3. The founder of this dynasty was Ismaili leader named Ubayd Allah . At the beginning of
the 10th century he went to Ifriqiya (present day Tunisia) in north Africa. He claimed
descent from the Prophet’s daughter Fatima through Ismail’s son Muhammad, making
him the “hidden imam” for whom the Ismailis were waiting. In 909 he proclaimed
himself al-Mahdi (“the Rightly Guided One”), build a new capital on the coast, called
Mahiya, and started to put together a large fleet of ships. He reigned until 934 as the
first Fatimid's caliph. For a time the Fatimid's aspired to be rulers of the whole Islamic
world, and their achievements were impressive. At their peak they ruled North Africa,
the Red Sea coast, Yemen, Palestine, and parts of Syria. The Fatimid's built the Mosque
of al-Azhar in Cairo – from which developed al-Azhar University, now the oldest
university in the world and perhaps the most influential Islamic school of higher
learning. Cairo became an important center of art and learning. Fatimid merchants
traded with Afghanistan and China and tried to divert some of Baghdad’s Arabian Gulf
shipping to the Red Sea.

4. But the Fatimid's’ dreams of gaining control of
the Islamic heartland came to nothing, partly
because many other independent states refused
to support them and partly because they, like the
‘Abbasids in Baghdad, lost effective control of
their own mercenaries. Such developments
weakened the Fatimid's, but thanks to a family
of viziers of Armenian origin they were able to
endure until the Ayyubid succession in the second
half of the twelfth century – even in the face of
the eleventh-century invasion by the Seljuk
Turks. Al-Azhar University was founded by the
Fatimid's in Cairo in an attempt to convert the
locals, but it failed miserably in this endeavor and
it was converted into a mainstream Muslim
university by Salah al-Din.

5. 2.Seljuk dynasty:
Seljuk, ruling military family of the Oğuz (Ghuzz)
Turkic tribes that invaded southwestern Asia in the 11th century
and eventually founded an empire that included Mesopotamia,
Syria, Palestine, and most of Iran. Their advance marked the
beginning of Turkish power in the Middle East.
Although individual Turkish generals had already gained
considerable, and at times decisive, power in Mesopotamia and
Egypt during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the coming of the
Seljuk's signaled the first large-scale penetration of the Turkish
elements into the Middle East. Descended from a tribal chief
named Seljuk, whose homeland lay beyond the Oxus River near
the Aral Sea, the Seljuk's not only developed a highly effective
fighting force but also, through their close contacts with Persian
court life in Khorasan and Transoxania, attracted a body of able
administrators. Extending from Central Asia to the Byzantine
marches in Asia Minor, the Seljuk state under its first three
sultans- Tughril Beg, Alp-Arslan, and Malikshah- established a
highly cohesive, well-administered Sunni state under the nominal
authority of the ‘Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad.

6. One of the administrators, the Persian Nizam-al-Mulk, became one of the
greatest statesmen of medieval Islam. For twenty years, especially during
the rule of Sultan Malikshah, he was the true custodian of the Seljuk state. In
addition to having administrative abilities, he was an accomplished stylist
whose book on statecraft, Siyasat-Namah, is a valuable source for the
political thought of the time. In it he stresses the responsibilities of the ruler.
Nizam-al-Mulk was the patron of the poet and astronomer ‘Umar al-
Khayyam (Omar Khayyam), whose verses, as translated by Edward
FitzGerald in the nineteenth century, have become as familiar to English
readers as the sonnets of Shakespeare. After the death of Malikshah in
1092, internal conflict among the young heirs led to the fragmentation of
the Seljuk's’ central authority into smaller Seljuk states led by various
members of the family, and still smaller units led by regional chieftains, no
one of whom was able to unite the Muslim world as still another force
appeared in the Middle East, the Crusaders. The most imposing of the many
fortresses built by the Crusaders the elegant Krak des Chevaliers in Syria
(top) held out against the Muslims for over a century and a half. The
Crusader castle at Sidon in Lebanon (below) was abandoned after the final
defeat of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

7. 3. Ayyubid dynasty:
The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim
dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered
in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East
during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family,
under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as
soldiers for the Zengids until they supplanted them under
Saladin, Ayyub’s son. In 1174, Saladin proclaimed himself
Sultan following the death of Nur al-Din. The Ayyubids
spent the next decade launching conquests throughout the
region and by 1183, the territories under their control
included Egypt, Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Hejaz,
Yemen, and the North African coast up to the borders of
modern-day Tunisia. However, the Crusaders regained
control of Palestine’s coastline in the 1190sAfter the
death of Saladin, his sons contested control over the
sultanate, but Saladin’s brother al-Adil eventually
established himself as Sultan in 1200.

8. After the death of Saladin, his sons contested control over the
sultanate, but Saladin’s brother al-Adil eventually established himself
as Sultan in 1200. In the 1230s, the Ayyubid rulers of Syria attempted
to assert their independence from Egypt and remained divided until
Egyptian Sultan as-Salih Ayyub restored Ayyubid unity by taking over
most of Syria, excluding Aleppo, by 1247. By then, local Muslim
dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and
parts of Mesopotamia. After repelling a Crusader invasion of the Nile
Delta, as-Salih Ayyub’s Mamluk generals overthrew al-Mu’azzam
Turanshah who succeeded Ayyub as Sultan after his death in
1250. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt and a number of
attempts by the rulers of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, to
recover it failed. In 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and wrested
control of what remained of the Ayyubid territories soon after. The
Mamluks, who forced out the Mongols after the destruction of the
Ayyubid dynasty, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until
deposing its last ruler in 1341.

9. During their relatively short tenure, the Ayyubids
ushered in an era of economic prosperity in the
lands they ruled and the facilities and patronage
provided by the Ayyubids led to a resurgence in
intellectual activity in the Islamic world. This
period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of
vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance
in the region by constructing numerous madrasas
(schools) in their major cities. They took special
interest in the fields of medicine, pharmacology,
and botany. Saladin built and maintained two
hospitals in Cairo emulating the well-known Nuri
Hospital in Damascus which not only treated
patients, but also provided medical schooling.
Many scientists and physicians flourished in this

12. 4. Ottoman dynasty:
During the second Mongol invasion, Tamerlane
had met and very nearly annihilated another rising power: the
Ottomans. Under a minor chieftain named Othman, groups of
Turkish-speaking peoples in Anatolia were united in the Ottoman
confederation which, by the second half of the fourteenth century,
had conquered much of present-day Greece and Turkey and was
threatening Constantinople. The Ottoman state was born on the
frontier between Islam and the Byzantine Empire. Turkish tribes,
driven from their homeland in the steppes of Central Asia by the
Mongols, had embraced Islam and settled in Anatolia on the battle
lines of the Islamic world, where they formed the Ottoman
confederation. They were called ghazis, warriors for the faith, and
their highest ambition was to die in battle for their adopted religion.
The first important step in the establishment of this empire was
taken in 1326 when the Ottoman leader Orhan captured the town of
Bursa, south of the Sea of Marmara, and made it his capital.

13. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak in size and splendor under
the sultan called Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled from 1520
to 1566 and was known to the Turks as Suleiman the Law-Giver.
But from the middle of the sixteenth century on the empire began
to decline. This process got under way as the office of the Grand
Vizier gradually assumed more power and indifferent sultans
began to neglect administration. Another factor was that the
Janissaries became too strong for the sultans to control The
sultans were further weakened when it became customary to
bring them up and educate them in isolation and without the skills
necessary to rule effectively. Some sultans later regained power
through political maneuvering and by playing off factions against
one another, but as a result administration was paralyzed. When
Europe found a new route to India – thus eliminating the
traditional transshipment of goods through the Arab regions of
the empire, revenues began to fall, triggering inflation, corruption,
administrative inefficiency, and fragmentation of authority.

14. Over the course of Ottoman history, the Ottomans
managed to build a large collection of libraries complete
with translations of books from other cultures, as well
as original manuscripts. A great part of this desire for
local and foreign manuscripts arose in the 15th
Century. An example of a watch which measured time
in minutes was created by an Ottoman watchmaker,
Meshur Sheyh Dede, in 1702.
In the 19th century, Ishak Efendi is credited with
introducing the then current Western scientific ideas
and developments to the Ottoman and wider Muslim
world, as well as the invention of a suitable Turkish
and Arabic scientific terminology, through his
translations of Western works.