Gulf and Western North America (4,365–2,638 BCE): Early Holocene — Late Archaic/Chalcolithic — Coastal–Delta Hamlets & Canyon Aggregation

The last battle is at the Babylon Fortress, where Tenagino Probus has taken refuge.

Although the Romans have the upper hand, Timagenes, with his knowledge of the land, ambushes the Roman rear, capturing the fortress.

Tenagino Probus ends up committing suicide.

It is stated in the Augustan History that the Blemmyes were among Zenobia's allies, and Gary K. Young cites the Blemmyes attack and occupation of Coptos in 268 as evidence of a Palmyrene-Blemmyes alliance.

The Palmyrenes subsequently annex and tighten their grip on Egypt, declaring Zenobia Queen of Egypt.

Amr moves the capital south to a new city called Al Fustat (present-day Old Cairo).

The mosque he builds here bears his name and still stands, although it has been much rebuilt.

The Muslim Arabs in December 640 after a long siege capture a six-hundred-year-old Roman fortress on the Nile Delta called Babylon.

The Rashidun Caliphate in 641 annexes the Thebaid region.

The Muslim Arab conquerors establish on the site of the fallen imperial fortress called Babylon a military camp called al-Fustat.

A city, called Cairo, will soon grow up around the camp.

Arabs begin construction of the Mosque of Amr at Cairo, the first mosque built in Egypt and in all of Africa.

Egypt, for two centuries after the Muslim conquest, is a province ruled by a line of governors appointed by the caliphs in the east.

Egypt provides abundant grain and tax revenue.

In time, most of the people had accepted the Muslim faith, and the Arabic language becomes the language of government, culture, and commerce.

The Arabization of the country is aided by the continued settlement of Arab tribes in Egypt.

From the time of the conquest onward, Egypt's history is intertwined with the history of the Arab world.

Thus, in the eighth century, Egypt feels the effects of the Arab civil war that results in the defeat of the Umayyad Dynasty, the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate, and the transfer of the capital of the empire from Damascus to Baghdad.

For Egypt, the transfer of the capital farther east means a weakening of control by the central government.

When the Abbasid caliphate begins to decline in the ninth century, local autonomous dynasties arise to control the political, eco nomic, social, and cultural life of the country.

A navigable canal existed between Old Cairo and the Red Sea by the eighth century, but accounts vary as to who ordered its construction—either Trajan or 'Amr ibn al-'As, or Omar the Great.

This canal reportedly linked to the River Nile at Old Cairo and …

The next autonomous dynasty in Egypt, the Ikhshidid, is founded by Muhammad ibn Tughj, who arrives as governor in 935.

The dynasty's name comes from the title of Ikhshid given to Tughj by the caliph.

This dynasty will rule Egypt until the Fatimid conquest of 969.

The Tulinids and the Ikhshidids have brought Egypt peace and prosperity by pursuing wise agrarian policies that increased yields, by eliminating tax abuses, and by reforming the administration.

Neither the Tulinids nor the Ikhshidids have sought to withdraw Egypt from the Islamic empire headed by the caliph in Baghdad.

Ahmad ibn Tulun and his successors were orthodox Sunni Muslims, loyal to the principle of Islamic unity.

Their purpose was to carve out an autonomous and hereditary principality under loose caliphal authority.

The Fatimids, the next dynasty to rule Egypt, unlike the Tulinids and the Ikhshidids, want independence, not autonomy, from Baghdad.

In addition, as heads of a great religious movement, Ismaili Shia Islam, they also challenge the Sunni Abbasids for the caliphate itself.

The name of the dynasty is derived from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Ali, the fourth caliph and the founder of Shia Islam.

The leader of the movement, who had first established the dynasty in Tunisia in 906, claimed descent from Fatima.

Under the Fatimids, Egypt becomes the center of a vast empire, which at its peak comprises North Africa, Sicily, Palestine, Syria, the Red Sea coast of Africa, Yemen, and the Hijaz in Arabia, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Control of the holy cities confers enormous prestige on a Muslim sovereign and the power to use the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca to his advantage.

Cairo is the seat of the Shia caliph, who is the head of a religion as well as the sovereign of an empire. The Fatimids establish Azhar in Cairo as an intellectual center where scholars and teachers elaborate the doctrines of the Ismaili Shia faith.

Al-Shafii, an Arabic jurist active in juridical matters, dies in 820 at Fustat, Egypt, having codified the methods of Islamic law in his “Risala.”

His teaching will eventually led to the Shafi'i school of fiqh (or Madh'hab) named after him; hence he is often called Imam al-Shafi'i.

The Shafi'i school of thought is today the dominant school of jurisprudence within the Sunni branch of Islam.