History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 40, Egypt Part 1.

Hello again.

Last week we saw King Baldwin's younger brother, Amalrick, become king of Jerusalem Jerusalem after Baldwin died of an illness.

This week we will see the spotlight of the history of the Crusades podcast swing around and shine in a place which is largely bent off the

crusading map until now. Egypt. Of course you will already know that Egypt is a large country that borders the kingdom of Jerusalem to the southwest.

And of course you will also know that at the time of the Crusades, Egypt already had a rich and impressive history

stretching back millennia.

Putting aside the legacy of the pharaohs and their incredible monuments, the period of Egyptian history we are interested in commenced around the year 641, when the country was conquered by proponents of the Islamic faith, who were expanding out of their

base in the Middle East and conquering territory across the north of Africa. The Arab rulers established themselves in two

administrative centres, the Port City of Alexandria and the smaller city of

Fustat at the head of the Nile Delta.

A significant portion of the native Egyptian population were Coptic Christians

and over the centuries the Christians generally assimilated into the

culture of the conquering Arabs taking on their language if not their religion. From the 900s AD, or CE to use a more modern term,

Egypt was ruled by the Shiite Fatimed dynasty.

As we have discussed previously, the Shiites split from the established

Sunni Muslims who were based in Baghdad. The Shiites created their own Caliph to rival the

Khalif at Baghdad who had been the sole Islamic religious leader.

The Shiite Fatimeds built up an impressive power base in Egypt.

They created a new administrative center north of Fustat which they called Cairo,

a word meaning conqueror, and by the time of the Crusades Cairo was the

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