From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder,

power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond.

Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger and some of the world's leading historians,

as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on

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Hello, I'm Matt Lewis.

Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history.

We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the

Vikings to the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries

and continents to delve into rebellions, plots and murders to find the stories big and small

that tell us how we got here. Find out who we really were with gone medieval.

From the deserts of North Africa to the glittering heat of Cairo, from whispered prophecies to

imperial triumph, from sacred lineage to political fracture.

The story of the Fatimids is one of the most fascinating and contested in medieval history.

They emerged in an age of upheaval when the Islamic world was already vast, powerful and deeply

divided. While the Abbasid ruled from Baghdad, claiming the mantle of universal

leadership, old certainties were beginning to crack. A revolutionary movement began to take shape,

one built not only on political ambition, but on faith, secrecy and the electrifying promise of

legitimacy. The Fatimids didn't simply seek power.

They claimed destiny. They said they were descended from Fatima, the daughter of the prophet

...