Abstract:
The existing study is concerned with the rise and fall of the Fatimid caliphate which occupied an influential historical background in Muslim history. Abu Muhammad Abdullah al Mahdi billah (909-934) is known as to be the founder and first caliph of the Fatimid dynasty whereas al-Adid (1160-1171) was the last ruler of the dynasty. Fatimids or al-Fatimyun claimed to be as the descendant of the daughter (Fatimah "SA") of the Last Prophet of Islam. In Islam, politics cannot be separated from the faith as it deals with all institutions of life hence religion always became an integrating part of the Muslim rule to administer the regions under their government. The religious ideology of the Fatimids caliphate originated on the basis of Ismaili Shia's philosophy. Likely, Fatimid applied religion as an influential weapon to conquer the sentiment of people to rule and establish a dignified empire in the Muslim world. The Fatimids rule emerges from Africa claimed to legitimize themselves to be the descent of the last prophet of Islam and it controlled the central Maghreb, which consists the regions like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. There are a number of factors that became an ultimate cause of the rise and fall of the Fatimid caliphate in which the internal conflicts, rise of the Turkish influence, dilemma of drought and famine in Egypt, independence of Berber from the Fatimid influence, rising Abbasids power had turned down the Fatimid dynasty.
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