in Shii literature, Fatima is compared to Mary
the mother of JesUs because of the violent deaths
suffered by each of their sons. Although Fatima’s
name is not mentioned in the qUran, Shii com-
mentaries point out passages they believe contain
hidden references to her, such as Q 55:19, where
the two oceans of water that flow together are
interpreted as the reunion of Ali and Fatima after
a dispute. In popular Islamic practice, an image of
an outstretched hand, called the Hand of Fatima,
is used as an amulet to deflect the evil eye, and the
Shia display it in ashUra processions in India.
During the 1970s, Fatima gained a modern
importance through the lectures and writings of
the Iranian intellectual ali shariati (d. 1977),
who portrayed her as a symbol of the total
woman—daughter, wife, mother, freedom fighter,
and defender of the oppressed. Although Fatima
was likened to the Virgin Mary in Islamic tradi-
tion, she should not be confused with Our Lady of
Fatima, the name given to the apparitions of Mary
near the town of Fatima in Portugal in 1917.
See also imam; shiism; Women.
Further reading: Marcia K. Hermensen, “Fatimeh as
a Role Model in the Works of Ali Shariati.” In Women
and Revolution in Iran, edited by Guity Nashat, 87–96
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1983); Jane Dammen
McAuliffe, “Chosen of All Women: Mary and Fatima in
Quranic Exegesis.” Islamochristiana 7 (1981): 19–28;
Susan Sered, “Rachel, Mary, and Fatima.” Cultural
Anthropology 6, no. 2 (1991): 131–146.
Fatimid dynasty (909–1171)
The Fatimids were a medieval Ismaili Shii dynasty
that ruled over a band of territory that stretched
from tUnisia in North Africa to egypt, the Red Sea
region (including mecca and medina), palestine,
and syria. They rivaled the Sunni dynasties of the
Abbasids in iraq (750–1258) and the Umayyads
of andalUsia (756–1009), both of which they
unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow. Their first
capital was Mahdiyya, on the Tunisian coast, but
in 969, they shifted eastward and founded a new
capital in Egypt, next to the flourishing commer-
cial city of Fustat. The name they gave to their
new royal city was cairo (Qahira, “conqueror”).
The name of the dynasty itself was derived from
that of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima (d. 633),
and they traced their lineage to the Prophet’s
household through the seventh imam, Ismail (d.
ca. 762), the son of JaaFar al-sadiq, the sixth Shii
Imam. The first Fatimid Imam or caliph was Abd
Allah (r. 909–934), who was considered to be the
mahdi, the promised deliverer sent by God. Sun-
nis did not accept this claim and instead remem-
bered him by the derogatory name of Ubayd
Allah, “little servant of God.”
The Fatimids sponsored an active program
of religious outreach and propaganda (da awa)
throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and
northwest India to promote their cause but failed
to win large numbers of followers, even in Egypt.
Nonetheless, Egypt prospered for nearly a cen-
tury under Fatimid rule. Ismailis were able to
practice their tradition of Islam in public, while
other Muslims and non-Muslims enjoyed relative
tolerance. Jews and Christians as well as Sunni
Muslims held high positions in government. The
famed Geniza documents, a collection of medi-
eval writings recovered from Cairo’s Ben Ezra
synagogue, have yielded valuable details about the
daily life of Jews and their social and economic
relations with non-Jews at this time. Intellectual
life also thrived, in part a result of Ismaili efforts
to articulate their messianic doctrines and refute
Sunni attacks. Important works on philosophy,
religion, history, biography, and the sciences were
composed and collected in private libraries. The
Fatimid palace alone had a House of Knowledge
that contained a reading room, a meeting place for
scholars, and a library containing several hundred
thousand scholarly books. Rulers also supported
the formation of a distinct tradition of Ismaili reli-
gious law, which was explained in public sessions
after Friday prayer at al-azhar and other major
mosqUes in the capital.Fatimid dynasty 231 J