fourth of the caliphs of Kayrawan--called the
Fatimid caliphs, because they claimed a very doubtful descent from
Fatima--sent his army into Egypt. The people, who had too long been the
sport of Turkish mercenaries, received the invaders as deliverers, just
as the Copts had welcomed the Arabs three centuries before. Gauhar, the
Fatimid general, entered Fustat (or Misr, as it was usually called, a
name still applied both to Egypt and to its capital) amid acclamations
in 969, and immediately laid the foundations of the fortified palace
which he named, astrologically, after the planet Mars (Kahir),
El-Kahira, "the Martial," or "the Victorious," which gradually expanded
to the city of Cairo. He also founded the great historic university
mosque of the Azhar, which, begun by the heretical Shia, became the
bulwark of rigid scholasticism and the theological centre of orthodox
Islam.

The theological change was abrupt. It was as though Presbyterian
Scotland had suddenly been put under the rule of the Jesuits. But, like
the Society of Jesus, the Shia were pre-eminently intellectual and
recognised the necessity of adapting their teaching to the capacities of
their hearers, and the conditions of the time. They did not force
extreme Shia doctrine upon the Egyptians. Their esoteric system, with
its graduated stages of initiation, permitted a large latitude, and they
were content to add their distinctive formulas to the ordinary
Mohammedan ritual, and to set them conspicuously on their coinage,
without entering upon a propaganda. The bulk of the Egyptian Moslems
apparently preserved their orthodoxy and suffered an heretical caliphate
for two centuries with traditional composure. The Christian Copts found
the new _regime_ a marked improvement. Mysticism finds kindred elements
in many faiths, and the Fatimid caliphs soon struck up relations with
the local heads of the Christian religion.

The second Egyptian caliph, Aziz (975-996), was greatly influenced by a
Christian wife, who encouraged his natural clemency. Bishop Severus
attended his court, and Coptic churches were rebuilt. Throughout the
Fatimid period we constantly find Christians and Jews, and especially
Armenians, advanced to the highest offices of state. This was partly
due, of course, to their special qualifications as scribes and
accountants, for Arabs and Turks were no hands at "sums." The land had
rest under this wise and tolerant caliph. If he set a dangerous example
in