The Islamic World

In the second half of the 5th/11th century, on the eve of the First Crusade, the greater part of the Islamic world was divided between the Sunni ʿAbbāsid and Shiʿi Fāṭimid caliphates, based respectively in Baghdad and Cairo. ʿAbbāsid authority had been on the wane for over a hundred years and by then was largely a mere formality, as would soon be demonstrated by their inability to respond effectively to the Crusader campaigns (Ibn Athīr, al-Kāmil, 6/383; Gibb, 82–87). Since the Battle of Dandānqān in 431…