I, OBEIDALLAII, the first Fatimide kalif, was born A.D. 892. lfaving incurred the displeasure of Molstafi, the reigning Abasaide kalif, ho was obliged to wander through various parts of Africa, till through fortunate circumstances he was raised iu 910 from a dungeou in Segelmessa to sovereign power. He assumed the title of Mahadi, or "director of the faithful," according to a prophecy of Mohammed's that in the space of 300 years such an individual would arise in the wee. He subdued the princes in the north of Africa, who had become independent of the Abassides, and established his authority from the Atlantis to the borders of Egypt. He founded Mahadi on the site of the ancient Aphrodisium, a town ou the coast of Africa, about a hundred miles eouth of Tunis, and made it his capital. He became the author of a great schism among the Mohammedans by disowning the authority of the Abaaaidea, and assuming the title of Emir al Mffineuin, "prince of the faithful," which belonged exclusively to the kalifs. His fleets ravaged the coasts of Italy and Sicily, and his armies frequently invaded Egypt, but without any permanent success.
2. Cams! succeeded his father in 933. During his reign an impostor, Abu Yezid, origiuelly en Ethiopian slave, advanced certain peculiar doctrines in religion, which he was enabled to propagate over the whale of the north of Africa, and was so successful in his military expeditions as to deprive Caiem of all his dominions, and confine bins to his capital, Mahadi, which ho was besieging when Caiem died.
3. Marmot:it succeeded his father in 946, when time kingdom was in a state of the greatest confusion. By his valour and prudence ho regained the greater part of the dominions of his grandfather Obti dallah, defeated the usurper Yezid, and laid the foundation of that power which enabled his son Moez to conquer Egypt.
4. Moez (955) was the most powerful of the Fatimide kalifs. Ile was successful in a naval war with Spain, and took the island of Sicily; but his most celebrated conquest was that of Egypt, which wan subdued by his lieutenant in 972. Two years afterwards ho removed his court to Egypt, and founded Cairo. The name of the Abasside kalif was omitted in the public prayers, and his own substi tuted in its place ; from which time the great schism of the Fatimide and Abasside kalifs is more frequently dated than from the assumption of the title by Obeidallah. The armies of Moez conquered the whole of Palestine and Syria as far as Damascus. Ili. virtues are highly extolled by the Arabia historians.
5. Axes (978). The dominion' recently acquired by Moez were secured to the Fatimide kalifs by the wise government of his son Azle, who took several towns in Syria. He married a Christian woman, whose brothers he made patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem.
6. Ilaitest was only eleven year. of age when he succeeded his father In 996. Ile I. distinguished even among oriental despots by his cruelty and folly. Ills tyranny caused frequent insurrections in Cairo, He persecuted the Jews and Christians, and burnt their places of worship. By his order the church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem was destroyed (1009). Ma persecutions of the Christiana induced them to appeal to their brethren in the West, and was one of the causes that led to the crusades. He carried his folly so far as to seek to become the founder of a new religion, and to assert that he was the express image of God. He was aaaassinated in 1021, and was succeeded by his son.