Arts of the City Victorious is a study of the art and architecture of the Fatimids, the Ismaili Shi'i dynasty that ruled in North Africa and Egypt from 909 to 1171. The Fatimids are most famous for founding the city of Cairo in 969, and their art - particularly textiles and lustre ceramics, but also metalwork and carved rock crystal, ivory and woodwork - has been admired for nearly a millennium. Preserved as relics and reliquaries in church treasuries, Fatimid art is prized today by collectors for its imagery, unusual in the arts of the contemporary Islamic lands, and its elegant and inventive use of Arabic calligraphy, particularly the angular 'kufic' script. Surviving examples of Fatimid art and architecture are supplemented by medieval sources that provide written evidence for the visual culture shared among the Muslim, Christian and Jewish inhabitants of the Fatimid realm. -- Dust Jacket.