909-1258 CE
From 909 to 1258 CE, the Arabs watched their world fracture and reform like desert mirages — the Fatimids raising a rival caliphate in Cairo, Andalusian taifas warring among themselves, Turkish slave-soldiers becoming masters of their former owners. Baghdad's caliph became a puppet while Persian viziers and Turkic sultans wielded true power. Then the Mongols breached the City of Peace, and the Tigris ran black with ink from countless libraries.