Editing Fatimid Caliphate (section)

==Military system==
{{Further|Fatimid army|Fatimid navy}}
{{See also|Slavery in the Fatimid Caliphate}}
[[File:Panel hunters Louvre OA 6265-1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Men hunting, on ivory panel, 11th century]]
The Fatimid military was based largely on the [[Kutama]] [[Berber people|Berber]] tribesmen brought along on the march to Egypt, and they remained an important part of the military even after Ifriqiya began to break away.{{sfn|Sanders|1998|p=154}}

A fundamental change occurred when the Fatimid Caliphate attempted to push into Syria in the latter half of the tenth century. The Fatimids were faced with the now Turkish-dominated forces of the Abbasid Caliphate and began to realize the limits of their current military. Thus during the reign of [[al-Aziz Billah]] and [[al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]], the Caliph began incorporating armies of [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] and, later, black Africans (even later, other groups such as Armenians were also used).{{sfn|Sanders|1998|p=155}} The army units were generally separated along ethnic lines: the Berbers were usually the light cavalry and foot skirmishers, while the Turks were the [[horse archers]] or [[heavy cavalry]] (known as ''[[Mamluks]]''). The black Africans, Syrians, and Arabs generally acted as the [[heavy infantry]] and foot [[archer]]s. This ethnic-based army system, along with the partial slave status of many of the imported ethnic fighters, would remain fundamentally unchanged in Egypt for many centuries after the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

The Fatimids focused their military on the defence of the empire as threats presented, which they were able to repel. In the mid-10th century, the [[Byzantine Empire]] was ruled by [[Nikephoros II Phokas]], who had destroyed the Muslim [[Emirate of Crete]] in 961 and conquered Tartus, al-Masaisah, Ain Zarbah, among other areas, gaining complete control of Iraq and the Syrian borders, and earning the sobriquet "The Pale Death of the Saracens". With the Fatimids, however, he proved less successful. After renouncing his payments of tribute to the Fatimid caliphs, he sent an expedition to [[Sicily]], but was forced by defeats on land and sea to evacuate the island completely. In 967, he made peace with the Fatimids and turned to defend himself against their common enemy, [[Otto&nbsp;I]], who had proclaimed himself Roman Emperor and had attacked Byzantine possessions in Italy.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}