Background to the Sunni Revival. Except for al-Kindi (circa 801 - 866) and Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), most of the important figures of the Falsafah tradition lived at least part of their lives in the fourth Islamic century, the tenth century of the Common Era. Modern historians have called it the "Shi'ite Century" because during this period Shi'ism had political dominance throughout the Islamic world. In the West, the Ismaili Shi'ite Fatimid dynasty ruled over Egypt, Syria, and much of North Africa. The Fatimids conquered Egypt in 969 and moved their court from Tunisia to their new capital of Cairo. Over the next one hundred years, Cairo thrived as the center of a wealthy mercantile empire, which diverted the Indian Ocean trade from Iraq to the Red Sea and opened the markets of western Europe to the goods of India and the...