Last spring, I visited the town of Mahdia, located in modern day Tunisia. Mahdia was established by the Fatimids in 912 and made capital of Ifriqiya in 921. The town gets its name from the founder of the Fatimid dynasty, ‘Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi (Mahdi meaning rightfully guided one). While the Fatimids were primarily based in Tunisia, their caliphate stretched throughout much of North Africa and even parts of the Levant and Hejaz. As the caliphate expanded, the Fatimids moved their capital to Cairo, Egypt. The fort below, Borj El Kebir, is actually an Ottoman fort built in the 16th century on the remains of a Fatimid palace.