Saladin founds Sunni madrasas in Cairo

1171

After suppressing the Fatimid caliphate, the new master of Egypt founded a cluster of Sunni law schools in Cairo to re-educate the population away from Shia Ismailism. Within a generation Cairo would be transformed into a bastion of Sunni orthodoxy. Saladin endowed madrasas for all four Sunni legal schools, ensuring that Cairo's scholars could serve as judges and administrators across his growing empire.