The primary aim of this research project was to fill a vacuum in the field of studies on women belonging to and living under medieval Islamic dynasties by comprehensively covering women under the Fatimids. After all, this was and still remains the only Islamic dynasty to be named after a woman. Moreover, to this dynasty were linked those women who, on account of the power they commanded, were to become among the most famous female personalities of the medieval Islamic world: Sitt al-Mulk, the Sulayhid queens of the Yemen and the mother of the imam-caliph al-Mustansir. The recurring lament by contemporary scholars of the limited availability of primary material for the study of women in the medieval Islamic world in general did not deter us from pursuing our plan. We soon realised that information, far from being minimal, was in fact plentiful to those looking for it, interspersed, as it is, within historical, doctrinal, literary and other narratives. After several years of research, we hope we have achieved our primary aim: to throw some light on the erstwhile silent and shadowy figures of women under the Fatimids and give them a presence in the history of women in medieval and pre-modern dynasties.