The Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969 CE placed the Ismaili Imam-caliphs at the helm of its diverse ethnic and religious populace. The Christians of Egypt constituted a sizeable proportion of the Egyptian populace, with Copts forming the majority and Melkites and Nestorians constituting significant minorities. The tolerant attitude of the Fatimid Imam-caliphs to their Christian subjects has been long noted in the sources as well as in contemporary scholarship. However, the presumptions underlying the Fatimid attitude have oftentimes been premised on the view that as Shia Ismaili Imams, the Fatimids were a minority regime who had little recourse but to bolster their authority by seeking rapprochement with other significant constituencies, such as the Christians. It is generally held that this was primarily driven by the need to offset the influence of the Sunni majority and to curb the influence of the Abbasid regime, which had previously governed Egypt and continued to exert its influence in the region.
via Shainool Jiwa: Muslim-Christian Engagement in early Fatimid Egypt.
Ismailimail 