List of Figures, Maps, and Genealogical Tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I: A History of the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo; 1. The Origins and Establishment of the Abbasid Caliphs in Cairo (659-701/1261-1302); 2. The Qalawunids and the Caliphate (701-63/1301-63); 3. Flirtations with Power and Political Intrigue (763-815/1362-1412); 4. Containing and Maintaining the Caliphate (815-903/1412-1497); 5. The Last Abbasids of Cairo (903-22/1497-1517); Part II: Legal, Historiographical, and Chancery Dimensions of the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo; 6. Normative Perspectives on the Caliphate of Cairo: Jurisprudential, Advice, and Courtly Literature; 7. The Cairo Caliphate in Medieval Arabic Historiographical Literature; 8. Caliphal Investiture Documents and the Ideality of a Cairo Caliphate; 9. Beyond the Throne of the Caliphate: Analyzing Caliphal Documents; Conclusion; 10. Re-constructing a Nuanced Caliphate; Works Cited; Index.