In his treatment of the brief triumph of the Fatimid supported ex-Buyid, ex-Abbasid, Turkish general al-Basasiri over the Seljuk leader Tughril Bek in 1057-58, the Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi briefly mentions that the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir started to build a palace that later became known as the western palace to house the Abbasid Caliph al-Qa’im. As we know, al-Basasiri’s triumph was short-lived; Tughril Bek returned to Baghdad and reinstated the Abbasid Caliph under Seljuk control. Nonetheless, the fact that the Fatimids had put in place a plan, not to eliminate the Abbasid Caliph, but to give him a place in the Fatimid court suggests that the Fatimids had a vision of the relationship between the different parts of the family of the Prophet that envisioned the Abbasid Caliph working for them. It was not just the Abbasid Caliph for which the Fatimids found a place. The Fatimid court was rife with people who had started their careers in the service of the Abbasids, Buyids, and Seljuks in places like Baghdad, Rayy, and Shiraz. Abbasid and Buyid immigrants came to Cairo either drawn by its power and wealth or as refugees. Things went the other way also. Members of the Cairo court end up in Baghdad, Shiraz, and Rayy serving the Abbasid Caliphs, and the Buyid and Seljuk Amirs. . The question then becomes, does this exchange of personnel mean that the three courts had similar court cultures? Much is made of the rise of “peripheral” states in the Islamic Middle Period, but how much of a change did this represent? Were Cairo and Shiraz poor imitations of Baghdad? Or did they develop their own court culture? Based on the patterns of the exchange examined above, the peripheral courts were a draw in and of themselves and many courtiers felt that they could make better careers in Shiraz and in Cairo than they could in Baghdad. Likewise the direct exchanges between Shiraz and Cairo suggest that some never felt the need to try their hand at Baghdad and instead went for the opportunities available to them in these peripheral courts. All of this suggests that in fact the peripheral courts were not in fact poor cousins to Baghdad but had powerful court cultures all their own.