Since the late 1970s, the most controversial actor in the urban conservation and restoration of Islamic Cairo has been the Indian Ismaili-Shia Dawoodi Bohras, often accused of destroying the historic authenticity of the city. However, the Bohras themselves – considering Cairo of the medieval Shia Fatimid dynasty (10th to 12th cent.) their ancestral home – portray their engagements in the city to have instigated a revival of the Fatimid Islamic tradition, reflected especially in the Bohras’ architectural replication of Cairene Islamic architecture across Indian Ocean locales in India, the Gulf and East Africa. Approaching Cairo as an Indian Ocean city, the presentation discusses the history and contemporary significance of the Bohras’ “return” to, and engagements in, Cairo.