The Kutama Berbers from the west of…
1045 CE
The Kutama Berbers from the west of the country Ifriqiyah had, through the mission of Abdullah al Mahdi, started the movement of the Shiite Fatimids in 893.
The year 909 had seen the overthrow of the Sunni Aghlabite that ruled Ifriqiyah and the creation of the Shiite Fatimid dynasty.
During the rule of the Fatimids, Kairouan has been neglected and has lost its importance: the new rulers had resided first in Raqqada but had soon moved their capital to the newly built Al Mahdiyah on the coast of modern Tunisia.
After succeeding in extending their rule over all of central Maghreb, an area consisting of the modern countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, they had eventually moved east to Egypt to found Cairo, making it the capital of their vast Caliphate and leaving the Zirids as their vassals in Ifriqiya.
Governing again from Kairouan, the Zirids lead the country through another artistic, commercial and agricultural heyday.
Schools and universities flourish, overseas trade in local manufactures and farm produce runs high and the courts of the Zirids rulers are centers of refinement that eclipse those of their European contemporaries.
When the Zirids declare their independence from Cairo and their conversion to Sunni Islam in 1045 by giving allegiance to Baghdad, the Fatimid Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah sends as punishment hordes of troublesome Arab tribes (initially the Banu Hilal and, fpur years later, the Banu Sulaym) to invade Ifriqiya.