The family of the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli originated from the Emirate of Sicily (hence his epithet the Sicilian).

He had come as a slave to North Africa and, because of his intelligence and cunning, had been sent to the Caliph Ismail al-Mansur.

Under his son al-Muizz, he had gained his freedom and become his personal secretary.

Soon he was Vizir and the highest-ranking military commander of the Fatimids.

In this role, he has resumed the expansion of the Fatimids.

He takes Ifgan, the capital of the rebellious Kharijite Banu Ya'la tribesmen.

Al-Mu'izz has sent his general Jawhar westward in the years 958 and 959 to reduce Fés and other places where the authority of the Fatimid caliph had been repudiated; after a successful expedition, Jawhar advances to the Atlantic.

The authority of al-Mu'izz, the most powerful of the Fatimid caliphs, is acknowledged over the greater part of the region now comprising Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, as well as the island of Sicily.

Jawhar al-Siqilli has conquered most of the north of modern Morocco and Algeria over the past two years.

In particular, he has conquered the cities of Tanger, …

…Sijilmasa and …

…Tlemcen.

The Fatimids, an Arab Shi'a dynasty, have ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb since 910.

The leaders of the dynasty, who belong to the Ismaili branch of Shi'ism, are also Shia Ismaili Imams, hence, they have a religious significance to Ismaili Muslims.

They are also part of the chain of holders of the office of Caliph, as recognized by most Muslims, the only period in which the Shia Imamate and the Caliphate have been united to any degree, excepting the Caliphate of Ali himself.

After the Fatimids, under their third caliph, Ismail al-Mansur, had defeated the Kharijite rebellion of Abu Yazid, the man on the donkey, they began, under his son al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, to turn their attentions back to their ambition of establishing their caliphate throughout the Islamic world and overthrowing the Baghdad Abbasid Caliphate.

Although the Fatimids are primarily concerned with Egypt and the Near East, there have nevertheless been campaigns fought by General Jawhar as-Siqilli against the Berbers of Morocco and the Umayyads of Spain.

At the same time, Fatimid raids on Italy have enabled naval superiority in the Western Mediterranean to be affirmed, at the expense of Constantinople.

The family of Jawhar had originated from the Emirate of Sicily (hence Gawhar’s epithet, “the Sicilian”), and he had come as a slave to North Africa and been sent to the Caliph Ismail al-Mansur on account of his intelligence and cunning.

Under his son al-Muizz, he had gained his freedom and become his personal secretary.

Soon he was Vizir and the highest-ranking military commander of the Fatimids.

In this role he had resumed the expansion of the Fatimids and, together with the Zirids, a Berber dynasty originating in Petite Kabylie among the Kutama tribe, had conquered Fez in Northern Morocco, and pushed towards the Atlantic.

Only the strongholds of Ceuta and Tangier could be retained by the Umayyads of Córdoba.

The Fatimids having secured their western borders, the way to Egypt is now clear the more so given the state of crisis that the incumbent Ikhshidid dynasty now finds itself in and the inability of the Abbasids to counterattack.

As early as 966, al-Mu'izz had prepared a fresh invasion of Egypt, but it had reportedly been delayed at the request of his mother, who wished to make a pilgrimage to Mecca first.

Her honorable treatment by the local ruler, the vizier Abu al-Misk Kafur, when she passed through Egypt had induced the caliph to postpone the invasion until after Kafur's death.

The Ikhshidid dynasty of Egypt had been founded in 935 by Muhammad bin Tughj, a Sogdian commander who began as governor and was later given the title Ikhshid (Persian for "prince") by the 'Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.

While Ibn Tughj's sons Unujur and 'Ali remain the nominal Ikhshidid rulers, real governmental power had since 946 rested in the hands of Kafur, originally an enslaved black man from either Ethiopia or the Sudan, who had successfully restrained Fatimid and Hamdanid intrusions into his territories; he had also patronized learning and the arts, briefly boasting the presence of the eminent poet al-Mutanabbi in his court.

At Kafur's death in 968, the Fatimids, having spent a half-century consolidating power in North Africa, had moved eastward to seize from the Ikhshidids not only Egypt but also Palestine and Syria and to threaten Baghdad itself.

Fatimid troops under Jawhar conquer the Nile Valley in 969 after a siege at Giza and overthrow the last of the Ikhshidid rulers, a boy named Abu al-Fawaris Ahmad, grandson of the founder.

The conquest had been prepared by a treaty with the Vizir of the Ikhshidids, by which Sunnis would be guaranteed freedom of religion, so the Fatimids have encountered little resistance.

Jawhar’s troops now advance across Sinai into ...

…Palestine, defeating the Ikhshidites at Ramla to win control of southern and central Syria while the Hamdanids drive the Ikhshidi governors from northern Syria.