The Zirid Emirs (972 to 1148)
After having been entrusted with the government of the Maghreb region,
in 972, Buluggin Ibn Ziri realised very fast the limitations of his
power. The treasury, the fleet and the strategic provinces (Libya,
Sicily, Little Kabyli) slipped through his fingers.
Eventually, he had no other choice but to start an expansion to the
West, at the expense of the Omeyyad caliphs. His first successors were
never able to shake off the yoke of Cairo (Al Mansour, 984 - 996). Under
the reign of Sous Badis (996 - 1015) the Central Maghreb region was lost
to the Ziri of Ashir (Emirate of Beni Hammad).
In 1045, under the reign of the Zirid Emir, al-Muizz (1015 - 1062), all
links with Cairo were permanently cut (for financial reasons :
devaluation). Al-Muizz pledged loyalty to the Sunnite regime of Baghdad
and thus rejected the heterodox Shiite religion of the Fatimids, his
former overlords.
The Fatimid rulers were enraged by Al-Muizz defection. In revenge, they
encouraged two Bedouin tribes, the Beni Hilal and the Beni Sulaym, to
invade the rebellious North African provinces. These Nomads, with a
particular destructive appetite, devastated the country.
The Fatimid caliph went on to crush his Bedouin opponents in the East,
while, simultaneously, repressing the Zirid disloyalty in the Maghreb
region.
Although the Zirid Emir, al-Muizz, had a much larger army, he was not
able to avoid defeat at Haydaran in 1052. Kairouan
fell after one year of siege. In the anarchy that followed, the Normans
attacked a number of Tunisian coastal cities. In one of these cities, Tunis,
a Khorassanid Emir would afterwards seize power, while, on the other
hand, many other local principalities were able to make a stand. Yet,
these only lasted until the conquest by the Almohads and the capture of Mahdia
(1160).