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Zayrid Caliphate - 972-1148

The Aghlabids were succeeded by the Faftmids, who, however, belong more particularly to the series of Egyptian Dynasties. Their empire, which at one time included the whole north African coast from Egypt to the Atlantic, together with Sicily and Sardinia, became split up into various kingdoms as soon as their removal of their seat of government to Cairo in 972 (362) weakened their control of the more western provinces. Their lieutenant over Africa, Yusuf Bulukkm, chief of the Sanhaja Berbers, soon declared himself independent and founded the dynasty of the Zayrids, while another dynasty, the Hammadids, established themselves at Bougie (Bujaya) in Algeria and restricted the Zayrids' authority to little more than the province of Tunis.

Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been anxious to regain that valuable possession ; but their efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals; twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a nation, which entrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of their women, but with the command of their men.

After a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose against the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. The emir Akhal appealed to the Greeks to help him against his brother, Abu Hafs, who headed the Sicilian rebels. The latter were supported by the Zayrid Sultan of Tunis (Muizz ben Badis), and Akhal though he was supported by the Catepan of Italy and a Greek army in 1037 was shut up in Palermo, where he was murdered by his own followers.

In every service of danger the Normans were prompt and useful: and five hundred knights, or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa were restored; and the Island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the van, and the Arabs of Messina felt the valor of an untried foe. In a second action, the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement, his intrepid A.d. Mbsj companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand Saracens, and [Battle of left the Greeks no more than the labor of the pursuit.