Probably the most illustrious of the Fihrids was Uqba ibn Nafi al-Fihri, the Arab Muslim conqueror of North Africa in 670-680s, and founder of al-Qayrawan.
As spearheads of the western conquest, the al-Fihris were probably the leading aristocratic Arab family of Ifriqiya and Al-Andalus in the first half of the 8th century.
For a moment, it seemed as if the Fihrids might succeed in turning the western half of the Islamic world into a private family empire.
The Fihrids greeted the fall of the Umayyads in 749-50 with delight, and sought to reach an accommodation with the new Abbasid Caliphs of the east to allow them to continue.
In a decision that would prove fatal, Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib invited the remnants of the fugitive Umayyad clan to take refuge in his dominions.