[3] In 958, al-Mansur's son and successor, al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah (r. 953–975) chose Jawhar to lead a campaign to restore Fatimid control over the central and western parts of North Africa.
[4] It was not until a year later, in October 960, that he moved north towards Fez, taking the city by storm on 13 November and capturing its Umayyad governor, Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Judhami.
[6] As Jawhar pacified Egypt the Fatimid army began its invasion of Ikhshidid Syria (970) under the Kutama general Ja'far ibn Falah.
After initial successes this army was destroyed near Damascus in August 971 by a coalition of Ikhshidid soldiers and Arab tribesmen led by the Qarmatians of Bahrain.
Jawhar had few troops at hand so he mobilised the entire population of Fustat to build a defensive line consisting of a wall and a ditch at a bottleneck north of the city.
[11] In response to this situation, and on the advice of Ya'qub ibn Killis, in May al-Aziz entrusted Jawhar with leading an army of 20,000 men—the largest Fatimid force hitherto sent to Syria—to confront the Qarmatians and Alptakin.
When news of a Qarmatian army under al-Hasan al-A'sam approaching the city, Jawhar decided to lift the siege and withdrew from Damascus in December/January, as the Fatimids were now outnumbered by their opponents.
[12][14] Jawhar retreated south, first to Tiberias and then towards Ramla,[12] closely followed by his enemies, who were now joined by the numerous Banu Tayy tribes—the medieval chroniclers speak of 50,000 Bedouin—under the leadership of the Jarrahid family.
[14] Jawhar lost many men to the freezing cold and snow,[12] and after a defeat in a bloody battle on the Yarkon River, found himself besieged at Ramla.
At long last, Jawhar was obliged to enter into negotiations with the more receptive Alptakin—the Qarmatians vehemently opposed any deal and proposed to maintain the siege until their enemies died of hunger—and was allowed to leave in March/April 978 after a humiliating capitulation: the surviving Fatimid troops marched out of Ascalon passing under Alptakin's sword, which had been slung at the city gate.