The Umayyads held two garrisoned forts along the coast, Ceuta and Mellila, while their main allies in the interior were Zenata tribes.
While staying in the city, Buluggin commissioned the creation of a wooden minbar for the Mosque of the Andalusians, a part of which has been preserved and includes an inscription dated to 980.
Buluggin, reportedly after seeking the advice of Abd al-Karim from Fez (whom he later executed), decided that battle would be too costly and too dangerous, especially without a supporting fleet that could stop the reinforcements arriving from al-Andalus.
[5] On the way back,[4] Buluggin captured the northern trade center of Basra al-Hamra',[6][7] which had also been Yahya's base before he fled.
After fierce fighting, Buluggin defeated them, killed their leader, and sent a large number of enslaved women and children to Ifriqiya, where they arrived in 981.
The slaves were paraded in the streets of Kairouan by Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Katib, the governor of Ifriqiya in Buluggin's absence.
[4] As Buluggin marched eastward back to Ifriqiya, the Maghrawa and the Banu Ifran began to reclaim the towns and territories which he had just conquered.
[4] After Buluggin's death, Zirid policy in the west was restricted to preventing the eastward expansion of the Zenata tribes into their territories.