[6] Under Buluggin ibn Ziri the Zirids extended their control westwards and briefly occupied Fez and much of present-day Morocco after 980, but encountered resistance from the local Zenata Berbers who gave their allegiance to the Caliphate of Cordoba.

[11] One member of the dynastic family, Zawi ibn Ziri, revolted and fled to al-Andalus, eventually founding the Taifa of Granada in 1013, after the collapse of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

After his departure to the west in 979, Bulugin had not returned to Kairouan and during this time his appointee, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Katib, had amassed considerable power and influence in Ifriqiya.

Later Zirid sources portray Abd Allah as a rebel who was aided by the Fatimid Caliphs, because the latter now preferred him over al-Mansur and wished to impose a new arrangement in Ifriqiya.

Following these challenges, al-Mansur was finally able to reunify the Zirid realm, but he was obliged to move his principal residence from 'Ashir to al-Mansuriyya (Kairouan) in 991, leaving his brother Yattufat to govern 'Ashir.

[53][10][11] Fulful fought a protracted war against Badis ibn al-Mansur and sought outside help from the Fatimids and even from the Umayyads of Cordoba, but after his death in 1009 the Zirids were able to retake Tripoli for a time.

The region nonetheless remained effectively under control of the Banu Khazrun, who fluctuated between practical autonomy and full independence, often playing the Fatimids and the Zirids against each other.

Hammad resumed his recognition of the Fatimids as caliphs but remained independent, forging a new Hammadid state which controlled a large part of present-day Algeria thereafter.

[26] The Zirid period of Ifriqiya is considered a high point in its history, with agriculture, industry, trade and learning, both religious and secular, all flourishing, especially in their capital, Qayrawan (Kairouan).

[29] In the eleventh century, when the question of Berber origin became a concern, the dynasty of al-Mu'izz started, as part of the Zirids' propaganda, to emphasize its supposed links to the Himyarite kings as a title to nobility, a theme that was taken the by court historians of the period.

In the 1040s, the Zirids broke away completely by adopting Sunni Islam and recognizing the Abbasids of Baghdad as rightful Caliphs, a move which was popular with the urban Arabs of Kairouan.

[29][65][66] In 1036, the Muslim population of the island request aid from al-Mu'izz to overthrow the Kalbid emir Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Akḥal [it], whose rule they considered flawed and unjust.

[67][65] Another Kalbid amir, al-Hasan al-Samsam, was elected to govern Sicily, but Muslim rule there disintegrated into various petty factions leading up to the Norman conquest of the island in the second half of the 11th century.

[72][3][73] The resulting anarchy devastated the previously flourishing agriculture, and the coastal towns assumed a new importance as conduits for maritime trade and bases for piracy against Christian shipping, as well as being the last holdout of the Zirids.

He founded the local Banu Khurasan dynasty that governed the city thereafter, alternately recognizing the Hammadids or the Zirids as overlords depending on the circumstances.

[86][87] In Mahdia, the population was weakened by years of famine and the bulk of the Zirid army was away on another campaign when the Norman fleet, commanded by George of Antioch, arrived off the coast.

The Mediterranean was also an important part of the economy, even though it was, for a time, abandoned after the departure of the Fatimids, when the priority of the Zirid Emirs turned to territorial and internal conflicts.

[92] He wrote Kitab al-Jam' wa 'l-bayan fi akhbar al-Qayrawan (كتاب الجمع والبيان في أخبار القيروان) about the history of Qayrawan.

[92] Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, the Zirid ruler, was also himself an author and wrote an important treatise on the arts of the book, covering subjects such as calligraphy, bookbinding, and illumination.

[98][99] They reportedly built a new palace at al-Mansuriyya, the former Fatimid capital near Kairouan, but it has not been uncovered by modern archeologists,[98] except for some fragments of carved stucco decoration.

[100] At the Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis an elegantly-designed ribbed dome, called the Qubbat al-Bahw, was added to the entrance of the prayer hall in 991 and is attributed to the patronage of Al-Mansur ibn Buluggin.

[103] A major remodeling of the Great Mosque of Sfax, including the construction of a new minaret and an unusually decorated exterior façade, has also been attributed to the Zirid period (probably 10th century) by Georges Marçais and Lucien Golvin.

Among the surviving remains of the Zirid period in Granada today are a section of its original city walls, an extensive system of cisterns on the Albaicín hill, and the former minaret of a mosque (now part of the Church of San José).

The minbar, whose original fragments are now preserved in a museum, bears an inscription that dates it to the year 980, around the time of Buluggin's military expedition to this region.

[110][111] It is one of the most significant works of art from the Zirid period,[108] notable for its elaborately carved woodwork featuring arabesque motifs and a Kufic inscription dedicated to al-Mu'izz.

"[116] He added: "Let us recall that the official livery of the Zirids, vassals of the Fatimids, had to be white since we have seen that they adopted black, the colour of the Abbasids, after having broken with Cairo.

[12] However, his son and successor, 'Abd al-Malik al-Muẓaffar (r. 1002–1008), seeking able military commanders, granted Zawi and his followers permission to come to Cordoba, where they subsequently became an important part of al-Muzaffar's army.

[12][121] By the end of the siege they succeeded in installing their own puppet caliph in Córdoba, Sulayman al-Musta'in, but by this point Zawi and other factions were seeking political fortunes elsewhere in al-Andalus.

[122][12] Arab sources consider him to be the founder of the present-day city of Granada,[120] a designation also repeated by some modern historians like Helen Rodgers, Stephen Cavendish, and Brian Catlos.

[132] Al-Nasir exploited the partial collapse of Zirid rule in Ifriqiya to have his own authority recognized in many of the main cities there, including Sfax, Kairouan, and Tunis.