75 – Ibn Bādīs, al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥimyarī
The ruler of Ifriqiya, al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs ibn Manṣūr ibn Buluggīn (1) ibn Zīrī ibn Manād, of Himyarite, Sanhājī, Maghribi stock, known by the honorific Sharaf al-Dawla and the son of the amir of the Maghrib.
In 407 AH the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim sent him from Egypt the formal diploma of investiture together with robes of honour, and his prestige rose (2).
He was a king of imposing presence—noble, courageous, high-minded, a lover of knowledge, and lavish in generosity. Poets sang his praises.
When the legal school (madhhab) of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa had become widespread in Ifriqiya, he obliged the people of his lands to follow the Mālikī school so as to eliminate the causes of dispute (3). Inclining toward true Islam, he cast off allegiance to the ʿUbaydiyyah (Fatimids) and ordered that the Friday khuṭba be delivered for the Abbasid caliph al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh. Al-Mustanṣir thereupon sent him threats, but he showed no fear. Al-Mustanṣir then dispatched Arab forces from Egypt to fight him; they ruined the fortresses of Barqa and Ifriqiya, seized a number of places, and have remained settled in those lands ever since. From that time on, the name of the Banū ʿUbayd was never again proclaimed in the Friday khuṭba at Qayrawān (4).
It is said that al-Muʿizz was born in 389 AH.