Rifq al-Mustansiri (1) held the reins of power, and Abū Muḥammad al-Māshallī (2) served as vizier alongside him. Rafidite influence was, moreover, still strong in Iraq.

In 446 AH the Egyptian Arabs seized the city of Tripoli. They captured Muʾnis ibn Yaḥyā al-Mirdāsī, besieged the surrounding towns, plundered the villages, and the people were visited by a calamity of the gravest kind. Ibn Bādīs marched out against them with thirty thousand men.

The Arabs, however, numbered only three thousand. The two armies engaged and held their ground, but Ibn Bādīs was routed and slaughter swept through his ranks. The Arabs carried off the horses and the tents with all they contained.

Someone composed:
Indeed, Ibn Bādīs is a most generous lord,
Yet, by my life, he has no men at all.
Thirty thousand of his were broken and sprawled
By merely three thousand—surely a marvel!

Ibn Bādīs then moved against them again and launched an assault, but was defeated once more. His troops were cut down; in wounded pride he withdrew, while the Arabs laid siege to Kairouan. Al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs fell back to Mahdia, and wars were fought in those years that would make young hair turn grey (3).

In 448 AH al-Andalus was struck by a drought the like of which had never been heard; they called it the “Great Famine.”

Egypt too was afflicted by drought and heavy mortality (4).

In 449 AH al-Mustansir’s deputies took possession of Aleppo (5).