was sent in 958 to bring the ever-refractory Maghreb
(Morocco) to allegiance. The expedition was entirely successful,
Sigilmasa and Fez were taken, and Gawhar reached the shore of the
Atlantic.

Jars of live fish and sea-weed reached the capital, and proved to the
Caliph that his empire touched the ocean, the "limitless limit" of the
world. All the African littoral, from the Atlantic to the frontier of
Egypt--with the single exception of Spanish Ceuta--now peaceably
admitted the sway of the Fatimite Caliph.

The result was due partly to the exhaustion caused by the long struggle
during the preceding reigns, partly to the politic concessions and
personal influence of the able young ruler. He was liberal and
conciliatory toward different provinces, but to the Arabs of the capital
he was severe. Kayrawan teemed with disaffected folk, sheiks, and
theologians bitterly hostile to the heretical "orientalism" of the
Fatimites, and always ready to excite a tumult. Moizz was resolved to
give them no chance, and one of his repressive measures was the curfew.
At sunset a trumpet sounded, and anyone found abroad after that was
liable to lose not only his way, but his head. So long as they were
quiet, however, he used the people justly, and sought to impress them in
his favor. In a singular interview, recorded by Makrisi, he exhibited
himself to a deputation of sheiks, dressed in the utmost simplicity, and
seated before his writing materials in a plain room, surrounded by
books. He wished to disabuse them of the idea that he led in private a
life of luxury and self-indulgence.

"You see what employs me when I am alone," he said; "I read letters that
come to me from the lands of the East and the West, and answer them with
my own hand; I deny myself all the pleasures of the world, and I seek
only to protect your lives, multiply your children, shame your rivals,
and daunt your enemies." Then he gave them much good advice, and
especially recommended them to keep to one wife.

"One woman is enough for one man. If you straitly observe what I have
ordained," he concluded, "I trust that God will, through you, procure
our conquest of the East in like manner as he has vouchsafed us the
West."

The conquest of Egypt was indeed the aim of his life. To rule over
tumultuous Arab and Berber tribes in a poor country formed no fit
ambition for a man of his capacity. Egypt, its wealth, its commerce, its
great port, and its docile population--th