and Kafur. This internal disturbance was soon
followed by war; and in the year 354 the Greeks of Constantinople,
led by the Emperor Nicepherous Phocas, advanced into Syria. They took
Aleppo, then in the possession of the Hamdanites, and, encountering
Saif ed-Dowlah, overthrew him also. The governor of Damascus, Dalim
el-Ukazly, and ten thousand men came to the rescue of the Hamdanites,
but Phocas beat a retreat on hearing of his approach.

Abu'l-Hasan Ali died in the year 355 of the Hegira. The regent
Kafur then ascended the throne, assuming the surname el-Ikshid. He
acknowledged the paramount authority of the Abbasid caliph, Muti, and
that potentate recognised his supreme power in the kingdom of Egypt.
During the reign of Kafur, which only lasted two years and four months,
the greater portion of Said was seized by the Fatimites, already
masters of Fayum and Alexandria, and the conquerors were on the point of
encroaching still farther, when Kafur died in the year 357 a.h. Ahmed,
surnamed Abu'l Fawaris, the son of Abu'l-Hasan Ali, and consequently
grandson of Mu-hammed el-Ikshid, succeeded Kafur.

The prince was only eleven years old, and therefore incapable of
properly controlling Egypt, Syria, and his other domains. Husain, one
of his relatives, invaded Syria, but in his turn driven back by the
Karmates, returned to Egypt and strove to depose Ahmed. These divisions
in the reigning family severed the ties which united the provinces of
the Egyptian kingdom. To terminate the disturbances, the emirs resolved
to seek the protection of the Fatimites. The latter, anxious to secure
the long-coveted prize, gladly rendered assistance, and Husain was
forced to return to Syria, where he took possession of Damascus, and the
unfortunate Ahmed lost the throne of Egypt.

With him perished the Ikshid dynasty, which, more ephemeral even than
that of the Tulunid, flourished only thirty-four years and twenty-four
days.

The period upon which this history is now about to enter is of more than
usual interest, for it leads immediately to the centuries during which
the Arabic forces came into contact with the forces of Western Europe.
The town and the coast of Mauritania were then ruled by the Fatimites,
a dynasty independent of the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. The Fatimites
belonged to the tribes of Koramah, who dwelt in the mountains situated
near the town of Fez in the extreme west of Africa. In the year 269 of
the Hegira, they began t