The End of the Emirate and the Beginning of the Kingdom

This chapter explores the events leading to the collapse of the Zirid dynasty in 543H (1148–49) and the foundation of the Norman kingdom of Africa. Relations between the two dynasties largely stabilized after the Battle of al-Dimas, as the Zirids looked to expand their power in Ifriqiya and the Normans campaigned in southern Italy. The Normans were far more successful in their expeditions than the Zirids, who, having lost their Almoravid and local Arab allies, were forced to turn to the Normans for aid when Mahdia was besieged in 529H (1134–35). This Zirid–Norman victory proved pivotal in the history of the two dynasties, for it marked the beginning of a gradual ascent of Norman control over the affairs of coastal Ifriqiya. In the years after 529H (1134–35), Roger II and his admiral George of Antioch used Ifriqiya's exploitable dependence on Sicilian grain to their advantage. The Zirids, meanwhile, proved unable to muster sufficient support to assert their larger Mediterranean ambitions. This political fracturing was compounded by a nearly decade-long drought in Ifriqiya that brought hardship, emigration, and death to the Zirids and other local lords. These factors allowed the opportunistic Normans to conquer the littoral of Ifriqiya from Tripoli up to Tunis by 1148, thus forming the Norman kingdom of Africa.