Yazuri’s wazirate saw a great limitation of Fatimid control over North Africa, where in 443 Ifrikiya definitely repudiated the Shiʿite doctrines. At that time the ruler of Ifrikiya settled now at the town of Mahadiya which had replaced Kairawan, was Muʿizz al-Himyari as-Sanhaji, the hereditary chieftain of one of the more prominent Berber tribes, and more or less hereditary governor of Ifrikiya. Hakim had conferred on him robes of state with the title _Sharaf ad-Dawla_ (“nobleness of the empire”) in 407. Up to this time the Hanifite system of canon law had prevailed through North Africa, for the Shiʿite attempt to introduce the system ascribed to Jaʿfar as-Sadiq seems to have been a failure, but Muʿizz introduced the Malikite jurisprudence throughout his governorate; this, it will be remembered, was the system banned by the Khalif az-Zahir in Egypt, and by thus acting Moʿizz showed very plainly his entire disregard of the Fatimid who claimed to be his suzerain. Now, in 433, Muʿizz formally repudiated Fatimid authority, omitting the name of Mustansir from the _khutba_, and replacing it with the name of the ʿAbbasid Khalif of Baghdad. At this Mustansir wrote: “Thou hast not trod in the steps of thy forefathers, showing us obedience and fidelity?”—but Muʿizz replied: “My father and forefathers were kings in Maghrab before thy predecessors obtained possession of that country. Our family rendered them services not to be rewarded by any rank which thou canst give. When people attempted to degrade them, they exalted themselves by means of their swords.” Thus the Fatimids lost what had been the earliest part of their dominions in Africa, although the loss was not without its benefit, for Ifrikiya had always been a course of trouble and of little real profit.
The defection of Ifrikiya was not followed in all parts of North Africa. There were still devoted Shiʿites in those parts, and they revolted from Moʿizz when the Fatimid sent the Arab tribe of Hilal to win back the country. The Arabs succeeded in recovering Barqa and Tripoli, but were unable to advance further west. At the same time various independent states, for the most part professing to be Shiʿite, arose in Maghrab.