Zirid–Hilalian ConflictTunisia / Maghreb · 1050–1100“Draw near — the atlas keeps this thread, and tonight the fire lends it a voice.”The Zirids governed Ifriqiya for the Fatimid caliphs in Cairo — until they renounced them for the rival caliph of Baghdad. Cairo's revenge, the chronicles say, was not an army but a migration: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym, warlike Bedouin tribes, were released westward upon the rebels like a flood given permission.