Editing Fatimid Caliphate (section)

==== Establishment of the Caliphate ====
Upon assuming power in Raqqada, Abu Abdallah inherited much of the Aghlabid state's apparatus and allowed its former officials to continue working for the new regime.{{Sfn|Halm|1996|pp=121–22}} He established a new, Isma'ili Shi'a regime on behalf of his absent, and for the moment unnamed, master. He then led his army west to Sijilmasa, whence he led Abdallah in triumph to Raqqada, which he entered on 15 January 910. There Abdallah publicly proclaimed himself as [[caliph]] with the [[laqab|regnal name]] of {{transliteration|ar|al-Mahdī}}, and presented his son and heir, with the regnal name of [[Al-Qa'im (Fatimid caliph)|al-Qa'im]].{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}}{{sfn|Halm|2014}} Al-Mahdi quickly fell out with Abu Abdallah: not only was the {{transliteration|ar|dā'ī}} over-powerful, but he demanded proof that the new caliph was the true {{transliteration|ar|mahdī}}. The elimination of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i and his brother led to an uprising among the Kutama, led by a child-{{transliteration|ar|mahdī}}, which was suppressed. At the same time, al-Mahdi repudiated the millenarian hopes of his followers and curtailed their [[Naskh (tafsir)|antinomian]] tendencies.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}}{{sfn|Halm|2014}}

The new regime regarded its presence in Ifriqiya as only temporary: the real target was [[Baghdad]], the capital of the Fatimids' Abbasid rivals.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}} The ambition to carry the revolution eastward had to be postponed after the failure of two successive invasions of Egypt, led by al-Qa'im, in [[Fatimid invasion of Egypt (914–915)|914–915]] and [[Fatimid invasion of Egypt (919–921)|919–921]].{{sfn|Halm|2014}} In addition, the Fatimid regime was as yet unstable. The local population were mostly adherents of [[Maliki]] Sunnism and various [[Kharijite]] sects such as [[Ibadism]],{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}} so that the real power base of Fatimids in Ifriqiya was quite narrow, resting on the Kutama soldiery, later extended by the [[Sanhaja]] Berber tribes as well. The historian [[Heinz Halm]] describes the early Fatimid state as being, in essence, "a hegemony of the Kutama and Sanhaja Berbers over the eastern and central Maghrib".{{sfn|Halm|2014}}

[[File:Islamic_Section_Mahdia_Museum_12082020_002.jpg|thumb|Fragments of [[mosaic]] pavement from the palace of [[Al-Qa'im (Fatimid caliph)|al-Qa'im]] in [[Mahdia|al-Mahdiyya]] (Mahdia), on display at the [[Mahdia Museum]]]]
In 912, al-Mahdi began looking for the site of a new capital along the Mediterranean shore.<ref name=":8" /> Construction of the new fortified palace city, [[Mahdia|al-Mahdiyya]], began in 916.{{sfn|Halm|2014}} The new city was officially inaugurated on 20 February 921, though construction continued after this.<ref name=":8" /> The new capital was removed from the Sunni stronghold of Kairouan, allowing for the establishment of a secure base for the Caliph and his Kutama forces without raising further tensions with the local population.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}}<ref name=":8" />

The Fatimids also inherited the Aghlabid province of [[Emirate of Sicily|Sicily]], which the Aghlabids had [[Muslim conquest of Sicily|gradually conquered]] from the [[Byzantine Empire]] starting in 827. The conquest was generally completed when the last [[Christians|Christian]] stronghold, [[Taormina]], was conquered by Ibrahim II in 902.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Davis-Secord |first=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RYUlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |title=Where Three Worlds Met: Sicily in the Early Medieval Mediterranean |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-5017-1258-6 |pages=119–20 |language=en |access-date=14 April 2022 |archive-date=16 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916020842/https://books.google.com/books?id=RYUlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Sfn|Halm|1996|p=107}} However, some Christian or Byzantine resistance continued in some spots in the northeast of Sicily until 967, and the Byzantines still held territories in southern Italy, where the Aghlabids had also campaigned.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=143}}<ref name=":05222">{{Cite book |last=Metcalfe |first=Alex |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three |publisher=Brill |year= |editor-last=Fleet |editor-first=Kate |location= |pages= |chapter=Italy, Islam in premodern |journal=The Encyclopaedia of Islam |issn=1873-9830 |editor-last2=Krämer |editor-first2=Gudrun |editor-last3=Matringe |editor-first3=Denis |editor-last4=Nawas |editor-first4=John |editor-last5=Rowson |editor-first5=Everett}}</ref>{{Sfn|Halm|1996|p=107}}<ref name=":2" /> This ongoing confrontation with the traditional foe of the Islamic world provided the Fatimids with a prime opportunity for propaganda, in a setting where geography gave them the advantage.{{sfn|Lev|1995|pp=194–95}} Sicily itself proved troublesome, and only after a rebellion under [[Ibn Qurhub]] was subdued, was Fatimid authority on the island consolidated.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=853}}