Crossword-Solution: MAHDIA 6 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 12

The Zeirids maintained Mahdia (see ALGIERS), while other cities of the Maghrib were colonized by Arab tribes sent thither by the Cairene vizier.

During the Mahdia the city was destroyed and deserted, and when Kordofan passed, in 1899, into the possession of the Anglo-Egyptian authorities nothing was left of El Obeid but a part of the old government offices.

With his arrival there the centre of the Fatimite power was transferred from Mahdia and Kairawan to Egypt, and their original dominion became a province called al-Maghrib, which immediately fell into the hands of a hereditary dynasty, the Zeirids, acknowledging Fatimite suzerainty.

The fourth ruler of the Zeirid dynasty, called Mo'izz, endeavoured to substitute 'Abbasid suzerainty for Fatimite: his land was invaded by Arab colonies sent by the Fatimite caliph, with whom in 1051 Mo'izz fought a decisive engagement, after which the dominion of the Zeirids was restricted to the territory adjoining Mahdia; a number of smaller kingdoms rising up around them.

Under Ali Dinar, who during the _Mahdia_ had been kept a prisoner in Omdurman, Darfur enjoyed a period of peace.