Facsimile · p. 75
The blessed Eid al-Adha in the year 359 AH / 970 AD, he participated with the Muslims in celebrating this great Islamic holiday and circumambulated with the Muslims in the city of Dongola after they performed the Eid prayer in the open, in complete freedom as if they were residents of the country. While they were circumambulating the city, they were raising Fatimid flags bearing the name of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, beating drums and trumpets. This is the best evidence that Muslims enjoyed complete freedom in practicing their faith. Fatiman 'alayhim. Ibn Salim al-Aswani and Niqan believed that they were a good nucleus for spreading Islam and Arab-Islamic culture in the regions of Nubia. Furthermore, the Fatimid era witnessed the establishment of Arab-Nubian principalities which took Aswan as their center and their influence extended south to the land of Meroe. It is believed that this Arab-Islamic principality formed a ruling class to which the Nubians of Meroe were subjected, and from whom the actual authority of the Christian King of Nubia was removed, especially after most of his subjects became Muslims. The news of Banu Rabi'ah, known by the title Kanz al-Dawla, which was granted to them by the Fatimid Caliph, has faded. Poets and writers sought them out and praised them. One of the leaders of this principality was among the masterminds of the conspiracy intended to reinstate the Fatimid Caliph, Prince Dawud ibn al-'Adid, as Caliph of Egypt and restore the Fatimid Caliphate, a conspiracy that Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi managed to suppress, killing its leader from Banu Kanz and thousands of his followers in the year 1176 AD. Nevertheless, Banu Kanz regained their influence and extended their authority over the northern part of Nubia and worked to spread Islamic influence and propagate the Islamic creed in the country, and even encouraged the Islamic movement. Their influence continued into the Mamluk era. This Arab-Islamic Nubian principality is a clear image of the Arab-Islamic life that later Arabs preserved in their new homeland. 733