When al-Mustansir succeeded to the Fatimid throne in 427 Shibl ad-Dawla thought it prudent to conciliate him by large gifts of booty won from the Greeks, and the Khalif confirmed him as governor of Aleppo. Two years later Anushtakin considered that the time had come to make another attempt on Aleppo, and advanced against the city with a large army. Shibl ad-Dawla went out against him, and a battle took place near the Orontes in the month of Shaban 429, in which the forces of Aleppo were defeated, Shibl ad-Dawla slain, and his brother Muʿizz ad-Dawla compelled to flee. After this Muʿizz ad-Dawla went to ʿIraq, leaving deputies in charge of Aleppo under whose rule the city quickly fell into a state of anarchy, so that Anushtakin was able to take possession and appoint his own governors, and thus Aleppo once more became part of the Fatimid empire. This was the zenith of the Fatimid power in Syria and was mainly due to the capacity of Anushtakin, and after this the Fatimid Empire began a rapid decline. Anushtakin had himself aroused the jealousy and suspicion of the wazir al-Jarjarai, and had to meet his most serious opposition from the court at Cairo. Ill-advised by his wazir, al-Muntasir granted Aleppo as a fief to Muʿizz ad-Dawla, and Anushtakin was compelled to conduct him to the city to be invested. On the way Anushtakin, already ill and much mortified by the deliberate destruction of the work he had so efficiently executed, died (_A.H._ 433), and his successor Nasir ad-Dawla, whom we shall see afterwards as a sinister character in Egypt, placed Muʿizz ad-Dawla in possession of the city. To survey briefly the subsequent history of Aleppo which now ceased to be of primary importance to Egyptian history: Muʿizz ad-Dawla was confirmed in his appointment by the Khalif in 436, and at the same time made good terms with the Greek Empress Theodora, and with the Saljuk Tughril Beg who was Sultan at the court of the ʿAbbasid Khalif. In 449 he exchanged Aleppo for Bairut, ʿAkka, and Jubail, being replaced by two Fatimid governors at Aleppo. In 452 Mahmud, his nephew, tried to seize the city and succeeded in occupying it for a short time, after which it was re-taken by Muʿizz ad-Dawla, who then held it until his death in 453. Before he expired he appointed his brother ʿAtiya as his successor, but Mahmud made war against his uncle and, helped by the Greeks, recovered Aleppo in 457. Soon after this, as Mahmud was convinced that the Fatimid rule in Syria was in its final decay, he made his submission to the Khalif of Baghdad and his Sultan Alp Arslan. This change was unpopular in Aleppo where the people were attached to the Shiʿite sect; there was no open resistance but clearly expressed discontent. The worshippers stripped the great mosque of its prayer mats, saying that these had been bought or given for Shiʿite services; let those who wished to pray in the Sunni fashion buy others for themselves.