When the Qarmatians attacked Ikhshidid-controlled Palestine in 968, the leading Tayyid clan of Jarrah came with them and firmly established themselves in the country. However, under the Jarrahid chieftains, the Tayy assisted the Fatimids, who conquered the Ikhshidids, against the Qarmatians in 971 and 977. During the latter occasion, the Jarrahid chieftain Mufarrij ibn Daghfal captured the pro-Qarmatian rebel, Alptakin, and handed him over to the Fatimids in exchange for a large reward. In return for his support, Mufarrij was appointed by the Fatimids as the governor of Ramla, the traditional Muslim capital of Palestine. Mufarrij was also the preeminent chieftain of the Banu Tayy tribe as a whole, giving him authority over his Bedouin and peasant kinsmen in an area extending from the coast of Palestine eastward through Balqa and to the Tayy's traditional homeland in northern Arabia. While his Fatimid assignment gave him prestige, Mufarrij's tribal authority was the source of his independent power. The Tayyid-dominated region was the location of the overland routes connecting Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Arabia. This gave Mufarrij significant leverage with the Fatimids, who thus could not afford alienating him and risk him switching allegiance to the Fatimids' rivals in Iraq, the Buwayhids.