Are there any islamic history afficcionados here who could answer my question: how do we make the fatimid caliphate stronger, in territory and influence?
Like, could we make them gain Morocco, while also retaining Sicily, for example?
Could the fatimids get so strong as to control a huge portion of the islamic world, much like the ummayyads and abbasids before them?
 
As soon Fatimids invaded Egypt and made it their core center, they lost a firm grasp on Islamic West (that was incredibly hard to rule as one entity due to geographical and tribal features).
So we have two possible Fatimid-wanks at hand : either Fatimid ends up dominating the Islamic West, either they ends dominating Islamic Middle-East.

As for the first possibility, you'd need to make Fatimids uninterested invading Egypt that IOTL was more vulnerable AND more wealthy than al-Maghrib or al-Andalus.
Then we can look at the other issues :

- al-Maghrib was a mess of various tribes, states, factions and different affiliations. IOTL, pro-Fatimid factions managed to take the lead in the region but never durably (places switched hands on a 10 to 20 year basis). At the very least, you need Omayyads being unable to intervene as much as they did IOTL in the region; and you have to make Morroco somewhat interesting enough for Fatimids that they clientelize (I dare not say outright conquer, but a partial conquest will be needed) the various Berber kingdoms.

-al-Andalus, once you screw it enough (for exemple, a much more crippling Xth century crisis) is relatively easier. Some rebels as Ibn Hafsun did pledged alliegance to Fatimids IOTL, so I could see a Fatimid support of muladi rebel would these be strong enough from the peninsula (that said, I don't expect all rebels to do so). Another interesting point would be that with Omayyad Spain being less able to pull back Christian advancies in the North, Fatimids could pull an Almohad (up to local resistance of an imperial takeover)

Let's remember, tough that Medieval North African empires had a tendency to split up really quickly : OTL fatimids have just conquered Egypt when Maghrib and Ifriqyia get off the radar, Almoravids and Almohads had to pratically use Al-Andalus as an autonomous viceroyalty in order to keep it.

Interestingly, due the contradiction of Arabo-Andalusian, Fatimid's Shiism could do better than it did in Egypt *if* Fatimids manage to hold the peninsula long enough.

Sicily could be, ITTL, being indeed a firm part of Fatimid imperial sphere, as long as it holds.
 
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