Following the death of his father Idris I, Abd al-Wāḥid became the new caliph, marking the beginning of the final fragmentation of the Almohad Caliphate. He was not able to oust Yahya from Marrakesh, while the Emir of Tlemcen become independent from 1236, following the example of the Hafsid ruler Abu Zakariya Yahya in Tunisia. Due to unrest in the southern part of the caliphate, he had to turn his attention away from recapturing Marrakesh and Tlemcen and focused on quelling the rebellions in the southern Sahara realm of the caliphate. He campaigned against the rebels in the Sahara decisively crushing them and ending their rebellion in 1239. He then focused his attention towards recapturing his lost territories.