By 965, he had risen to become an important personality in the affairs of the Hamdanid emirate, as evidenced by the fact that he briefly served as hostage to the Byzantines during negotiations for a prisoner exchange.
The Battle of the Orontes was fought on 15 September 994 between the Byzantines and their Hamdanid allies under Michael Bourtzes against the forces of the Fatimid vizier of Damascus, the Turkish general Manjutakin.
On 7 July 981, while the Fatimid army was engaged in besieging Qassam in Damascus, Mufarrij openly rebelled against the Fatimids, and was joined by Bishara, the governor of Tiberias, who joined the bedouin along with many of his men, mostly former Hamdanid soldiers.
In 1175, he drove out the Hamdanid emir, Ali ibn Hakim al-Wahid, from Sana'a after the latter's army was weakened by continuous raids from the Zaidi tribes of Sa'dah.