Moreover, Ibn al-Bāqillānī and other leading scholars authored treatises that lay bare the doctrines of the ʿUbaydiyya and expose the falsity of their lineage. Such, then, is their ancestry, and such is their creed. In the annals of our history I have already recorded, year by year, astonishing reports about their circumstances and exploits.

This man—a native of Salamiyya (1)—was deep-minded, shrewd, and deceitful, yet possessed of lofty ambition. He modelled himself on ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Khabīth (2), the leader of the Zanj revolt who devastated Basra and other places and held power for some thirteen years, ruining both land and people. He was a calamity upon the umma, and he was killed in 270 AH.

ʿUbayd Allah therefore realized that the sovereignty he coveted ought not to make its first appearance in Iraq or in Syria. He began by dispatching two crafty, devilish missionaries—the brothers Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shīʿī (3) and his brother Abū al-ʿAbbās. One surfaced in Yemen and the other in Ifriqiya; each affected asceticism and devotion, tutored the children of the populace, and stirred up a longing for the Imām al-Mahdī (4).