A number of the Kutama rose up against him, but through a stratagem he prevailed and killed them. (1)

The people of Tripoli also rebelled, so he equipped his son al-Qāʾim, who captured the city by force; he went on to conquer Barqa (2) and then Sicily (3). Twice he dispatched al-Qāʾim to seize Egypt, and each time he returned defeated. (4)

He founded the city of al-Mahdiyya in the year 308 AH. (5)

He left six sons and seven daughters; the last of them to die was Aḥmad, who lived on until 382 AH in Egypt.

During al-Mahdī’s days the Qarmaṭians laid waste to Bahrain: they attacked the pilgrims, killing, plundering, and taking captives; they violated the Sacred Precinct and wrenched out the Black Stone.

ʿUbayd Allah used to correspond with them and incite them—may Allah fight him.

I recorded in my History of Islam that in 270 AH the Mahdī’s mission emerged in Yemen. He had already sent out two propagandists—Abū al-Qāsim ibn Ḥawshab al-Kūfī and Abū al-Ḥusayn—claiming that he was the son of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl, son of the Truthful Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad. (6)

Al-Muʾayyad al-Ḥamawī relates in his History (7) that the Mahdī’s name