It was a time of millennialist expectations, coinciding with a deep crisis of the Abbasid Caliphate during the decade-long Anarchy at Samarra, the rise of breakaway and autonomous regimes in the provinces, and the large-scale Zanj Rebellion, whose leader claimed Alid descent and proclaimed himself as the mahdi.

[1] In this chaotic atmosphere, and with the Abbasids preoccupied with suppressing the Zanj uprising, the Isma'ili missionaries found fertile ground, aided by dissatisfaction among the adherents of the rival Twelver branch of Shi'a Islam with the political quietism of their leadership and the recent disappearance of their own imam.

[3][4] In this period, the Isma'ili movement was based at Salamiya on the western edge of the Syrian Desert, and its leadership was assumed by Sa'id ibn al-Husayn, the future founder of the Fatimid Caliphate.

[7] After his role in the murder of Abdan, Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh escaped Iraq and resumed his missionary efforts among the Bedouin tribes of the eastern Syrian Desert, but with little success.

[16] In recent years, however, the consensus follows the analysis of Heinz Halm, which has shown that Zakarawayh and his sons remained loyal to Sa'id, and that their actions aimed at securing possession of Syria and triggering a general rebellion against the Abbasids.

[18][14] From their base in the region around Palmyra, the Fatimid Bedouin began launching raids against the Abbasid and Tulunid provinces of Syria, with devastating effect.

[17][22] In view of the apparent impotence of the Tulunid regime to stop the Bedouin raids, the Syrians called upon the Abbasid government to intervene directly, and on 30 July 903, Caliph al-Muktafi commanded that a campaign be undertaken.

[16] Enraged about the apparent abandonment by the supposed divinely-guided imam, the Sahib al-Shama turned against him: his residence at Salamiya was destroyed, and all family members and servants encountered there executed.

[17][32] This atrocity, along with the failure of the uprising, led later Fatimid historians to try and excise Sa'id's relationship with the sons of Zakarawayh in what Halm calls an act of damnatio memoriae.

When a servant was sent to buy provisions in the settlement, he aroused the suspicions of the villagers with his strange dress and manner, so that they notified a local official, Abu Khubzah.

In 906, the Banu Kalb, under Abu Ghanim Nasr, rose up in rebellion, raided the Hawran and Tiberias, and launched a failed attack on Damascus.

As a result, the Isma'ili activities shifted east to the Euphrates, where Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh (the father of al-Husayn and Yahya) had also rebelled in 906 near Kufa.

After leading an unsuccessful attack on Kufa and number of devastating raids on Hajj caravans, he too was killed in early 907 by caliphal troops under Wasif ibn Sawartakin near al-Qadisiyya.

With these defeats, the Isma'ili movement virtually ceased to exist in the Syrian Desert, although their counterparts in Bahrayn remained an active threat for several decades to come.

[39][40][41] More importantly, the defeat of the Fatimid Bedouin at Hama opened the way for the Abbasids to recover the provinces of southern Syria and Egypt, held by the Tulunids.

The campaign met with little opposition; the Tulunid emir Harun ibn Khumarawayh was even assassinated by his uncles, whereupon several senior commanders switched sides.