Mahdi’s Journey \Ve have seen before that Mahdi had started from Salamiya m 289 A. H. He had reached Hims in Syria where he received the news that the Qarmatians had invaded Salamiya, had killed his Dai, Hussain a !-Ahwazi; had tortured many of his family and followers’ left behind and had looted his treasury. So he now proceeded onward to Egypt. Me was equally distant from both Yaman and the Maghrib. In Yamam he had set his Dais Ibn Hawshab and Ibn Fazl, who established a state in the mountain lands, north of Sanaa. But the Qarmatian activities here made Mahdi give up the idea of going to Yaman.
In Egypt Malidi had with him his Chief Dai. Firuz. It was he who had recruited tlie two biothers in the service of Mahdi, Abu Abbas and! Abu Abdullah. The latter was sent to Yaman but when it was decided that Yaman was not to be the place of the Fatimid Caliphate, Abu Abdu Hah was with drawn and sent to the Maghrib. In the ineantime the Chief Dai Firuz, who did not like going to the Maghrib, revolted against Mahdi became a Qarmatian and went to Yaman to stir up a revolt there. But he did not succeed and was killed.3
