The chief point is that there were so many alternative forms of the genealogy, and close scrutiny shows very weak points in every one of them. To the fully initiated this was a very small matter, as no importance was attached to the claim to the Imamate or to the descent from ʿAli at all. No doubt all these pedigrees served their purpose in dealing with the different types of proselytes, and their very diversity tends to prove that they were actually accepted and circulated in a sect which adapted its teachings to suit the opinions of the different classes with which it came into contact. It was not until the Fatimids became a political power that any need was felt to bring these various genealogies into any kind of agreement, and then, no doubt, the variant forms circulated by the different missionaries were a source of embarrassment. III THE QARMATIANS We turn now to the formation of the important branch of the Ismaʿilian sect known as the Qarmatians, which is particularly interesting as we have detailed accounts of its formation which show how the propaganda worked, and illustrate the ease with which an armed group could set up an independent robber state in this period of the decay of the Khalifate. Of the history of their founding there are two leading narratives slightly divergent in details,—which De Goeje (pp. 13-17) calls A. and B. A. given by De Sacy (_Druses_, pp. clxvi., etc.) is that of Nuwayri, who drew his information from Akhu Muhsin, who obtained it from Ibn Razzam, and the substance, drawn from the same sources, appears in the _Fihrist_. B. (in De Sacy clxxi., etc.) is really the account given by Tabari, and is based on the description given by a person who had been present at the examination of Zaqruyah the Qarmatian by Muhammad b. Dawud b. al-Jarrah. The A. account is as follows.