The political career of the Fatimids centres in North Africa and Egypt, and commences with the activity of Ibn Hawshab, who himself never visited those parts. This man, whom Maqrizi calls Abu l-Kasam Hasan b. Farash b. Hawshab, and Abu l-Fera and Bibars Mansuri, referred to as Rustam b. Husayn b. Hawshab b. Zadam an-Najjar (“the carpenter”), was a follower of Ahmad whom we have seen as succeeding his father ʿAbdullah, and accompanied him on a pilgrimage to the sacred sites of the Shiʿites, the tombs of Hasan and Husayn and of several of the later Imams, all in the neighbourhood of Kufa and Samarra,—ʿAli’s own tomb is not known for certain, but is commonly believed to be at Najaf, near Kufa. Whilst there they noticed a wealthy Shiʿite of Yemen named Muhammad himself remarked by his tears and display of grief (Maqrizi i. 349). According to this Yemenite’s own account he had just read the Sura of “The Grotto” (Qur. 18), when he noticed an old man with a young companion close at hand. The old man sat down, his companion sat near, but kept on observing Muhammad, until at last he left the old man and drew near him. Muhammad asked him who he was; he gave his name as Husayn, and hearing this sacred name Muhammad could not restrain his tears. The old man observed this very attentively, and bids the young man ask him to join them. When Muhammad did so he asked who and what he was. The man replied that he was a Shiʿite, and gave his name as Hasan b. Faraj b. Hawshab. The old man said that he knew his father, and that he was a “Twelver.” Did the son hold the same views? Hasan replied that he always had held them, but that of late he had felt much discouragement (cf. extract in Quatremère, _Journal asiatique_, for Aug., 1836). From this a conversation commenced, and as a result Hasan was converted to acceptance of the Ismaʿilian creed. Further, Ahmad drew the conclusion that Yemen would offer a promising field for Shiʿite propaganda, and decided to send Ibn Hawshab to act as _daʿi_ in Yemen, and about A.H. 270 (= A.D. 883) he appears there as settled in the district of the B. Musa tribe at Sana (Maq. i. 349). At first he claimed to be simply a merchant, but his neighbours soon penetrated his disguise and urged him to act openly as a Shiʿite missionary who, they assured him, would be in every way welcome (Bibars Mansuri). Thus encouraged he declared himself a Shiʿite agent, and soon gathered a considerable band of followers drawn, not only from the immediate vicinity, but also from the Qarmatians of Mesopotamia. As soon as they were strong enough Ibn Hawshab’s companions took up arms and began raids upon neighbours who had not accepted the Shiʿite creed and met with much success in obtaining plunder.