For forty days ʿUbayd Allah remained at Sijalmasa, and then, towards the end of Rabiʿ II. 297 he was conducted by Abu ʿAbdullah to Raqada. Here he assumed the title of “al-Mahdi, Commander of the Faithful,” and on the following Friday was prayed for under that title in the mosques of Raqada and Kairawan. On the same day the Sherif and the _duʿat_ held a public meeting, at which they tried to persuade the people of Raqada to become professed members of the Ismaʿilian sect. In this, however, they were only partially successful, although lavish rewards were offered to those who joined, and many of those who definitely refused were imprisoned, some even put to death. In fact we are now in quite different surroundings: the Mahdi was a successful adventurer, and had every prospect of establishing a principality quite as stable, and more independent than that of the Aghlabids: the religious pretensions of the Shiʿite party were only an embarrassment. From this time forward the Ismaʿilian sectaries form a privileged class, on the whole disliked and despised by the people generally, who were quite ready to submit to the Mahdi’s government, though deriding its spiritual claims; and the tendency is for the ruler rather to disembarrass himself of the sectaries. Ziadat Allah’s harim was then presented to the Mahdi who, after selecting such women as met with his approval for himself and his son, distributed the remainder amongst the chief men of the Katama. As soon as ʿUbayd Allah had entered Raqada the citizens had waited on him to obtain the renewal of the amnesty accorded by Abu ʿAbdullah. He replied to them, “Your lives and your children are safe.” They asked him if he would give them a similar assurance as to their property, but this he refused. This caused great anxiety amongst the citizens, who gathered that their property was regarded as at the disposal of the Shiʿites. At first ʿUbayd Allah showed a much more violent Shiʿism than Abu ʿAbdullah, although we seem justified in supposing that he was merely an adventurer who was entirely without religious convictions, whilst Abu ʿAbdullah seems to have been a devout Shiʿite: but this is by no means the only instance in history where religious persecution was carried out most severely by unbelievers. He caused the “Companions,” _i.e._, the three Khalifs preceding ʿAli, to be reviled openly, just as ʿAli himself had formerly been cursed publicly every Friday in the mosque of Damascus; and he strictly prohibited the canonists from teaching or using any system of jurisprudence other than that attributed to Jaʿfar as-Sadiq.