[617] See our note 2, p. 400-401, relative to Sáid, under the name of Muhammed Obaid-alla, Mahdi. The friends and enemies of the Fatemites concur in the account, that he descended from Maimún, surnamed _Kaddah_, “the oculist,” whom some make a descendant of Ali, whilst others say that he was the son of _Daísan_, “the dualist,” so called because he ascribed the good to God and the evil to man, and some attribute to him an origin, not only foreign to the race of the prophet, but even connected with a Magian and Jewish lineage. Obaid-allah made Kairwan or Kurm (the ancient Cyrene) the capital of his dominion, but at the same time he laid the foundation of a new capital, which he called _Mahedia_, from his assumed surname _Mahdi_. Abu Tamim Moadd Moezzledin allah, the fourth in descent from Obaid allah, but the first acknowledged Fatimite khalif removed his seat to Cairo in Egypt: this town became then the rival of Baghdad, which continued to be the residence of the ancient line of khalifs. Moezz died in the year of the Hejira 365, A. D. 975. [618] Abu Yazid, according to Abulfeda (_Annal. Mosl._, vol. II. p. 240), was a barbarian of the tribe of Zenata (one of the Berbers), son of Condad and an Ethiopian mother. He feigned sanctity, and belonged to a sect inimical to the Muselmans, whom he persecuted with relentless fury. Herbelot says, he was a chancellor of Abúl-Kasem Muhammed Kayem, the second khalif of the Fatimites, who succeeded his father Obaid-alla, in the year of the Hejira 322 (A. D. 933). Abu Yazid rose in rebellion against his master, and brought the empire to the greatest peril; but, after many successes and conquests, he was defeated, taken prisoner, and died of his wounds, in the year of the Hejira 336 (A. D. 947). [619] Abu Yazid’s conqueror was the above mentioned Abu Teher Ismâil, son of Kayem, the third khalif of the Fatimites, who succeeded his father in the year of the Hejira 334 (A. D. 945). His surname was, besides the above stated, _al Mansur ba kuvet allah_, “victorious by the power of God,” to which is often substituted _Mostanser billah_, as in Makrisi (see _Chrestom. arabe_, vol I. pp. 84-91). He was succeeded by his son, in the year of the Hejira 341 (A. D. 952).