heavily on the personnel of the previous Aghlabid regime and the swords of the Kutama. His expansionist aims achieved only moderate success: two invasions of Egypt were beaten back by the Abbasids, leaving only the Cyrenaica in his hands, while the war with the Byzantine Empire in southern Italy was characterized by raids for plunder and slaves, and did not result in any lasting successes. In the west, his repeated attempts to impose Fatimid rule over the unruly Berbers were challenged not only by Berber rivalries, but also by the Umayyads of al-Andalus, and only secured temporary success. In 921 he moved his court to the newly built fortified palace city of Mahdiya on the Tunisian coast, and spent the rest of his life there. After his death in 934, he was succeeded by his only son, al-Qa'im. Early life Origin and childhood The future caliph al-Mahdi Billah was born in Askar Mukram, in the Persian province of Khuzistan, on 31 July 874 (12 Shawwal 260 AH) according to his official biography, or exactly one year earlier according to a different tradition. His original name was Sa'id ibn al-Husayn, although in later life he insisted that is real name was Ali, and Sa'id was just a cover name. His father, al-Husayn, died in 881/2, and Sa'id was sent to be fostered by his uncle Abu Ali Muhammad, known as Abu'l-Shalaghlagh, at the town of Salamiya, on the western edge of the Syrian Desert. On his journey he was joined by Ja'far, a boy who was a few months older than Sa'id and had been reared with him by the same wet-nurse. He became a eunuch and Sa'id's close confidant and chamberlain, and is one of the main sources about his life. Sa'id apparently had a brother, known only as Abu Muhammad, who did not follow him to Salamiya. Sa'id's family had been settled at Salamiya since the time of his great-grandfather, Abdallah al-Akbar, who also hailed from Askar Makram. While posing as a merchant, Abdallah al-Akbar and his descendants had in reality been the leaders of an extensive, underground political and religious movement, the Isma'ili ('invitation, calling'). This movement comprised a network of agents (s, 'callers') meant to gather faithful and prepare them for the return of a hidden imam as a messiah, the ('the Rightly Guided One') or ('He Who Arises'), to usher in the end times. The would