An effort by Abdallah to replace the Malikite law schools with Hanifites from Iraq also fails.

He is murdered in 903 by his son Abu Muda Ziyadat Allah, who immediately has all his brothers and uncles executed to eliminate any possible rivals.

While this massacre secures his position in the short term, the Aghlabid dynasty loses any remaining prestige it had had in the eyes of the people.

The decline of the Aghlabid dynasty of Ifriqiya had begun under Ibrahim II ibn Ahmad (875-902).

An attack by the Tulunids of Egypt had had to be repelled and a revolt of the Berbers put down with much loss of life.

In addition, in 893 there had begun among the Kutama Berbers the movement of the Shiite Fatimids to overthrow the Aghlabids.

Ubaydalla Said has captured the cities of Kairouan and …

…Raqqada and has taken an oath of allegiance from the people.

By 909, the Aghlabid Dynasty is overthrown and replaced with the Ismaili Shiite Fatimid dynasty, which claims descent from Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, through Ismail, the older, disinherited son of the sixth Shiite imam, Jafar ibn Muhammad.

Al-Mahdi Billah proclaims himself as the Imam in 909.