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The new sect carried out its propaganda by means of missionaries (daʿi) on the lines developed by the Hashimites. In this, as in most of its external features, it reproduces the characteristics usual amongst the mediaeval Shiʿites.

The organiser of the sect or masonic fraternity was ʿAbdullah, who is stated to have been the son of one Maymun. Sometimes ʿAbdullah is surnamed al-laddah (“the oculist”), as is done by Abu l-Feda, but more often this surname is given to his father Maymun. Maqrizi, referring to the Fatimids, says, “this family was traced to al-Husayn, the son of ʿAli ibn Abi Talib, but men are divided in the matter between two opinions: some treat it as true, but others deny that they are descendants of the Prophet and treat them as pretenders descended from Daysan the Dualist, who has given his name to the Dualists, and (say) that Daysan had a son whose name was Maymun al-Qaddah, and that he had a sect of extreme views. And Maymun had a son ʿAbdullah, and ʿAbdullah was learned in all the canon law and customs and sects” (Maqrizi, i. 348).