 The Qarmatians sent fleets to aid to the rebels, but Hasan was able to capture seven of their ships and 500 crew near Tinnis.The Berbers, and especially the Kutama, had traditionally provided the mainstay of the Fatimid armies, and had played the main role in the takeover of Ifriqiya and the conquest of Egypt and the southern Levant.Under Caliph al-Aziz Billah (r. 975–996), however, they had begun to be eclipsed by Turkish and Daylamite mercenaries from the Islamic East, on whom al-Aziz bestowed patronage, while conversely the Fatimids failed to attract new recruits from the Kutama homeland.