In the centuries following the Islamic conquest of their homeland, Banu 'Amilah's identity as a Shia community, often described as then being proto-Shia, solidified. However, their affiliation with the Twelver Shia theology was only solidified after an influx of migrant settlements in Lebanon in the 11th to 13th centuries, of Twelver Shia especially from eastern Arabia and southern Iraq. Prior to that, the Levant had been relatively receptive to the Ismaili theology – which for a time based its activities from Syria, as well as various Ghulat groups such as the Qarmatians, which ruled over the Beqaa Valley starting in the 9th century.