The increase of Russian influence on the northern Persian border and its extension southwards towards Seistan led to the appointment of a British consul at Kirman, the dominating Kirman.
Thence he marched into Fars and Kirman, where he maintained peace and kept the inhabitants in their allegiance to Ali.
Ahwaz (Khuzistan), Fars and Kirman were easily subdued, but in Khorasan the Azd could not prevail over the Tamim, who were loyal to the caliph.
His brothers and sons fled to Basra; thence they went by sea to Kirman and then to Kandabil in India; but they were pursued relentlessly and slain with only two exceptions by the officers of Maslama.
The empire was by this time practically reduced to the province of Bagdad; Khorasan and Transoxiana were in the hands of the Samanids, Fars in those of the Buyids; Kirman and Media were under independent sovereigns; the Hamdanids possessed Mesopotamia; the Sajids Armenia and Azerbaijan; the Ikshidites Egypt; as we have seen, the Fatimites Africa, the Carmathians Arabia.