Hearing of Ilyas's defeat, Abd al-Wareth and remaining partisans of Ilyas fled south and took shelter among the Warfajuma Berbers. A sub-tribe of the Nafzawa, the Warfajuma had been fired up by Kharijite (Sufrites) and broken away during the Great Berber Revolt of 740s. Abd al-Wareth set about plotting with their chieftain Asim ibn Jamil al-Warfajumi to take power in Kairouan and depose his nephew Habib.