In the meantime, profiting from the Fihrid family quarrel, the Ibadites that Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib had driven into the Tripolitan hills of Jebel Nafusa in 752 mounted a comeback. Rallied by their new imam Abu al-Khattab al-Ma'afiri, the Ibadites seized Tripoli sometime in 757. Although also a Kharijite sect, the Ibadites were considerably less fanatical than the Sufrites and were horrified to hear of the massacres in Kairouan.