Before the creation of the system of state-sponsored madrasas in the eleventh century, the process by which Muslim converts in non-urban areas learned about Islam after conversion remains fairly obscure. In the absence of official institutions for teaching about Islam, what informal measures arose? Focusing on the example of the pre-Fatimid Isma’ili da’wa in the Maghrib during the eighth and ninth centuries, this paper argues that ‘heterodox’ da’wa organizations played a significant role in the Islamization of remote areas of the Middle East. The questions of how and when the Middle East became predominately Muslim and how those new Muslims learned about their faith are without clear, good answers. Richard Bulliet and Nehemia Levtzion have done groundbreaking work, showing that conversions to Islam happened in different ways and people converted for a myriad of reasons. In tribal areas, such as the Maghrib, conversions tended to happen en masse, as a product of the Islamic conquests; Berber tribes were considered to have accepted Islam when they submitted politically to Islamic forces. But conversion cannot be equated with Islamization: the process by which Muslim converts learned about Islamic practice and about what it meant to be Muslim. New Muslims who moved into emerging Islamic cities learned about Islam from other Muslims, but almost nothing is known about Islamization outside of urban areas. While the activities of ‘heterodox’ movements in the eighth and ninth centuries cannot be limited to the pre-Fatimid Isma’ili da’wa in the Maghrib, the activities of this group demonstrates the significant role of ‘heterodox’ movements in the non-urban areas. Surviving sources on the pre-Fatimid da’wa, such as Kitab al-‘Alim wa al-Ghulam by Ja’far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (d. ca. 960), Sirat Ja’far al-Hajib by Ja’far al-Hajib (d. fl. tenth century), and the Iftitah al-Da’wa by Qadi al-Nu’man (d. 974), show how Isma’ili da’is in remote areas taught isolated Muslim communities about hadith, the Qur’an, and the basics of Islamic practice. While Fatimid sources on their own history cannot be divorced from their religio-political agenda, they are some of the few sources that address isolated tribal groups in the Maghrib searching for information and education about Islam. Focusing on non-urban Muslims of the Maghrib and their relationship with the Isma’ili da’wa shows how Muslim communities far from urban centers sought out knowledge about Islam and learned about their faith in an era before ‘orthodoxy’ was established and institutionalized.