In the event, due to a combination of lack of pay and supplies for the troops, and the fear generated by Ibn Tulun's army, Musa never got further than al-Raqqah. Originally a Turkic slave-soldier, in 868 Ibn Tulun was sent by the Abbasid caliph as governor to Egypt. In response, Ibn Tulun organized an army composed of Sudanese and Greek slave-soldiers. [1][3][5] Al-Aysar then tried to rebel in Damascus, but Khumarawayh swiftly suppressed his revolt and is said to have killed the rebel with his own hands. Ibn Tulun assumed the post of ʿāmil himself. Several other medieval Arabic chroniclers from the 13th to the 16th centuries mention Ibn Tulun or his officials, but most are of a later date and not very reliable, especially in comparison to Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi.

[2][22] For his own protection, Ibn Tulun reportedly employed a corps of ghilmān from Ghur. Through a series of measures, such as reforms to the tax system and undertaking repairs to the irrigation system, the annual tax yield grew markedly. Originally a Turkic slave-soldier, in 868 Ibn Tulun was sent by the Abbasid caliph as governor to Egypt.

Ibn Tulun created a fleet and fortified his borders and ports, including Alexandria, Akka—the latter undertaken by Abu Bakr al-Banna, the grandfather of al-Muqaddasi, who provides a detailed description[36][37]—and a new fortress on Rawda Island to protect Fustat. The Egyptian ruler laid siege to Tarsus in autumn 883, but Yazaman diverted the local river, inundating the Tulunid camp and forcing Ibn Tulun to retreat. Ibn Tulun laid siege to the city until Sima was killed, reportedly by a local woman. Only the governor of Aleppo, Sima al-Tawil, resisted, and fled to Antioch.

He proposed his daughter's marriage to a member of the caliphal family in Baghdad. The second treaty, reached with al-Muʿtadid in 892, confirmed the terms of the earlier accord.

Recognizing that he could not defeat the Tulunids, the new Caliph instead opted to conciliate them: in spring 893, al-Mu'tadid reconfirmed Khumarawayh in his office as autonomous governor over Egypt and Syria, in exchange for an annual tribute of 300,000 dinars and further 200,000 dinars in arrears, as well as the return to caliphal control of the two Jaziran provinces of Diyar Rabi'a and Diyar Mudar. At the same time, the governor of Tarsus, Yazaman al-Khadim, accepted Tulunid suzerainty, bringing the Cilician Thughūr under Tulunid control as well. At the Battle of Tawahin on 6 April, Khumarawayh confronted Abu'l-Abbas in person. Yarjukh not only confirmed Ibn Tulun in his post, but in addition conferred to him the authority over Alexandria, Barqa, and the Syrian frontier districts.

This position was confirmed by Ibn Tulun at the request of his generals shortly before his death on 10 May 884.

Rabi'ah ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun Last updated May 04, 2019. [9] The latter had been appointed as fiscal agent (ʿāmil) already since ca. [34], Map of the Tulunid domains towards the end of the reign of Ibn Tulun's successor, Khumarawayh, In the early 870s, a major change took place in the Abbasid government, as the Abbasid prince al-Muwaffaq emerged as the de facto regent of the empire, sidelining his brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid (r. 870–892).

The administration was also backed by Egypt's commercial, religious and social élite. or Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn (September 835 ndash; March 884) was the founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt briefly between 868 and 905 AD.

[60] His relations with the Abbasid government were dominated by his conflict with al-Muwaffaq, resulting from the latter's attempts to establish control over Egypt—whose wealth was direly needed during the costly war against the Zanj—and prevent the further rise of Ibn Tulun. [27] Ibn Tulun complied and began a mass purchase of black African (Sudān) and Greek (Rūm) slaves to form an army over the winter of 869/70, but no sooner had he arrived at al-Arish with his army in summer 870 than orders came to turn back.


Al-Mu'tadid swiftly took advantage of this: in 897 he extended his control over the border provinces of the Thughūr; forced the Tulunids to hand back all of Syria north of Homs; and increased the annual tribute to 450,000 dinars in exchange for caliphal recognition of Harun.

[1][3] Khumarawayh's accession was an important step in the gradual dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate: as Thierry Bianquis explains, "this was the first time in Abbasid history with regard to the government of so large and rich a territory, that a wāli, whose legitimacy derived from the caliph who had designated him, was succeeded openly by an amīr who claimed his legitimacy by inheritance". Khumarawayh's son Jaysh was a drunkard who executed his uncle, Mudar ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun; he was deposed after only a few months and replaced by his brother Harun ibn Khumarawayh. [28], Unsurprisingly, given his own origins as a slave soldier, Ibn Tulun's regime was in many ways typical of the "ghulām system" that became one of the two main paradigms of Islamic polities in the 9th and 10th centuries, as the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented and new dynasties emerged.

The only modern edition of al-Balawi provides the following list:[71], Despite the brief duration of his dynasty, Ibn Tulun's rule was a seminal event not only for Egypt, but for the entire Islamic world.

[13] In the rest of the provincial administration, however, he largely left the people who had served under Amajur in place. [43] In the autumn of 882, the Tulunid general Lu'lu' defected to the Abbasids.

In the event, however, the Caliph was overtaken at al-Haditha on the Euphrates by the governor of Mosul, Ishaq ibn Kundaj, who defeated the caliphal escort and brought him back to Samarra (February 883) and thence south to Wasit, where al-Muwaffaq could better control him.

In winter 870 he defeated an army sent against him by Ibn Tulun, but was driven to the oases of the desert in spring. Nevertheless, there were defections from the Tulunid army, most notably of the high-ranking commander Luʾluʾ in 883 to the Abbasids. As Khumarawayh was young and untested, one of Ibn Tulun's senior generals, Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Wasiti, encouraged the Abbasids to attack and recover control of the Tulunid territories.

The Egyptian ruler laid siege to Tarsus in autumn 883, but Yazaman diverted the local river, inundating the Tulunid camp and forcing Ibn Tulun to retreat. Ibn Tulun had his rival duly denounced in sermons in the mosques across the Tulunid domains, while the Abbasid regent responded in kind with a ritual denunciation of Ibn Tulun. Ibn Tulun marched into Syria in person. After being publicly paraded seated on a mule, Ibn Tulun ordered his son to execute or mutilate his companions, who had driven him to rebel.

Counting on the rivalry between the Caliph and his over-mighty brother to maintain his own position, Ibn Tulun forwarded a larger share of the taxes to al-Mu'tamid instead of al-Muwaffaq: 2.2 million dinars went to the Caliph and only 1.2 million dinars to his brother.

With the backing of the Tulunid regime's elites, Khumarawayh's succession was smooth; Abbas was forced to acknowledge Khumarawayh, but was assassinated shortly after. Finally, in December 904, two other sons of Ibn Tulun, Ali and Shayban, murdered their nephew and assumed control of the Tulunid state.

He soon succeeded in defeating the Tulunids and forcing them to retreat to Palestine, but after a quarrel with Ibn Kundaj and Ibn Abi'l-Saj, the latter abandoned the campaign and withdrew their forces. [2][4] While at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun fought in the frontier wars with the Byzantine Empire. [3], The later emirs of the dynasty were all ineffectual rulers, relying on their Turkish and black soldiers to run the affairs of the state. Counting on the rivalry between the Caliph and his over-mighty brother to maintain his own position, Ibn Tulun forwarded a larger share of the taxes to al-Mu'tamid instead of al-Muwaffaq: 2.2 million dinars went to the Caliph and only 1.2 million dinars to his brother. [13] Al-Muwaffaq, who in his fight against the Zanj considered himself entitled to the major share of the provincial revenues, was angered by this, and by the implied machinations between Ibn Tulun and his brother. Having served in his youth in the border wars with the Byzantine Empire at Tarsus, he now requested to be conferred the command of the frontier districts of Cilicia (the Thughūr).

[72] The new realm Ibn Tulun forged, encompassing Egypt and Syria as well as the Jazira and Cilicia, and to a lesser extent the eastern parts of the Maghreb, established a new political zone separated from the Islamic lands further east, restoring in a fashion the frontier that had existed between the Roman/Byzantine and Sassanid Persian realms in Antiquity. The project was a conscious emulation of, and rival to, the Abbasid capital Samarra.

[47], In the early 870s, a major change took place in the Abbasid government, as the Abbasid prince al-Muwaffaq emerged as the de facto regent of the empire, sidelining his brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid (r. 870–892).
The need for the establishment of an autonomous armed force became apparent after the revolt of ʿĪsā ibn al-S̲h̲ayk̲h, governor of Palestine, in 870. After Khumarawayh's death, his successor emirs were ineffectual rulers, allowing their Turkic and black slave-soldiers to run the affairs of the state.

The capital was moved from Fustat to al-Qata'i, where the celebrated mosque of Ibn Tulun was constructed. Ibn Tulun fell ill on his return to Egypt, and was carried to Fustat on a wheeled vehicle. [5] In the year 815/6 (200 AH) Tulun was taken captive along with other Turks, and sent as part of the tribute of the Samanid governor of Bukhara Nuh ibn Asad to the Caliph al-Ma'mun (reigned 813–833), who at the time resided in Khurasan. Financial exhaustion, political infighting and strides by the Abbasids would all contribute to the ruin of the Tulunids.

[65] Egypt was the basis of Ibn Tulun's power; he paid particular attention to restoring its economy, as well as establishing an autonomous bureaucracy, army, and navy. For example, he gave his daughter, Ḳaṭr al-Nadā, an extraordinary dowry of 400,000 - 1,000,000 dīnārs, for her wedding in 892 to the Abbasid al-Muʿtaḍid. He was succeeded by his brother, Harun. He also reformed the administration, aligning himself with the merchant community, and changing the taxation system.

There had previously been Coptic and Shia Alid-led movements in Egypt and Baghdad, without more than temporary and local success. Ibn Tulun refused and was replaced by another, who carried out the deed. Al-Qaṭāʾi was the short-lived Tulunid capital of Egypt, founded by Ahmad ibn Tulun in the year 868 CE. These regimes were based on the power of a regular army composed of the ghilmān, but in turn, according to Hugh N. Kennedy, "the paying of the troops was the major preoccupation of government". Several medieval authors wrote about Ahmad ibn Tulun. [3][7], The extravagant wedding shows Khumarawayh's famous frivolity with money—indeed it has been suggested that the whole affair was, in the words of the historian Ulrich Haarmann [de], "a calculated device on the part of the caliph to wreck the finances of his dangerously wealthy and powerful vassal". In addition, according to the sources, Khumarawayh never rode the same horse twice. [68][69][70], According to al-Balawi, from his various wives and concubines, Ibn Tulun had 33 children, 17 sons and 16 daughters. [4], Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn was a member of the mostly Central Asian Turkish guard formed initially in Baghdad, then later settled in Samarra, upon its establishment as the seat of the caliphate by al-Mu'tasim. [6][48] Al-Muwaffaq however was preoccupied with the more immediate threats to the Abbasid government presented by the rise of the Saffarids in the east and by the Zanj Rebellion in Iraq itself, as well as with keeping in check the Turkish troops and managing the internal tensions of the caliphal government.