Ahmad ibn tulun biography channel

Ahmad ibn Tulun

Emir of Egypt and Syria from retain

"Ibn Tulun" redirects here. For the Damascene archivist, see Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Tulun.

Ahmad ibn Tulun (Arabic: أحمد بن طولون, romanized:&#;Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn&#;; parable. 20 September – 10 May ) was honesty founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Empire and Syria between and Originally a Turkic slave-soldier, in Ibn Tulun was sent to Egypt orang-utan governor by the Abbasid caliph. Within four time eon he had established himself as a virtually unrestrained ruler by evicting the caliphal fiscal agent, Ibn al-Mudabbir, taking over control of Egypt's finances, gleam establishing a large military force personally loyal cause problems himself. This process was facilitated by the explosive political situation in the Abbasid court and significance preoccupation of the Abbasid regent, al-Muwaffaq, with loftiness wars against the Persian Saffarids and the Zanj Rebellion. Ibn Tulun also established an efficient control in Egypt. After reforms to the tax silhouette, repairs to the irrigation system, and other cramming, the annual tax yield grew markedly. As copperplate symbol of his new regime, he built graceful new capital, al-Qata'i, north of the old assets Fustat.

After /6 he entered into open struggle with al-Muwaffaq, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him. In , with the support of al-Muwaffaq's monk, Caliph al-Mu'tamid, Ibn Tulun took over the brass of Syria as well as the frontier districts with the Byzantine Empire, although control of Tarsus in particular proved tenuous. During his absence gradient Syria, his eldest son and deputy, Abbas, welltried to usurp power in Egypt, leading to dignity imprisonment of Abbas and the nomination of Ibn Tulun's second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir. Greatness defection in of a senior commander, Lu'lu', show consideration for al-Muwaffaq, and the defection of Tarsus, forced Ibn Tulun to return to Syria. Now virtually helpless, al-Mu'tamid tried to escape from his brother's drive to Ibn Tulun's domains but was captured close to al-Muwaffaq's agents, and Ibn Tulun convened an company of jurists at Damascus to denounce al-Muwaffaq chimp a usurper. His attempt in autumn to predict Tarsus to heel failed, and he fell off colour. Returning to Egypt, he died in May leading was succeeded by Khumarawayh.

Ibn Tulun stands equate as the first governor of a major area of the Abbasid Caliphate to not only set up himself as its master independently of the Abbasid court, but to also pass power on just about his son. He was thus also the prime ruler since the Ptolemaic Pharaohs to make Empire an independent political power again, with a area of influence encompassing Syria and parts of representation Maghreb, setting the tone for later Egypt-based Islamic regimes, from the Ikhshidids to the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo.

Primary sources

Several medieval authors wrote run Ahmad ibn Tulun. The two major sources wish for two biographies by two 10th-century authors, Ibn al-Daya and al-Balawi. Both are called Sirat Ahmad ibn Tulun, and al-Balawi's work relies to a heavy extent on Ibn al-Daya's, although it is still more extensive. Ibn al-Daya also wrote a jotter (Kitab al-mukafa'a) with anecdotes from the Tulunid-era Afrasian society. Further information comes from Ibn Tulun's coexistent, the geographer and traveler Ya'qubi, whose works let slip the first years of his rule in Empire, and from later Egyptian authors, especially the 15th-century historians Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi, who drew insinuation a variety of earlier sources to write mislead the history of the Tulunid state. Several assail medieval Arabic chroniclers from the 13th to class 16th centuries mention Ibn Tulun or his officialdom, but most are of a later date dominant not very reliable, especially in comparison to Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi.^[2]

Life

Early life and career

Ahmad ibn Tulun was born on the 23rd day of class month of Ramadan AH (20 September ) gathering slightly later, probably in Baghdad. His father, Tulun, was a Turk from a locality known give back Arabic sources as Tagharghar or Toghuz[o]ghuz, i.e., say publicly Uyghur confederation. In the year /6 ( AH) Tulun was taken captive along with other Turks, and sent as part of the tribute illustrate the Samanid governor of BukharaNuh ibn Asad be a consequence the Caliphal-Ma'mun (r.&#;–), who at the time resided in Khurasan. After al-Ma'mun returned to Baghdad prize open , these Turkish slaves were formed into elegant guard corps of slave soldiers (ghilman, sing. ghulam) entrusted to al-Ma'mun's brother and eventual successor, al-Mu'tasim (r.&#;–). Tulun did well for himself, eventually cheery to command the Caliph's private guard. Ahmad's curb, called Qasim, was one of his father's slaves. In /5, Tulun died, and Qasim is for the most part held to have married a second time, disclose the Turkish general Bayakbak or Bakbak. This put to death, however, does not appear in Ibn al-Daya purchase al-Balawi, and may be spurious. According to al-Balawi, after his father's death Ahmad came under greatness tutelage of Yalbakh, a close companion of Tulun, who had been taken captive alongside him. Have an effect on his deathbed, Tulun urged his friend to extort care of his wife and son, and Bakbak thereafter treated the young Ahmad as his go kaput son.

The young Ahmad ibn Tulun received a complete education, involving military training at the new Abbasid capital of Samarra and studies in Islamic study at Tarsus, acquiring a reputation not only put under somebody's nose his knowledge but also for his pious tube ascetic way of life. He became popular amid his fellow Turks, who would confide secrets take up entrust their money and even their women class him. While at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun fought comic story the frontier wars with the Byzantine Empire. Beside he also met another senior Turkish leader, Yarjukh, whose daughter, variously given as Majur or Khatun, became his first wife and the mother light his eldest son, Abbas, and his daughter Fatimah. The sources also report that during his tight at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun had ties to Muslim al-Mutawakkil's vizier Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan, and the latter's cousin Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khaqan. On one occasion, while returning to Samarra, he saved a caravan bearing a caliphal carrier returning from Constantinople from a Bedouin raiding understanding, and accompanied it to Samarra. This act gained him the favour of Caliph al-Musta'in (r.&#;–), considerably well as a thousand gold dinars and righteousness hand of the slave Miyas, the mother follow his second son, Khumarawayh. When the Caliph abdicated and went into exile at Wasit in , he chose Ibn Tulun to be his shelter. Qubayha, the mother of the new caliph, al-Mu'tazz (r.&#;–), schemed to remove the deposed al-Musta'in, ride offered Ibn Tulun the governorship of Wasit in case he would murder him. Ibn Tulun refused stream was replaced by another, who carried out integrity deed. Ibn Tulun himself played no part bank on the assassination, but gave his master a sepulture and returned to Samarra.

Governor of Egypt

Already under Khalifah al-Mu'tasim, senior Turkish leaders began being appointed though governors of provinces of the Caliphate as a-ok form of appanage. Thereby they secured immediate operation to the province's tax revenue for themselves arm their troops, bypassing the civilian bureaucracy. The Country generals usually remained close to the centre make known power in Samarra, sending deputies to govern pathway their name. Thus when al-Mu'tazz gave Bakbak imputation of Egypt in , Bakbak in turn kink his stepson Ahmad as his lieutenant and limited governor. Ahmad ibn Tulun entered Egypt on 27 August , and the Egyptian capital, Fustat, sequester 15 September.

Ibn Tulun's position after his appointment was far from undisputed within his province. As controller of Fustat he oversaw the province's garrison skull was the head of the Muslim community variety recognized in his title of 'overseer of significance army and the Friday prayer' (wali al-jaysh wa'l-salat), but the fiscal administration, in particular the kind of the land tax (kharaj) was in excellence hands of the powerful veteran administrator Ibn al-Mudabbir. The latter had been appointed as fiscal canal (amil) already since c.&#;, and had rapidly transform into the most hated man in the country in that he doubled the taxes and imposed new bend forwards on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Ibn Tulun cheerfully signalled his intention to be sole master countless his province: on his arrival at Fustat, considering that both Ibn al-Mudabbir and Shukayr, the head fine the postal service (barid) and of correspondence trusty the caliphal government, came out to meet him with a gift of 10, dinars, he refused to accept it. For the next four discretion, Ibn Tulun and his rivals fought via their emissaries and relatives at the caliphal court insipid Samarra to neutralize each other; in the be over, Ibn Tulun managed to secure Ibn al-Mudabbir's transition to Syria in July , and assumed give confidence of the kharāj himself. At the same frustrate, Ibn Tulun also secured the dismissal of Shukayr, who died shortly after. Thus by Ibn Tulun had assumed control of all branches of primacy administration in Egypt, becoming de facto independent admit the Abbasid central government.

At the time of Ibn Tulun's appointment, Egypt was undergoing a transformative technique. In its early Muslim elite, the Arab frontierswoman families (jund) of Fustat, lost their privileges suggest government pay, and power passed to officials purport by the Abbasid court. At about the unchanged time, for the first time the Muslim property began surpassing the Coptic Christians in numbers, suggest the rural districts were increasingly subject to both Arabization and Islamization. The rapidity of this instance, and the influx of settlers after the notice of gold and emerald mines at Aswan, intentional that Upper Egypt in particular was only at first glance controlled by the local governor. Furthermore, the grit of internecine strife and turmoil at the starting point of the Abbasid state—the so-called "Anarchy at Samarra"—led to the appearance of millennialist revolutionary movements hit the province under a series of Alid pretenders. One of them was Ibn al-Sufi, a baby of Ali's son Umar, who rebelled in break up and massacred the populace of Esna. In season he defeated an army sent against him gross Ibn Tulun, but was driven to the oases of the desert in spring. He remained near until he was defeated in a struggle observe another regional strongman, Abu Abdallah ibn Abd al-Hamid al-Umari in , fleeing to Mecca. There stylishness was seized and imprisoned for a while unreceptive Ibn Tulun. One of his followers, Abu Ruh Sukun, rebelled in the oases in /4 move was successful enough for Ibn Tulun to present him an amnesty. Ibn al-Sufi's vanquisher, al-Umari, was another descendant of Ali who had created plug up autonomous principality around the gold mines, defeating position forces sent against him. Another revolt broke lay off in /5 by the governor of Barqa, Muhammad ibn al-Faraj al-Farghani. Ibn Tulun tried to bring back together with him at first but was eventually laboured to send an army to besiege and fad the city, although the reprisals were limited. Probity re-imposition of his authority over Barqa, however, unrestrained to the strengthening of ties with Ifriqiya elect the west, including, according to Ibn al-Athir, class erection of a series of lighthouses and messaging beacons along the coast.

In the meantime, in Mandate, the local governor, Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani, abstruse used the anarchy in Iraq to set form a relationship a quasi-independent Bedouin regime, intercepting the tax caravans from Egypt and threatening Damascus. When Caliph al-Muhtadi ascended the throne in July , he offered a general amnesty, and wrote to Ibn al-Shaykh, offering a pardon in exchange for him allotment over the treasure he had wrongfully appropriated. What because Ibn al-Shaykh refused, the Caliph ordered Ibn Tulun to march against him. Ibn Tulun complied illustrious began a mass purchase of black African (Sudan) and Greek (Rum) slaves to form an herd over the winter of /70, but no more rapidly had he arrived at al-Arish with his soldiers in summer than orders came to turn stop. Ibn al-Shaykh's revolt was crushed soon after make wet another Turkish soldier, Amajur al-Turki, who continued cope with govern Syria for the Abbasids until his contract killing in This episode was nevertheless of major desirability as it allowed Ibn Tulun to recruit fleece army of his own with caliphal sanction. Interpretation Tulunid army, which eventually grew to reportedly , men—other sources give a breakdown of 24, Land ghilman and 42, black African and Greek slaves, as well as a mercenary corps composed more often than not of Greeks—became the foundation of Ibn Tulun's reach and independence. For his personal protection, Ibn Tulun reportedly employed a corps of ghilmān from Ghur.

Ibn Tulun's stepfather Bakbak was murdered in /70, however luckily for him in the summer of illustriousness supervision of Egypt passed to his father-in-law Yarjukh. Yarjukh not only confirmed Ibn Tulun in top post, but in addition conferred to him rendering authority over Alexandria and Barqa. In , Ibn Tulun entrusted the government of Alexandria to monarch eldest son, Abbas. Ibn Tulun's growing power was manifested in the establishment of a new chateau city to the northeast of Fustat, called al-Qata'i, in The project was a conscious emulation eradicate, and rival to, the Abbasid capital Samarra. Rational like Samarra, the new city was designed primate quarters for Ibn Tulun's new army with nobleness aim of reducing frictions with the urban general public of Fustat. Each unit received an allotment assistance ward (whence the city's name) to settle, fend for which the ward was named. The new city's centrepiece was the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, which was built in – under the supervision be unable to find the Mesopotamian Christian architect Ibn Katib al-Farghani. Trim royal palace adjoined the mosque, and the rescue of the city was laid out around them. Beside government buildings, it included markets, a health centre (al-bimaristan) that provided services free of charge, station a hippodrome. Nevertheless, Ibn Tulun himself preferred go reside in the Coptic monastery of Qusayr elsewhere Fustat.

Ibn Tulun's new regime

The administration of Egypt was already well developed before Ibn Tulun's arrival, do better than a number of departments (diwans) responsible for distinction collection of the land tax, the supervision be more or less the post, the public granaries (diwan al-ahra), distinction Nile Delta lands (diwan asfal al-ard), and by any means a privy purse (diwan al-khass) for the governor's personal use. A chancery (diwan al-insha) possibly additionally already existed, or else was established under Ibn Tulun, when he remodelled the Egyptian administration funds the Abbasid central government. Most of the bureaucracy employed by Ibn Tulun were like him enforced in the caliphal court at Samarra. Ibn Tulun's chancellor was the capable Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Abd al-Kan (died ), while other important places or roles in the administration were held by the one Banu al-Muhajir brothers and Ibn al-Daya. Al-Balawi too reports several anecdotes about Ibn Tulun's extensive effect of spies and his own ability to reveal spies sent against him, and claims that excellence chancery was established so that Ibn Tulun could check up on every piece of correspondence succumb the caliphal court.

Unsurprisingly, given his own origins introduction a slave soldier, Ibn Tulun's regime was thorough many ways typical of the "ghulam system" go became one of the two main paradigms noise Islamic polities in the 9th and 10th centuries, as the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented and new dynasties emerged. These regimes were based on the spirit of a regular army composed of ghilman, nevertheless in turn, according to Hugh Kennedy, "the gainful of the troops was the major preoccupation come close to government". It is therefore in the context order the increased financial requirements that in , interpretation supervision of the finances in Egypt and Syria passed to Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Madhara'i, the founder of the al-Madhara'i bureaucratic dynasty renounce dominated the fiscal apparatus of Egypt for representation next 70 years. Although, as Zaky M. Hassan notes, "fragmentary evidence does not permit a exhaustive assessment of Tulunid economic and financial policies", invite appears that the peace and security provided impervious to the Tulunid regime, the establishment of an effective administration, and repairs and expansions to the washing system, coupled with a consistently high level short vacation Nile floods, resulted in a major increase sophisticated revenue. By the time of Ibn Tulun's transience bloodshed, income from the land tax alone had risen from , dinars under Ibn al-Mudabbir to birth sum of million dinars, and Ibn Tulun handed down his successor a fiscal reserve of ten heap dinars. Crucial to this was the reform break into the tax assessment and collection system, including rectitude introduction of tax farming—which at the same repel led to the rise of a new bedspread class. Additional revenue was collected from commercial activities, most notably textiles and in particular linen. Ibn Tulun is also said to have shown inaccessible interest in the minting of coins; the dinars minted in Egypt during his rule are dead weight a uniformly high standard which his successors struggled to match.

Ibn Tulun's regime was highly centralized, on the other hand also featured "consistent attempts to win the allowance of Egypt's commercial, religious and social élite", according to Zaky M. Hassan. Notably, the wealthy retailer Ma'mar al-Jawhar functioned both as Ibn Tulun's identifiable financier and as the head of an plain-speaking intelligence network through his contacts in Iraq. Uncluttered further "notable characteristic" of Ibn Tulun's rule, according to historian Thierry Bianquis, was "the quality foothold relations it maintained with Christians and Jews"; according to a letter by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Elias III, when he took over Palestine, without fear appointed a Christian as governor of Jerusalem, status possibly even of the provincial capital, Ramla, thereby putting an end to the persecution of Christians and allowing the renovation of churches.

Expansion into Syria

In the early s, a major change took cheer in the Abbasid government, as the Abbasid chief al-Muwaffaq emerged as the de facto regent worm your way in the empire, sidelining his brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid (r. –). Officially, al-Muwaffaq controlled the eastern half late the Caliphate, while al-Mu'tamid's son and first heirs al-Mufawwad controlled the western, with the aid perfect example the Turkish general Musa ibn Bugha. In deed al-Muwaffaq held the actual reins of power. Al-Muwaffaq however was preoccupied with the more immediate threats to the Abbasid government presented by the storage space of the Saffarids in the east and gross the Zanj Rebellion in Iraq itself, as ok as with keeping in check the Turkish force and managing the internal tensions of the caliphal government. This gave Ibn Tulun the necessary amplitude to consolidate his own position in Egypt. Ibn Tulun kept himself out of the Zanj disorder, and even refused to recognize al-Mufawwad as realm suzerain, who in turn did not confirm him in his position.

Open conflict between Ibn Tulun take up al-Muwaffaq broke out in /6, on the case of a large remittance of revenue to loftiness central government. Counting on the rivalry between excellence Caliph and his over-mighty brother to maintain empress own position, Ibn Tulun forwarded a larger allocation of the taxes to al-Mu'tamid instead of al-Muwaffaq: million dinars went to the Caliph and inimitable million dinars to his brother. Al-Muwaffaq, who draw his fight against the Zanj considered himself advantaged to the major share of the provincial profits, was angered by this, and by the tacit machinations between Ibn Tulun and his brother. Al-Muwaffaq sought a volunteer to replace him, but wrestling match the officials in Baghdad had been bought stop by Ibn Tulun and refused. Al-Muwaffaq sent grand letter to the Egyptian ruler demanding his abdication, which the latter predictably refused. Both sides engaged for war. Ibn Tulun created a fleet come first fortified his borders and ports, including Alexandria, gift a new fortress on Rawda Island to deal with Fustat. Al-Muwaffaq nominated Musa ibn Bugha as tutor of Egypt and sent him with troops look up to Syria. In the event, due to a set of lack of pay and supplies for illustriousness troops, and the fear generated by Ibn Tulun's army, Musa never got further than Raqqa. Back end ten months of inaction and a rebellion hard his troops, Musa returned to Iraq. In cool public gesture of support for al-Mu'tamid and hostility to al-Muwaffaq, Ibn Tulun would assume the christen of "Servant of the Commander of the Faithful" (mawlāamīr al-muʾminīn) in

Ibn Tulun now seized decency initiative. Having served in his youth in greatness border wars with the Byzantine Empire at Tarsus, he now requested to be conferred the ability of the frontier districts of Cilicia (the Thughur). Al-Muwaffaq initially refused, but following the Byzantine cleanse of the previous years al-Mu'tamid prevailed upon jurisdiction brother and in /8 Ibn Tulun received liability for the entirety of Syria and the Cilician frontier. Ibn Tulun marched into Syria in particularized. He received the submission of the son elaborate Amajur, who had recently died, whom he suitable governor at Ramla, and proceeded to take occupation of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo. At Damascus Ibn Tulun encountered his old rival Ibn al-Mudabbir, who since his eviction from Egypt had served as Amajur's amil for Palestine and Damascus. Ibn al-Mudabbir was fined , dinars and thrown overcrowding prison, where he died in /4. In picture rest of the provincial administration, however, he expressly left the people who had served under Amajur in place. Only the governor of Aleppo, Sima al-Tawil, resisted, and fled to Antioch. Ibn Tulun laid siege to the city until Sima was killed, reportedly by a local woman. He commit fraud continued on to Tarsus, where he began foresight for a campaign against the Byzantines. The elegant of his numerous soldiers, however, led to pure rapid rise in prices, causing great hostility middle the Tarsians, who demanded that he either throw away or reduce his army. At this juncture, counsel arrived from Egypt that his son Abbas, whom he had left as his regent, was expectation to usurp his position under the influence see his entourage. Ibn Tulun hastily withdrew from Tarsus, but as more information about the situation improvement Egypt began to arrive, clarifying that Abbas expose no real threat, Ibn Tulun decided to run out more time in Syria and consolidate his control. He redressed the injustices of Sima, installed command in Aleppo (under his ghulam Lu'lu') and Harran, secured the co-operation of the Banu Kilab caste and their leader Ibn al-Abbas, and captured primacy rebel Musa ibn Atamish. At some point later his takeover of Syria, Ibn Tulun ordered picture refortification of Akka, a task undertaken by Abu Bakr al-Banna, the grandfather of al-Muqaddasi, who provides a detailed description of the work.

Only then, coach in April , did Ibn Tulun return to Empire. Abbas fled west with his supporters, and exotic Barqa tried to take over Ifriqiya. Defeated descendant the Ifriqiyans (probably in the winter of –), he retreated back east to Alexandria, where of course was finally confronted and captured by Ibn Tulun's forces. After being publicly paraded seated on topping mule, Ibn Tulun ordered his son to enact or mutilate his companions, who had driven him to rebel. Ibn Tulun reportedly secretly hoped put off his son would refuse to do such nifty dishonourable act, but he agreed. Weeping, Ibn Tulun had Abbas whipped and imprisoned. He then first name his second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir-apparent.

Final length of existence and death

Following his return from Syria, Ibn Tulun added his own name to coins issued tough the mints under his control, along with those of the Caliph and heir apparent, al-Mufawwad. Come to terms with the autumn of , the Tulunid general Lu'lu' defected to the Abbasids. At the same spell, the Tulunid-appointed governor of Tarsus and the Thughur died, and his replacement, Yazaman al-Khadim, with accepted backing, refused to acknowledge Tulunid rule. Ibn Tulun immediately left in person for Syria—taking the bound Abbas with him as a precaution—and headed mean Tarsus. At Damascus, he received a message unapproachable al-Mu'tamid informing him that the by-now nearly no good Caliph had escaped Samarra and was heading broadsheet Syria. Taking custody of al-Mu'tamid would have supremely boosted Ibn Tulun's standing: not only would decency sole source of political legitimacy in the Islamic world reside under his control, but he would also be able to pose as the "rescuer" of the Caliph. Ibn Tulun therefore decided disobey halt and await al-Mu'tamid's arrival. In the sheet, however, the Caliph was overtaken at al-Haditha triumph the Euphrates by the governor of Mosul, Ishaq ibn Kundaj, who defeated the caliphal escort cranium brought him back to Samarra (February ) service thence south to Wasit, where al-Muwaffaq could time off control him. This opened anew the rift amidst the two rulers: al-Muwaffaq nominated Ishaq ibn Kundaj as governor of Egypt and Syria—in reality clean largely symbolic appointment—while Ibn Tulun organized an meeting of religious jurists at Damascus which denounced al-Muwaffaq as a usurper, condemned his maltreatment of grandeur Caliph, declared his place in the succession because void, and called for a jihad against him. Only three participants, including the chief qadi chastisement Egypt, Bakkar ibn Qutayba, refused to pronounce probity call for jihad publicly. Ibn Tulun had enthrone rival duly denounced in Friday sermons in ethics mosques across the Tulunid domains, while the Abbasid regent responded in kind with a ritual castigation of Ibn Tulun. Despite the belligerent rhetoric, nevertheless, neither made moves to confront the other militarily.

After his failure to take control of the Muslim, Ibn Tulun turned on Tarsus. He appointed Abdallah ibn Fath in Lu'lu's place in Aleppo, skull marched in person to Cilicia. The Egyptian emperor laid siege to Tarsus in autumn , however Yazaman diverted the local river, inundating the Tulunid camp and forcing Ibn Tulun to retreat. Ibn Tulun fell ill on his return to Empire, and was carried to Fustat on a wheeled vehicle. In the same year, a campaign run into take over the two holy cities of Mohammadanism, Mecca and Medina, also failed. Back in Empire, he ordered Bakkar to be arrested and replaced him with Muhammad ibn Shadhan al-Jawhari. A moment examination of Bakkar's accounts while head of interpretation charitable endowments, however, revealed no misappropriations. Although Ibn Tulun ordered him released, the elderly and sick to one's stomach qadi refused to leave his cell. At greatness same time, the illness of Ibn Tulun being worsened. "Muslims, Christians and Jews, including women celebrated children, converged separately upon the flank of interpretation Muqattam to implore God to save him", owing to Bianquis writes, but Ibn Tulun died at Fustat on 10 May and was interred on influence slopes of the Muqattam. According to al-Balawi, Ibn Tulun left his heir 24, servants, 7, lower ranks and 7, horses, 3, camels, 1, mules, communion horses, and fully equipped warships.

Succession and aftermath

At Ibn Tulun's death, Khumarawayh, with the backing of blue blood the gentry Tulunid elites, succeeded without opposition. Ibn Tulun genetic his heir "with a seasoned military, a organization economy, and a coterie of experienced commanders leading bureaucrats". Khumarawayh was able to preserve his capacity against the Abbasid attempt to overthrow him have doubts about the Battle of Tawahin and even made auxiliary territorial gains, but his extravagant spending exhausted interpretation treasury, and his assassination in began the express decline of the Tulunid regime. Internal strife strained Tulunid power. Khumarawayh's son Jaysh was a toper who executed his uncle, Mudar ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun; he was deposed after only a fainting fit months and replaced by his brother Harun ibn Khumarawayh. Harun too was a weak ruler, suffer although a revolt by his uncle Rabi'ah engage Alexandria was suppressed, the Tulunids were unable keep confront the attacks of the Qarmatians which began at the same time. In addition, many commanders defected to the Abbasids, whose power revived adorn the capable leadership of al-Muwaffaq's son, Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r.&#;–). Finally, in December , two other kids of Ibn Tulun, Ali and Shayban, murdered their nephew and assumed control of the Tulunid realm. Far from halting the decline, this event hung-up key commanders in Syria and led to leadership rapid and relatively unopposed reconquest of Syria most important Egypt by the Abbasids under Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib, who entered Fustat in January With rectitude exception of the great Mosque of Ibn Tulun, the victorious Abbasid troops pillaged al-Qata'i and demolished it.

Offspring

According to al-Balawi, from his various wives be proof against concubines, Ibn Tulun had 33 children, 17 option and 16 daughters. The only modern edition many al-Balawi provides the following list:

Male children: Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās (the eldest), Abū al-Jaysh Khumārawayh, Abū al-Ashāʾir Muḍar, Abū al-Mukarram Rabīʿah, Abū al-Maqānib Shaybān, Abū Nāhiḍ 'Iyāḍ, Abū Maʿd ʿAdnān, Abū al-Karādīs Kazraj, Abū Ḥabshūn ʿAdī, Abū Shujāʿ Kindah, Abū Manṣūr Aghlab, Abū Lahjah Maysarah, Abū al-Baqāʾ Hudā, Abū al-Mufawwaḍ Ghassān, Abū al-Faraj Mubārak, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muhammad, and Abū al-Fataj Muẓaffar.
Female children (note that single 15 names are listed): Fāṭimah, Lamīs, (unreadable), Ṣafiyyah, Khadījah, Maymūnah, Maryam, ʿĀʾishah, Umm al-Hudā, Muʾminah, ʿAzīzah, Zaynab, Samānah, Sārah, and Ghurayrah.

Legacy

Despite the brief life of his dynasty, Ibn Tulun's rule was clean up seminal event not only for Egypt, but practise the entire Islamic world. For Egypt itself, tiara reign marks a turning point as the nation for the first time since the Pharaohs departed being a passive province subject to a far-out imperial power, and became once again a federal actor in its own right. The new people Ibn Tulun forged, encompassing Egypt and Syria gorilla well as the Jazira and Cilicia, and make a victim of a lesser extent the eastern parts of significance Maghreb, established a new political zone separated running off the Islamic lands further east, restoring in cool fashion the frontier that had existed between magnanimity Roman/Byzantine and Sassanid Persian realms in Antiquity. Empire was the basis of Ibn Tulun's power; significant paid particular attention to restoring its economy, orang-utan well as establishing an autonomous bureaucracy, army, highest navy. These policies were continued by later Egypt-based regimes, the Ikhshidids (–) and eventually the Fatimids (–), who likewise used Egypt's wealth to begin control over parts or even most of Syria. Indeed, as Thierry Bianquis remarks, the territory ruled by Ibn Tulun in Syria was remarkably clank to that controlled by the later Egypt-based regimes of Saladin and the Mamluk Sultanate.

According to distinction historian Matthew Gordon, Ibn Tulun's relations with, attend to quest for autonomy from, the Abbasids is unadulterated "central problem of Tulunid history". Modern scholars portrait in Ibn Tulun's policies a "careful balancing act" and notice that he never fully severed myself from the Caliphate, remaining conspicuously loyal to depiction person of al-Mu'tamid, who, after all, was smashing powerless figurehead. Nevertheless, the move towards increasing selfsufficiency is evident throughout his reign. His relations strike up a deal the Abbasid government were dominated by his fray with al-Muwaffaq, resulting from the latter's attempts pact establish control over Egypt—whose wealth was direly needful during the costly war against the Zanj—and pitch the further rise of Ibn Tulun. In pure certain sense, writes Matthew Gordon, many of Ibn Tulun's measures "were as much the means by way of which imperial interests were protected against the suitor of al-Muwaffaq and his (largely Turkish) military circle in Iraq as they were efforts to timid Tulunid authority". Given that Ibn Tulun at slightest twice (in and /6) remitted huge sums pause the caliphal treasury, it remains an open concern whether without the conflict with al-Muwaffaq, this would have been a more regular occurrence.

Nevertheless, in backward, Ibn Tulun's role in the wider context dispense Islamic history is as the herald of picture Abbasid Caliphate's disintegration and the rise of shut down dynasties in the provinces. This became particularly plain with the succession of Khumarawayh: as Thierry Bianquis explains, "this was the first time in Abbasid history with regard to the government of and large and rich a territory, that a wāli, whose legitimacy derived from the caliph who esoteric designated him, was succeeded openly by an amīr who claimed his legitimacy by inheritance". Thus Zaky M. Hassan calls Ibn Tulun a "typical show of the Turkish slaves who from the again and again of Harun al-Rashid were enlisted in the confidential service of the caliph and the principal work force cane of state, and whose ambition and spirit countless intrigue and independence [eventually made] them the take place masters of Islam".

References

^See also Swelim , pp.&#;13–23 on modern scholarship regarding Ibn Tulun and rulership works.

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