Ahmad ibn Tulun

In 878, with the support of al-Muwaffaq's brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid, Ibn Tulun took over the governance of Syria as well as the frontier districts with the Byzantine Empire, although control of Tarsus in particular proved tenuous.

He was thus also the first ruler since the Ptolemaic Pharaohs to make Egypt an independent political power again, with a sphere of influence encompassing Syria and parts of the Maghreb, setting the tone for later Egypt-based Islamic regimes, from the Ikhshidids to the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo.

[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 (r. 813–833), who at the time resided in Khurasan.

[10] The young Ahmad ibn Tulun received a thorough education, involving military training at the new Abbasid capital of Samarra and studies in Islamic theology at Tarsus, acquiring a reputation not only for his knowledge but also for his pious and ascetic way of life.

In 834 its early Muslim elite, the Arab settler families (jund) of Fustat, lost their privileges and government pay, and power passed to officials sent by the Abbasid court.

[22] The rapidity of this process, and the influx of settlers after the discovery of gold and emerald mines at Aswan, meant that Upper Egypt in particular was only superficially controlled by the local governor.

[23][24] Furthermore, the persistence of internecine strife and turmoil at the heart of the Abbasid state—the so-called "Anarchy at Samarra"—led to the appearance of millennialist revolutionary movements in the province under a series of Alid pretenders.

The re-imposition of his authority over Barqa, however, led to the strengthening of ties with Ifriqiya to the west, including, according to Ibn al-Athir, the erection of a series of lighthouses and messaging beacons along the coast.

[26] In the meantime, in Palestine, the local governor, Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani, had used the anarchy in Iraq to set up a quasi-independent Bedouin regime, intercepting the tax caravans from Egypt and threatening Damascus.

[41] Unsurprisingly, given his own origins as a slave soldier, Ibn Tulun's regime was in many ways typical of the "ghulam 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.

These regimes were based on the power of a regular army composed of ghilman, but in turn, according to Hugh Kennedy, "the paying of the troops was the major preoccupation of government".

[46] Ibn Tulun's regime was highly centralized, but also featured "consistent attempts to win the backing of Egypt's commercial, religious and social élite", according to Zaky M. Hassan.

Notably, the wealthy merchant Ma'mar al-Jawhar functioned both as Ibn Tulun's personal financier and as the head of an informal intelligence network through his contacts in Iraq.

[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.

[51][52][53] In a public gesture of support for al-Mu'tamid and opposition to al-Muwaffaq, Ibn Tulun would assume the title of "Servant of the Commander of the Faithful" (mawlā amīr al-muʾminīn) in 878.

Al-Muwaffaq initially refused, but following the Byzantine successes of the previous years al-Mu'tamid prevailed upon his brother and in 877/8 Ibn Tulun received responsibility for the entirety of Syria and the Cilician frontier.

He received the submission of the son of Amajur, who had recently died, whom he appointed governor at Ramla, and proceeded to take possession of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo.

The presence of his numerous soldiers, however, led to a rapid rise in prices, causing great hostility among the Tarsians, who demanded that he either leave or reduce his army.

[54] At some point after his takeover of Syria, Ibn Tulun ordered the refortification of Akka, a task undertaken by Abu Bakr al-Banna, the grandfather of al-Muqaddasi, who provides a detailed description of the work.

[60] Taking custody of al-Mu'tamid would have immensely boosted Ibn Tulun's standing: not only would the sole source of political legitimacy in the Muslim world reside under his control, but he would also be able to pose as the "rescuer" of the Caliph.

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.

Khumarawayh was able to preserve his authority against the Abbasid attempt to overthrow him at the Battle of Tawahin and even made additional territorial gains, but his extravagant spending exhausted the treasury, and his assassination in 896 began the rapid decline of the Tulunid regime.

Harun too was a weak ruler, and although a revolt by his uncle Rabi'ah in Alexandria was suppressed, the Tulunids were unable to confront the attacks of the Qarmatians which began at the same time.

The only modern edition of al-Balawi provides the following list:[72] 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.

[66] For Egypt itself, his reign marks a turning point as the country for the first time since the Pharaohs ceased being a passive province subject to a foreign imperial power, and became once again a political actor in its own right.

Modern scholars see in Ibn Tulun's policies a "careful balancing act" and notice that he never fully severed himself from the Caliphate, remaining conspicuously loyal to the person of al-Mu'tamid, who, after all, was a powerless figurehead.

[77] 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.

In a certain sense, writes Matthew Gordon, many of Ibn Tulun's measures "were as much the means by which imperial interests were protected against the ambitions of al-Muwaffaq and his (largely Turkish) military coterie in Iraq as they were efforts to secure Tulunid authority".

[77] Nevertheless, in retrospective, Ibn Tulun's role in the wider context of Islamic history is as the herald of the Abbasid Caliphate's disintegration and the rise of local dynasties in the provinces.

[78] Thus Zaky M. Hassan calls Ibn Tulun a "typical example of the Turkish slaves who from the time of Harun al-Rashid were enlisted in the private service of the caliph and the principal officers of state, and whose ambition and spirit of intrigue and independence [eventually made] them the real masters of Islam".