In this role, they amassed "one of the largest personal fortunes in the medieval Arab east" (Thierry Bianquis).
[2] The first member to rise to prominence was Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Madhara'i, who in 879 was named controller of finances by the autonomous ruler of Egypt and Syria, Ahmad ibn Tulun (reigned 868–884), a post he kept until his death in 884.
[1][2] Following the end of the Tulunid dynasty and the re-imposition of direct Abbasid control over their domains in 904–5, many of the family and its followers were deported to Baghdad, but al-Husayn, who had maintained contacts with the Abbasid court, was appointed in charge of the Egyptian finances.
[1][2] The last important representative of the family, al-Husayn's nephew Abu Bakr Muhammad, took over the direction of Egyptian finances in 930–933, under the governorship of his friend Takin al-Khazari.
Released in 939, he played a leading role in the governance of the new Ikhshidid state until his dismissal in 946, after Ibn Tughj's death.