Ishaq ibn Kundaj

Ishaq ibn Kundaj (Arabic: إسحاق بن كنداج) or Kundajiq, was a Turkic military leader who played a prominent role in the turbulent politics of the Abbasid Caliphate in the late 9th century.

He ruled Mosul and much of the Jazira almost continuously until his death in 891, despite becoming involved in constant quarrels with local chieftains, as well as in the Abbasid government's rivalry with the Tulunids of Egypt.

[1][3][4] With the power he had acquired, he turned his gaze in 879 on Mosul in the Jazira (in what is now northern Iraq), an area plagued by rivalries among the Arab tribal chiefs—primarily the various Taghlibi leaders, who succeeded one another as rulers of Mosul—and an ongoing Kharijite rebellion.

[1][5] To the local Arab tribes of Taghlib and Bakr, who had been accustomed to wide autonomy from the central government during the "Anarchy at Samarra", the appearance of Ibn Kundaj and his occupation of Mosul represented an unacceptable intrusion.

The coalition prepared to strike against Ibn Kundaj, but the arrival of emissaries from Baghdad confirming him as governor over Mosul, Diyar Rabi'a and Armenia forced them to back down and agree to pay a tribute of 200,000 gold dinars.

[1][9] Ibn Kundaj was greatly rewarded for this: not only were the estates of the Caliph's companions confiscated and granted to him,[10] but four days after delivering his prisoners to Samarra, on 22 January 883, he was given robes of honour and two ceremonial swords, receiving the title of Dhu al-Sayfayn ("He of the Two Swords"), followed later by more rich gifts and lunches with the grandees of the Abbasid court.

[16] Khumarawayh responded by sending troops to Syria, who soon succeeded in recovering the lost cities, before both sides settled into winter quarters.

[14][19][20] The entire Jazira now became a Tulunid province, a fact recognized by the Abbasid government in a treaty in the December 886 that confirmed Khumarawayh in his old and new possessions.