Recent from talks
Ahmad ibn Tulun
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Ahmad ibn Tulun
Ahmad ibn Tulun (Arabic: أحمد بن طولون, romanized: Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn; c. 20 September 835 – 10 May 884) was the founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria between 868 and 905. Originally a Turkic slave-soldier, in 868 Ibn Tulun was sent to Egypt as governor by the Abbasid caliph . Within four years he had established himself as a virtually independent ruler by evicting the caliphal fiscal agent, Ibn al-Mudabbir, taking over control of Egypt's finances, and establishing a large military force consisting of native Egyptians personally loyal to himself. This process was facilitated by the volatile political situation in the Abbasid court and the preoccupation of the Abbasid regent, al-Muwaffaq, with the wars against the Persian Saffarids and the Zanj Rebellion. Ibn Tulun also established an efficient administration in Egypt. After reforms to the tax system, repairs to the irrigation system, and other measures, the annual tax yield grew markedly. As a symbol of his new regime, he built a new capital, al-Qata'i, north of the old capital Fustat.
After 875/6 he entered into open conflict with al-Muwaffaq, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him. 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. During his absence in Syria, his eldest son and deputy, Abbas, tried to usurp power in Egypt, leading to the imprisonment of Abbas and the nomination of Ibn Tulun's second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir. The defection in 882 of a senior commander, Lu'lu', to al-Muwaffaq, and the defection of Tarsus, forced Ibn Tulun to return to Syria. Now virtually powerless, al-Mu'tamid tried to escape from his brother's control to Ibn Tulun's domains but was captured by al-Muwaffaq's agents, and Ibn Tulun convened an assembly of jurists at Damascus to denounce al-Muwaffaq as a usurper. His attempt in autumn 883 to bring Tarsus to heel failed, and he fell sick. Returning to Egypt, he died in May 884 and was succeeded by Khumarawayh.
Ibn Tulun stands out as the first governor of a major province of the Abbasid Caliphate to not only establish himself as its master independently of the Abbasid court, but to also pass power on to his son.
Under his rule, Egypt became an independent political power again for the first time in over 1,200 years starting from the rule of Ptolemaic Dynasty with a sphere of influence encompassing Syria and parts of the Maghreb region.
Several medieval authors wrote about Ahmad ibn Tulun. The two major sources are 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 large extent on Ibn al-Daya's, although it is much more extensive. Ibn al-Daya also wrote a book (Kitab al-mukafa'a) with anecdotes from the Tulunid-era Egyptian society. Further information comes from Ibn Tulun's contemporary, the geographer and traveler Ya'qubi, whose works cover the first years of his rule in Egypt, and from later Egyptian authors, especially the 15th-century historians Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi, who drew on a variety of earlier sources to write on the history of the Tulunid state. 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.
Ahmad ibn Tulun was born on the 23rd day of the month of Ramadan 220 AH (20 September 835) or slightly later, probably in Baghdad. His father, Tulun, was a Turk from a locality known in Arabic sources as Tagharghar or Toghuz[o]ghuz, i.e., the Uyghur confederation. 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. After al-Ma'mun returned to Baghdad in 819, these Turkish slaves were formed into a guard corps of slave soldiers (ghilman, sing. ghulam) entrusted to al-Ma'mun's brother and eventual successor, al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842). Tulun did well for himself, eventually coming to command the Caliph's private guard. Ahmad's mother, called Qasim, was one of his father's slaves. In 854/5, Tulun died, and Qasim is commonly held to have married a second time, to the Turkish general Bayakbak or Bakbak. This report, however, does not appear in Ibn al-Daya or al-Balawi, and may be spurious. According to al-Balawi, after his father's death Ahmad came under the tutelage of Yalbakh, a close companion of Tulun, who had been taken captive alongside him. At his deathbed, Tulun urged his friend to take care of his wife and son, and Bakbak thereafter treated the young Ahmad as his own son.
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. He became popular among his fellow Turks, who would confide secrets and entrust their money and even their women to him. While at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun fought in the frontier wars with the Byzantine Empire. There he also met another senior Turkish leader, Yarjukh, whose daughter, variously given as Majur or Khatun, became his first wife and the mother of his eldest son, Abbas, and his daughter Fatimah. The sources also report that during his time at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun had ties to Caliph 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 envoy returning from Constantinople from a Bedouin raiding party, and accompanied it to Samarra. This act gained him the favour of Caliph al-Musta'in (r. 862–866), as well as a thousand gold dinars and the hand of the slave Miyas, the mother of his second son, Khumarawayh. When the Caliph abdicated and went into exile at Wasit in 866, he chose Ibn Tulun to be his guard. Qubayha, the mother of the new caliph, al-Mu'tazz (r. 866–869), schemed to remove the deposed al-Musta'in, and offered Ibn Tulun the governorship of Wasit if he would murder him. Ibn Tulun refused and was replaced by another, who carried out the deed. Ibn Tulun himself played no part in the assassination, but gave his master a burial and returned to Samarra.
Already under Caliph al-Mu'tasim, senior Turkish leaders began being appointed as governors of provinces of the Caliphate as a form of appanage. Thereby they secured immediate access to the province's tax revenue for themselves and their troops, bypassing the civilian bureaucracy. The Turkish generals usually remained close to the centre of power in Samarra, sending deputies to govern in their name. Thus when al-Mu'tazz gave Bakbak charge of Egypt in 868, Bakbak in turn sent his stepson Ahmad as his lieutenant and resident governor. Ahmad ibn Tulun entered Egypt on 27 August 868, and the Egyptian capital, Fustat, on 15 September.
Hub AI
Ahmad ibn Tulun AI simulator
(@Ahmad ibn Tulun_simulator)
Ahmad ibn Tulun
Ahmad ibn Tulun (Arabic: أحمد بن طولون, romanized: Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn; c. 20 September 835 – 10 May 884) was the founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria between 868 and 905. Originally a Turkic slave-soldier, in 868 Ibn Tulun was sent to Egypt as governor by the Abbasid caliph . Within four years he had established himself as a virtually independent ruler by evicting the caliphal fiscal agent, Ibn al-Mudabbir, taking over control of Egypt's finances, and establishing a large military force consisting of native Egyptians personally loyal to himself. This process was facilitated by the volatile political situation in the Abbasid court and the preoccupation of the Abbasid regent, al-Muwaffaq, with the wars against the Persian Saffarids and the Zanj Rebellion. Ibn Tulun also established an efficient administration in Egypt. After reforms to the tax system, repairs to the irrigation system, and other measures, the annual tax yield grew markedly. As a symbol of his new regime, he built a new capital, al-Qata'i, north of the old capital Fustat.
After 875/6 he entered into open conflict with al-Muwaffaq, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him. 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. During his absence in Syria, his eldest son and deputy, Abbas, tried to usurp power in Egypt, leading to the imprisonment of Abbas and the nomination of Ibn Tulun's second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir. The defection in 882 of a senior commander, Lu'lu', to al-Muwaffaq, and the defection of Tarsus, forced Ibn Tulun to return to Syria. Now virtually powerless, al-Mu'tamid tried to escape from his brother's control to Ibn Tulun's domains but was captured by al-Muwaffaq's agents, and Ibn Tulun convened an assembly of jurists at Damascus to denounce al-Muwaffaq as a usurper. His attempt in autumn 883 to bring Tarsus to heel failed, and he fell sick. Returning to Egypt, he died in May 884 and was succeeded by Khumarawayh.
Ibn Tulun stands out as the first governor of a major province of the Abbasid Caliphate to not only establish himself as its master independently of the Abbasid court, but to also pass power on to his son.
Under his rule, Egypt became an independent political power again for the first time in over 1,200 years starting from the rule of Ptolemaic Dynasty with a sphere of influence encompassing Syria and parts of the Maghreb region.
Several medieval authors wrote about Ahmad ibn Tulun. The two major sources are 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 large extent on Ibn al-Daya's, although it is much more extensive. Ibn al-Daya also wrote a book (Kitab al-mukafa'a) with anecdotes from the Tulunid-era Egyptian society. Further information comes from Ibn Tulun's contemporary, the geographer and traveler Ya'qubi, whose works cover the first years of his rule in Egypt, and from later Egyptian authors, especially the 15th-century historians Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi, who drew on a variety of earlier sources to write on the history of the Tulunid state. 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.
Ahmad ibn Tulun was born on the 23rd day of the month of Ramadan 220 AH (20 September 835) or slightly later, probably in Baghdad. His father, Tulun, was a Turk from a locality known in Arabic sources as Tagharghar or Toghuz[o]ghuz, i.e., the Uyghur confederation. 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. After al-Ma'mun returned to Baghdad in 819, these Turkish slaves were formed into a guard corps of slave soldiers (ghilman, sing. ghulam) entrusted to al-Ma'mun's brother and eventual successor, al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842). Tulun did well for himself, eventually coming to command the Caliph's private guard. Ahmad's mother, called Qasim, was one of his father's slaves. In 854/5, Tulun died, and Qasim is commonly held to have married a second time, to the Turkish general Bayakbak or Bakbak. This report, however, does not appear in Ibn al-Daya or al-Balawi, and may be spurious. According to al-Balawi, after his father's death Ahmad came under the tutelage of Yalbakh, a close companion of Tulun, who had been taken captive alongside him. At his deathbed, Tulun urged his friend to take care of his wife and son, and Bakbak thereafter treated the young Ahmad as his own son.
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. He became popular among his fellow Turks, who would confide secrets and entrust their money and even their women to him. While at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun fought in the frontier wars with the Byzantine Empire. There he also met another senior Turkish leader, Yarjukh, whose daughter, variously given as Majur or Khatun, became his first wife and the mother of his eldest son, Abbas, and his daughter Fatimah. The sources also report that during his time at Tarsus, Ibn Tulun had ties to Caliph 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 envoy returning from Constantinople from a Bedouin raiding party, and accompanied it to Samarra. This act gained him the favour of Caliph al-Musta'in (r. 862–866), as well as a thousand gold dinars and the hand of the slave Miyas, the mother of his second son, Khumarawayh. When the Caliph abdicated and went into exile at Wasit in 866, he chose Ibn Tulun to be his guard. Qubayha, the mother of the new caliph, al-Mu'tazz (r. 866–869), schemed to remove the deposed al-Musta'in, and offered Ibn Tulun the governorship of Wasit if he would murder him. Ibn Tulun refused and was replaced by another, who carried out the deed. Ibn Tulun himself played no part in the assassination, but gave his master a burial and returned to Samarra.
Already under Caliph al-Mu'tasim, senior Turkish leaders began being appointed as governors of provinces of the Caliphate as a form of appanage. Thereby they secured immediate access to the province's tax revenue for themselves and their troops, bypassing the civilian bureaucracy. The Turkish generals usually remained close to the centre of power in Samarra, sending deputies to govern in their name. Thus when al-Mu'tazz gave Bakbak charge of Egypt in 868, Bakbak in turn sent his stepson Ahmad as his lieutenant and resident governor. Ahmad ibn Tulun entered Egypt on 27 August 868, and the Egyptian capital, Fustat, on 15 September.