FOUR

Egypt and Syria

25

The Ṭūlūnids

254–92/868–905

Egypt and Syria

The Ṭūlūnids represent the first local dynasty of Egypt and Syria to secure some degree of autonomy from the caliphate in Baghdad. Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn (Ṭūlūn < Turkish dolun ‘full [moon]’, the equivalent of Ar. badr) was a Turkish soldier whose father had been sent in the tribute from Bukhara in the early ninth century. Aḥmad first came to Egypt as deputy of the ‘Abbāsid governor there, but then acquired the governorship himself, extending his power into Palestine and Syria also. His ambitions were facilitated by the preoccupation of al-Muwaffaq, – brother of the caliph al-Mu‘tamid (see above, no. 3, 1) and virtual ruler – with the Zanj rebels in Lower Iraq, which meant that Aḥmad could not be dislodged militarily from the west. Under Aḥmad’s son Khumārawayh, the Tūlūnids’ fortunes continued to be high. The new caliph al-Mu‘tadid (see above, no. 3, 1) had on his accession in 279/892 to grant to Khumārawayh and his heirs for thirty years Egypt, Syria up to the Taurus Mountains and Jazīra (northern Mesopotamia) with the exception of Mosul (Mawsil), in return for an annual tribute of 300,000 dinars. The treaty was later revised in a form less favourable to the Ṭūlūnids, but it was not until Khumārawayh’s death in 282/896 that the fabric of the Ṭūlūnid empire, weakened by Khumārawayh’s luxurious living and extravagance – he left behind an empty treasury – began to crack. The inability of the last Ṭūlūnids to keep the Carmathian radical religious sectaries of the Syrian desert in check led the caliph to despatch an army which conquered Syria and then seized the Ṭūlūnid capital of Fustāt or Old Cairo, carrying off the remaining members of the family to Baghdad and imposing a direct ‘Abbāsid rule over Egypt which was to last for thirty years.

For the mediaeval Egyptian historians, the age of the Ṭūlūnids was a golden one. Ahmad held power by means of a large multi-ethnic army, which included Bedouins, Greeks and black Nubians, but the resultant financial burden was alleviated for the people of Egypt by the ending of governmental malpractices, only under Khumārawayh did administrative chaos and insubordination in the army appear. Since Syria can best be held from Egypt by sea, Aḥmad also built a strong fleet. He was a great builder in his capital Fusṭāṭ, laying out there the military quarter of al-Qata’i‘ and constructing his famous mosque in order to accommodate all those troops who could not find room in the mosque of the conqueror of Egypt ‘Amr b. al-‘Āṣ.

Lane-Poole, 68; Zambaur, 93; Album, 20.

EI¹ ‘Ṭūlūnids’ (H. A. R. Gibb)

Z. M. Hassan, Les Tulunides; étude de l’Egypte musulmane à la fin du IX^e siècle, Paris 1933.

O. Grabar, The Coinage of the Ṭūlūnids, ANS Numismatic Notes and Monographs, no. 139, New York 1957.