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Following the Islamic conquest in 639, Lower Egypt was ruled at first by governors acting in the name of the Rashidun Caliphs and then the Umayyad Caliphs in Damascus, but in 747 the Umayyads were overthrown. Throughout Islamic rule, Askar was named the capital and housed the ruling administration. The conquest led to two separate provinces all under one ruler: Upper and Lower Egypt. These two very distinct regions were governed by the military and followed the demands handed down by the governor of Egypt and imposed by the heads of their communities.
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Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj ibn Juff ibn Yiltakīn ibn Fūrān ibn Fūrī ibn Khāqān, better known by the title al-Ikhshīd after 939, was an Abbasid commander and governor who became the autonomous ruler of Egypt and parts of Syria (Levant) from 935 until his death in 946. He was the founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty, which ruled the region until the Fatimid conquest of 969.
The Tulunids, were a Mamluk dynasty of Turkic origin who were the first independent dynasty to rule Egypt, as well as much of Syria, since the Ptolemaic dynasty. They were independent from 868, when they broke away from the central authority of the Abbasid Caliphate, to 905, when the Abbasids restored the Tulunid domains to their control.
Ahmad ibn Tulun 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 Ibn Tulun 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 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 Saffarids and the Zanj Rebellion. Ibn Tulun also took care to establish 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.
Abu 'l-Jaysh Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn was a son of the founder of the Tulunid dynasty, Ahmad ibn Tulun. His father, the autonomous ruler of Egypt and Syria, designated him as his successor. When Ibn Tulun died in May 884, Khumarawayh succeeded him. After defeating an attempt to depose him, in 886 he managed to gain recognition of his rule over Egypt and Syria as a hereditary governor from the Abbasid Caliphate. In 893 the agreement was renewed with the new Abbasid Caliph, al-Mu'tadid, and sealed with the marriage of his daughter Qatr al-Nada to the Caliph.
Abu Ahmad Talha ibn Ja'far, better known by his laqab as Al-Muwaffaq Billah, was an Abbasid prince and military leader, who acted as the de facto regent of the Abbasid Caliphate for most of the reign of his brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid. His stabilization of the internal political scene after the decade-long "Anarchy at Samarra", his successful defence of Iraq against the Saffarids and the suppression of the Zanj Rebellion restored a measure of the Caliphate's former power and began a period of recovery, which culminated in the reign of al-Muwaffaq's own son, the Caliph al-Mu'tadid.
The Battle of Tawahin was fought in 885 between the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate under Abu'l-Abbas ibn al-Muwaffaq and the autonomous Tulunid ruler of Egypt and Syria, Khumarawayh. The battle took place near Ramlah and ended with a Tulunid victory.
The al-Madhara'i were a family of officials from Iraq who served as and virtually monopolized the posts of director of finances (‘āmil) of Egypt and Syria for the Tulunid dynasty, the Abbasid Caliphate, and the Ikhshidid dynasty, between 879 and 946. In this role, they amassed "one of the largest personal fortunes in the medieval Arab east".
Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Ahmad al-Madhara'i, also known as Abu Zunbur, was a member of the bureaucratic al-Madhara'i dynasty of fiscal officials, and served as director of finances of Egypt and Syria for the Abbasid Caliphate in the first decades of the 10th century.
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Madhara'i was a member of the al-Madhara'i family of fiscal bureaucrats, serving as director of finances and vizier under the Tulunids of Egypt.
Abu'l-Tayyib Ahmad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i was a member of the bureaucratic al-Madhara'i dynasty of fiscal officials, and served as director of finances of Egypt for the Tulunid dynasty during its last decades.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i (871–957) was the last important representative of the bureaucratic al-Madhara'i dynasty of fiscal officials. He served as director of finances of Egypt and Syria under the Tulunid dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as becoming vizier for the Tulunid ruler Harun ibn Khumarawayh, and later occupying high office under the Ikhshidids.
Abu'l-Fadl Ja'far ibn al-Fadl ibn al-Furat, also called Ibn Hinzaba, like his father before him, was a member of the bureaucratic Banu'l-Furat family from Iraq. A highly educated man renowned for his strict piety and knowledge of traditions about the early Islamic times, he served as vizier of the Ikhshidids of Egypt from 946 until the end of the dynasty in 969, and continued serving the Fatimid Caliphate after that.
Ahmad ibn Kayghalagh was an Abbasid military officer of Turkic origin who served as governor in Syria and Egypt. He was ousted as governor of Egypt by Muhammad ibn Tughj in 935.
Al-ʿAbbās ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn was the eldest son of the founder of the Tulunid dynasty, Ahmad ibn Tulun, and heir-apparent until his failed attempt to usurp his father in 879. After a failed attempt to take over Ifriqiya, he was imprisoned in Egypt and executed shortly after the succession of his younger brother, Khumarawayh, in May 884.
Muhammad ibn Sulayman, surnamed al-Katib, was a senior official and commander of the Abbasid Caliphate, most notable for his victories against the Qarmatians and for his reconquest of Syria and Egypt from the autonomous Tulunid dynasty.
Abu’l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Mudabbir commonly simply known as Ibn al-Mudabbir, was a senior courtier and fiscal administrator for the Abbasid Caliphate, serving in the central government, in Syria and Egypt. He is best known for his unsuccessful power struggle for control of Egypt against Ahmad ibn Tulun in 868–871.
The Battle of Mecca was an armed skirmish fought in 883 between the forces of the Tulunid ruler of Egypt and Syria, Ahmad ibn Tulun, and those of the Abbasid Caliphate, supported by the Saffarid emirate. The battle took place at Mecca in western Arabia and was fought to determine who would gain guardianship over the city during the hajj. It ended with an Abbasid-Saffarid victory and the expulsion of the Tulunid forces from Mecca.
Asma bint Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun, better known as Qatr al-Nada, was a daughter of Tulunid vassal ruler Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad and the principal wife of the sixteenth Abbasid caliph, al-Mu'tadid.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Gottschalk 1986, p. 953.
- 1 2 3 Bianquis 1998, p. 97.
- ↑ Bianquis 1998, pp. 97, 111, 112.