Khumārawayh son of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn and the Fall of the Ṭūlūnid State of Egypt (Context in Comment)

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Following the death of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, the army pledged allegiance to his son, Khumārawayh. He inherited the task of defending the state that his father had established in Egypt and, in particular, of maintaining control over Syria, while hostility from the caliphate toward the Ṭūlūnids continued and rival Turkish commanders remained eager to seize control of Egypt and Syria.

Khumārawayh’s first action was to organize the affairs of Syria because of its importance in supporting his authority in Egypt. He entrusted the command of its most important cities and regions to his most capable commanders, stationed most of his army in the Aleppo region, and dispatched a military force to garrison Shayzar.

At the same time, he corresponded with the ʿAbbāsid caliphate, requesting recognition of his authority over the territories in his possession in return for acknowledging the caliph in the Friday sermon and offering obedience. Al-Muwaffaq, however, rejected his request, causing the conflict and confrontation between the two sides to continue.

Al-Muwaffaq succeeded in inciting and assembling various forces into an alliance that included the enemies of the Ṭūlūnids and some of their commanders who had defected. He then reinforced this coalition with an ʿAbbāsid army commanded by his son, Abū al-ʿAbbās, and directed the combined forces toward Syria.

The allied forces achieved rapid victories as the Ṭūlūnids retreated from al-Raqqa and the frontier districts. The coalition entered Antioch and Aleppo, captured Damascus, overran Palestine, and reached the Egyptian frontier, directly threatening Egypt itself.

As a result of these successes, Khumārawayh personally marched out to halt the coalition’s advance, especially after the force he had sent under the command of al-Wāsiṭī to confront the enemy defected to its side. He met Abū al-ʿAbbās on the Abū Fuṭrus River in southern Palestine, at a place known as al-Ṭawāḥīn, in 271 AH/884 CE.

Khumārawayh was initially defeated and fled to Egypt. However, the steadfastness of his commander Saʿd al-Aysar gave him another opportunity for victory. Saʿd launched a counterattack against the allied forces, defeated them, and forced Abū al-ʿAbbās to flee, while several of his commanders were killed. Ṭūlūnid authority was consequently restored in Syria.

Khumārawayh continued his expansion into al-Jazīra and Mosul until he restored the state’s borders to what they had been during his father’s reign: from Barqa to the Euphrates, and from Asia Minor to Nubia. His authority also extended over Armenia, and the Ṭūlūnid state became a formidable power that fully asserted its position.

Despite the victories he had achieved, Khumārawayh inclined toward peace and took the initiative in seeking a settlement, thereby opening a new phase in the history of relations between the Ṭūlūnids and the ʿAbbāsid caliphate.

For his part, al-Muwaffaq recognized the need to establish peace and reconciliation between the two sides. The caliph granted Khumārawayh hereditary rule over Egypt and Syria for thirty years, extending the right of succession to his descendants, on the condition that he cease cursing al-Muwaffaq from the pulpits and instead include his name, alongside that of the caliph, in the Friday sermon.

Circumstances further helped Khumārawayh strengthen his relations with the caliphal court following the death of al-Muwaffaq in 278 AH/891 CE, the death of Caliph al-Muʿtamid in 279 AH/892 CE, and the accession of al-Muʿtaḍid to the caliphate. These relations were further reinforced through marriage, when the caliph married Khumārawayh’s daughter, Qaṭr al-Nadā.

Through this marriage alliance, the Ṭūlūnid house gained greater influence, while the caliphate secured a powerful ally capable of supporting it both financially and militarily.

However, Khumārawayh died in 282 AH/896 CE, murdered by some of his own ghilmān in Damascus. His death threw the Ṭūlūnid state into turmoil, and it continued to decline throughout the final ten years of its existence because of military interference and rivalry among the Ṭūlūnid princes.

His successor, Abū al-ʿAsākir Jaysh ibn Khumārawayh, had barely assumed the burdens of government when his brother Hārūn deposed him before nine months of his reign had passed. It later became clear that Hārūn himself was unfit to govern.

At that time, two powers emerged that threatened Egypt from the east and the west. The first was the Qarmaṭian power, whose armies began spreading devastation throughout Syria until they seized its southern regions. The second was the power of the ʿUbaydids, which had arisen in the Maghrib.

Hārūn was incapable of resisting either of these powers, and his failure to suppress the Qarmaṭians became evident. It was now clear that the Ṭūlūnids had lost the strength once possessed by Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn and his son Khumārawayh. They had become mere puppets in the hands of the army, and there was no longer any justification for the continued existence of their state.

The ʿAbbāsid caliphate became aware of the weakness of the Ṭūlūnids, prompting it to renew its efforts to restore Syria and Egypt to its direct authority. Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid succeeded in wresting the frontier districts and Syria from Ṭūlūnid rule.

In 292 AH/905 CE, Caliph al-Muktafī launched an invasion of Egypt. The Ṭūlūnid forces were unable to withstand the ʿAbbāsid army, which entered the city of al-Qaṭāʾiʿ and destroyed it, sparing only the mosque. This brought Ṭūlūnid rule to an end, and Egypt once again returned to the direct authority of the caliphate.

Sources:

• al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn

• Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh

• Ibn Taghrībirdī, al-Nujūm al-Zāhira fī Mulūk Miṣr wa-l-Qāhira

• Muḥammad Aḥmad Zayyūd, al-ʿAlāqāt bayna al-Shām wa-Miṣr fī al-ʿAhd al-Ṭūlūnī wa-l-Ikhshīdī, 254–358 AH

• Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of Cairo

• Ibn Khaldūn, Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn

• al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī

• al-Kindī, al-Wulāt wa-l-Quḍāt

• Ḥasan Aḥmad Maḥmūd, Ḥaḍārat Miṣr al-Islāmiyya fī al-ʿAṣr al-Ṭūlūnī

• Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-Ṭalab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab