Ahmad ibn Tulun

Matthew S. Gordon is Professor of Islamic History at Miami University, and author of The Breaking of a Thousand Swords and The Rise of Islam.

• MapsChronologyThe Tulunid Household INTRODUCTIONThe Political and Military SettingIbn Tulun and Abbasid PoliticsGoverning Abbasid Egypt 1 THE FIRST DECADE IN OFFICE 868–877The Appointment to EgyptThe Claim to Full AuthorityPacification and the Tulunid MilitaryThe Imperial Stage 2 THE LAST YEARS IN OFFICE 877–884The New Syrian CampaignFather and SonTarsus and DamascusThe Question of Legacy 3 GOVERNING EGYPT Representing Ibn TulunEgypt and the Samarran CommandFamily and HouseholdThe Tulunid Army and PoliceThe Tulunid Economy and its Administration 4 CITY AND CEREMONY Al-Qata’i`The City as StageThe Military CommandThe Religious EstablishmentDamascus, the Abbasid Court, and the Frontier CONCLUSION: TULUNID FORTUNESThe Amir’s Career AcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex

‘In the background of Ibn Tulun’s portrait, Matthew Gordon’s alert pen sketches a vivid landscape of ninth-century Egypt, transporting the reader into the heart of the major political and social issues of that transitional century. A book to be put in all hands, both enlightened amateurs and specialists of medieval Islam.’