several
children, one of which, Ahmed ibn Tulun,* known later as Abu l'Abbas,
was the founder of the Tulunide dynasty in Egypt and Syria.

* Ahmed ibn Tulun was, according to some historians, born at
Baghdad in the year 220 of the Hegira, in the third year of
the reign of el-Mutasim b' Illah. Others claim Samarrah as
his birthplace. His mother, a young Turkish slave, was named
Kassimeh, or some say, Hachimeh. Some historians have denied
that Ahmed was the son of Tulun, one of them, Suyuti, in a
manuscript belonging to Marcel, quotes Abu Asakar in
confirmation of this assertion, who pretends he was told by
an old Egyptian that Ahmed was the son of a Turk named Mahdi
and of Kassimeh, the slave of Tulun. Suyuti adds that Tulun
adopted the child on account of his good qualities, but this
statement is unsupported and seems contradicted by
subsequent events.

Before Ahmed ibn Tulun had reached an age to take part in political
affairs, two caliphs succeeded Mutasim b'lllah. The first was his son
Harun abu Jafar, who, upon his accession, assumed the surname el-Wathik
b'lllah (trusting in God). Wathik carried on the traditional policy of
continually changing the governors of the provinces, and, dying in the
year 847, was succeeded by his half-brother Mutawakkil. In the following
year the new caliph confided the government of Egypt to Anbasa, but
dismissed him a few months later in favour of his own son el-Muntasir
ibn el-Mutawakkil, whom two years afterwards the caliph named as his
successor to the throne. El-Muntasir was to be immediately succeeded by
his two younger brothers, el-Mutazz b'lllah and el-Mujib b'lllah.

Mutawakkil then proceeded to divide his kingdom, giving Africa and
all his Eastern possessions, from the frontier of Egypt to the eastern
boundary of his states, to his eldest son. His second son, el-Mutazz,
received Khorassan, Tabaristan, Persia, Armenia, and Aderbaijan as his
portion, and to el-Mujib, his third son, he gave Damascus, Hemessa, the
basin of the Jordan, and Palestine.

These measures, by which the caliph hoped to satisfy the ambitions
of his sons, did not have the desired effect. Despite the immense
concessions he had received, el-Muntasir, anxious to commence his rule
over the whole of the Islam empire, secretly conspired against his
father and meditated taking his life. Finding that in Egypt he was too
far from the scene of his