Tulunids-Ikhshidids

In the ninth century, Egypt had been under foreign rule, by Romans, Byzantines and Arabs, for nearly a thousand years. Long the breadbasket for the far-off capitals of its rulers, Egypt was, at last, becoming increasingly central and enriched. The difficulty of overland travel from the Mediterranean to India, due to disorder, rebellion, and war, meant that the trade was increasingly conducted via Egypt's Red Sea. Its food surplus, which had once fed the crowds of Rome and Constantinople, now flowed to the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina – to the gratitude of the whole Muslim World. With increasing wealth and prestige came increasing independence. Egypt's masters, the Abbasid Caliphs (based at Samarra in Iraq) were increasingly embroiled in rebellions, and dominated by their Turkic slave soldiers – There was nothing to stop an enterprising wali (governor) from ruling Egypt as his own private fief.

That wali was Ibn Ṭūlūn, who showed up in Egypt in 868, and proceeded to whip the country into shape, renovating and expanding the capital, Fustat, conquering Syria, and planning to move the Caliph to Fustat, where Ibn Ṭūlūn would have served as regent. At his death, he was an independent Emir in everything but name. He left a full treasury to his son, Khumārawayh, who built on his successes, shifting into fuller independence and expanding the empire further, though he emptied the treasury in the process. 

As it turned out, such success was only possible because of Abbasid weakness. The Abbasids were forced into revitalisation by the Qarmatian Revolt of 900, and within a few years they had reoccupied Syria and were bearing down on Egypt, which now suffered from a succession of cruel, drunk, child-Emirs. With the help of a disgusted Tulunid general, the Abbasids reconquered Egypt in 905. Its brief experiment with independence was over... But not for long, for the Tulunids had changed things for good. It was now clear that Egypt could stand on its own feet, use its wealth for its own benefit, and the Abbasids, if at all distracted by trouble elsewhere, could not stop it. It would not be long before someone else tried to follow in the Tulunid model.    

Egypt after the Tulunids was highly disordered. The Abbasids had removed Tulunid control in 905, and the tribute once more flowed to Baghdad, but they were unable to offer a substitute authority. A dazzling succession of governors quarrelled amongst each other, attempting to hold the country against revolts, a recalcitrant bureaucracy, attacks by the Fatimids in the west, and each other – with an army which they were often unable to pay.

Ibn Ṭughj al-Ikhshīd took control of Egypt in 935 and restored it to something very much like the Tulunid regime – though more hard-pressed on the west by the Fatimids and in Syria by the Hamdanids. After al-Ikhshīd's death (946), power rapidly devolved into the hands of the competent African eunuch, Abū'l-Misk Kāfūr, who took power de jure in 966. The latter's inability to produce children meant that he had no clear successor at his death, and Egypt was conquered by the Fatimids, almost by default.

SOURCES

Bianquis, Thierry. "Autonomous Egypt from Ibn Tūlūn to Kāfūr, 868–969" in The Cambridge History of Egypt Vol.1. (Carl F. Petry ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 86-119.