Ahmad ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868–884. Matthew S. Gordon. Makers of the Muslim World series (London: Oneworld Academic, 2021). Pp. 159. $30.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781851688098

Abstract

One of the legacies of Patricia Crone was the creation of the series Makers of the Muslim World, published by Oneworld Academic. Thanks to the work of Khaled El-Rouayheb and Sabine Schmidtke, the series continues, with over forty volumes published so far. A major attraction of the series is the breadth of coverage, from well-known individuals such as Abd al-Malik b. Marwan to lesser-known ones such as Nazira Zeineddine. In each case, the editors seek an appropriate, highly qualified scholar to write the volume. The author of this biography of Ahmad ibn Tulun, Matthew S. Gordon, established his scholarly reputation with his mastery of the complex history of the relations between the Abbasid caliphs and their Turkish troops in the 9th century CE in his book The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (A.H. 200–275/815–889 C.E.) (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001). Gordon’s current title, Ahmad ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868–884, is a political history of one of the most important figures to come to prominence after the “decade of anarchy” (c. 866–74) in Samarra had triggered the dissolution of the unitary caliphal state and heralded the rise of regional powers throughout the Islamic world. Ahmad b. Tulun, the son of an Uighur slave soldier who served in Muʿtasim’s new model army, was raised in Samarra and spent time as a pious mujtahid in Tarsus before being dispatched by his Turkish patron to govern Egypt in 868 A.D. In the first years of his governorship, Ibn Tulun established himself as the power in the land: he brought an end to the recurring rural revolts against tax abuses, seized control of the fiscal apparatus, recruited a huge army that he deployed internally and in Syria, and boosted the Egyptian economy. He eventually made a name for himself as a ruthlessly successful ruler who managed to hand over the reins of power to his son before his death. Gordon’s aim is to explain the contradictions of his tenure as governor. Although committed to maintaining the Abbasid order, he nevertheless recalibrated the relationship between governor and caliph to achieve his goal of establishing and maintaining the right to run his own affairs as the first de facto autonomous ruler of Egypt of the caliphal era. As the first “Samarran Turk” to defy the centripetal pull of the capital and stake out a claim in the provinces, his career offers a comparative lens through which to view the other regional powers that emerged after caliphal authority had entered a period of steep decline. The book begins with a helpful introduction which sets out its themes clearly, followed by two chapters that cover the details of Ibn Tulun’s early life as well as the chronology of his governorship. The heavy burden of names and dates is lightened by Gordon’s concise style and apposite choice of illustrative anecdotes. The next two chapters offer a thematic approach, first, to the practicalities of governing Egypt in the second half of the 9th century (relations with the Abbasid administration, family and household, army and police, economy and administration); and second, to the role of public performance in the political economy of the Tulunid capital (construction of al-Qataʾiʿ, urban architecture, processions and