Ahmad ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868884

(Hardback)

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"Ahmad ibn Tulun (835884) governed Egypt on behalf of the Abbasid dynasty for sixteen years, taking strides to unify what was a fractious land. An aggressive and innovative actor, he pursued an ambitious political agenda that often put him at odds with his imperial masters, who once tried to remove him by force. In spite of this, he ultimately remained loyal to the Abbasids, twice marching into Syria to wage war against their Byzantine rivals. Perhaps best known today for the mosque in Cairo that bears his name, Ibn Tulun left a lasting mark on Egyptian history and politics, but, Matthew Gordon asks, was he the hero of Egyptian national independence that some hail him to be"

Reviews

In the background of Ibn Tuluns portrait, Matthew Gordons 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.

-- Mathieu Tillier, Professor of History of Medieval Islam, Sorbonne University

Meticulously researched, this book offers the first book-length study in English dedicated to Ahmad son of Tulun, the ninth-century Turkish governor sent from the Abbasid capital to rule the rich province of Egypt. Moving between the person of Ibn Tulun and the historical circumstances that formed him and with which he had to wrestle, Mathew Gordon offers an exceptionally engaging study of a crucial period in the Islamic history of Egypt and the caliphate more broadly. Scholars and interested readers will be attracted to the precise yet accessible and delightfully lively image that Gordon presents of this unusual historical figure.

-- Petra Sijpesteijn, Professor of Arabic, Leiden University

Author Bio

Matthew S. Gordon is Professor of History at Miami University, specialising in Islamic and Middle Eastern history and pre-modern world history. He is the author of The Rise of Islam and has published widely on medieval Islamic social and political history.