7. ANDALUSIA - MUSLIM SPAIN
As we saw in Lesson 6 the Abbasid khalifas, although all Arabs on male side, came to depend increasingly on Persians in bureaucracy and Turks on the military. In the end the armed power said the last word and Turks became the effective rulers through many regional and often short-lived dynasties from India to North East Africa. In More Western parts of North Africa muslim Berber dynasties dominated while almost from day one of the Abbasids, Spain remained Umayyad with on and off support from Berbers, for almost eight centuries. As such little Umayyad Spain made a counterpoise to vast Abbasid empire and rivalled it in the glory of its civilization if not in size and overall power.
THE WONDER THAT WAS MUSLIM SPAIN
The actual muslim conquerors of Spain were Berber muslims and not Arabs. But the conquered province became populated both by them and Arabs and all spoke Arabic once settled in Spain, which language also became the mother tongue of many Christians who thus became muslim subjects. Jews increasingly preferred subjection to far more tolerant muslims than Christians and filled all towns of muslim Spain with sizable minorities not only freely living as unconcealed jews to their hearts’ desire but also attained great peaks of power from prime ministership to court physician as well as professors of universities. But perhaps for the first time in their history they were outclassed by their Arab countrymen in original thought and erudition and as a result Judaism and its esoteric schools were greatly influenced and modified by their Islamic equivalents, namely theology and Sufism.
Spain was conquered in 711 by a small army of muslims under a Berber commander named Tariq b. Ziyad. They crossed the narrow straits separating North Africa from Spain which straits then became Jabal at Tariq(Tariq’s mountain) . This then drawled into Gibraltar in English. Formerly the site was called Hercules’ Pillars. Once on the Spainsh soil he burned all ships thus telling his troops that it was either conquest or martyrdom.
Spain at the time was divided into many kingdoms at the throat of each other- a perfect recipe and ripe condition for inviting distant powers try their luck with conquest. We shall see the same condition crippling muslims in late Abbasid period which condition invited first the Crusaders and then the Mongols descend on Islam for conquest and plunder. And we see the same condition in many parts of Islam today- unfortunately.
Thanks to these implacable divisions Tariqs army did not only defeat each inter squabbling rabble of Christians sent against them but were able to recruit Christian prince against Christian prince simply because each could not wait for a better opportunity to topple the other. This impious factionalism to the level of blasphemy was exactly reproduced by muslims when invaded by the Crusaders a few centuries later.
Until 756 however the Umayyad khaliafs in Damascus thought little of Spain which they contemptuously called ‘the province of Andalusia’. It came into its own as a glorious power in its own right when the only surviving prince of the Umayyad dynasty, namely Abdurrahman managed to escape his Abbasid pursuers and land safely on to Spanish soil. He was invited to take over the rule by the Berber and Arab emirs once appointed by Umayyads but now fearing an Abbasid takeover (and new emirs replacing them) and squabbling over hopeless rivalries. He installed himself in Cordoba and defeated an army sent by khalifa al Mansur thus seceding ‘Andalusia’ from Abbasid body politic. He further proved his metal soon and organized Andalusia into a unified and wel—run state.
Two more Abdurrahmans followed him with intervals, namely Abdurrahman II (822-52) who not only defeated all efforts on the part of both Spanish Christian rivals and the ferocious Normans raiding his shores but fabulously built up and beautified muslim cities dotting them with palaces, mosques, colleges, hospitals and poor- houses and paving them with cobbled roads and airing them with parks and lush gardens. He was also a very merciful and just ruler helping all as and when necessary. In fact unlike their past Syrian ancestors the Spanish Umayyads on the whole proved themselves more pious and enlightened than even the good among the Abbasids and that explains why they lasted longest- about eight centuries. Sure many wanton kings came and went also among them but overall the Spanish dynasty compared nearly well with the later Ottoman in terms of piety if not in valour. By the time Abdurrahman III (912- 61) succeeded to the throne Andalusia was a bit in bad shape suffering from religious and racial animosities and racked by brigands and rebellions, Seville and Toledo having seceded already. He sorted out all these problems and re-established the unity and efficient government while consistently remaining kind and pious and just.
His son Hakam (961- 76) was fortunate for both inheriting a well-oiled state machinery and full treasury from his father and himself being a worthy successor. Additionally he was a great scholar in his own right, pursued his intellectual interests vigorously having left the day-to-day administration of his brilliant kingdom to an equally brilliant and well-meaning jewish prime minister, namely Hasdai ibn Shaprut (one of the many jewish bureaucrats risen to high office under the Spainish Ummayads) who did an excellent job.
But a weakness perpetually plagued Andalusia. It was because Spain was never completely conquered. Although muslims had at one stage even crossed over the Pyrennes into France and came near Paris they were decisively repulsed at the battle of Poitiers (732) because their lines of communication was at its limits and the new enemy the French had ample time to expect and mobilize against their attack. Eventually muslims had to settle for the southern and eastern half of Iberian peninsula where Cadiz, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, Granada, Valencia etc were the major cities. The mountainous north remained in the hands of Christian princes like Aragon and Castille.
After Hakam things took a slow downturn. Viziers and military commanders were increasingly involved in palace intriques and plots (as in the Roman, Byzantine, Abbasid and Ottoman empires and in fact in European kingdoms and the papacy) preventing strong candidates taking power and installing their weak rivals so that strings of power remained in their hands. So after Hakam we find his weak son Hisham II helped to power and his puppet masters running everything. The real power was in the hands of commander Abu Amir who ruled all except in name. He created an army of Berber and even Christin mercenries personally paid by and loyal to him and was able to put down any oppostion and keep in check any threats.
After many brilliant military succeses he almost declared himself king by taking up the title of Al Mansur (the Victorious) as if he was an Abbasid khalifa. However, the basic strategic untenability of Andalusia remained. It faced an immense sea of Western Christendom all around itself except the South where Muslim Berbers formed a fallback and support. As things got worse on account of the deteriorating quality of Andalusian princes and the improving qualities of their Christian enemies to the north (learning from muslims a lot) the muslims had to rlely more and more on their African brethren who were able to help them repeatedly, being hardly and pious desert warriors. But over time these guest forces became more and more settled among the Andalusians and experienced their own deterioration from the examples of ‘good-living’ around them. With Such Berber help the Andalusian kings, on and off, kept the outlying Christian kingdoms either shy of war or paying tribute to Andalusia, although many defeats was also to be suffered . Interestingly however, frequently alliances were formed between Christian princes and muslim emirs against Christian, Muslim or similarly mixed rival alliances as if faith did not matter and political ambition was everything. And it was these unconquered Christian kingdoms which over a long time gradually turned the tide against muslims and eventually brought the muslim rule to an end in 1492.
There is another detail to add. The Umayyad princes of Spain did not recognize their Abbasid cousins (both clans of the Quraish) as khalifas but as from Abdurrahman III (912- 61) installed themselves in the same capacity, seeing that the Abbasids had lost all control to Turkish warlords at whose mercy then they lived. They ended up as hostage to their Berber protectors and sometimes had even to accept Christian protection and therefore puppetry.
The more successful and enduring aspect of the Spanish Islam was its great and brilliant contributions to Islamic civilization which directly and decisively led to the modern Western. Rivalling if not excelling entirely the Abbasid part of Islam the Spanish muslims and to a lesser extent the jews under their wings contributed to all lines of learning, art and technology and caused many muslim savants to come to be regarded as supreme masters by their Western colleagues albeit under Latinized names but without hiding their Islamic identities. Thus Andalusian theologian and Aristotelian philosopher Ibn Rushd became Averrhoes in Latin and his works defined the benchmark of academic standards in Italian and French universities. Andausian surgeon Abul Qasim became Abulcasis and his medical encylopedia ‘al Tasrif’ included so good a section on surgery that, translated into Latin became the most prestigious texbook of surgery in the West for several centuries. In fact the rich in the West went to Andalusia for their operations and on their return home could not praiss enough the hygiene of muslim hospitals and the skill of their doctors and surgeons. Imam Ghazalli was definitive in transforming Western theology and Ibn Sina ruled supreme in Western medicine until well into the 18th century. Jews among others had their Maimonides who was both a superb doctor and philosopher- influencing the West on both counts. Lastly it was Spain which produced that zenith of Gnostic- esoteric Sufism, namely Sheikh Muhyiddin ibn Arabi who to this day compellingly fascinates both Eastern and Western Gnostics.
Andalusian architecture was another wonder much emulated for centuries in the West. Its masterpiece was the Alhamra (the Red) Castle/Palace which stands to this day and is perhaps the most admired historical building and tourist resort in Spain. The mosque alone has 1290 columns and is an extremely elegant forest of arches built from alternate red and white stones. Floral and geometrical decorations are carved into the stones and marble and alabaster are profusely used. The whole complex took 120 years from 1238 to 1358 to build and can be regarded a great walled city full of buildings each more wonderful than the other.
For all intents and purposes the Andalusain civilization was a clear pre-cursor of today’s Western. Racial and cultural tolerance, rule of law, universal and free public education at all levels for both boys and girls, superb bureaucratic, juristic, legal and municipal means and measures made the Islamic Andalusian citizen the most prosperous and civilized and sophisticated anywhere on earth. Many future Western greats from scholars, scientists, doctors to cardinals and popes boasted of Andalusian university diplomas speaking fluent Arabic. It was even fashionable among the most erudite scholars of Europe to debate sometimes in Arabic and no professor was taken seriously if he couldn’t consult works in original Arabic. As late as late 18th century medical professor Dr Samuel Hahnemann could justifiably accuse his critics and rivals with ‘even not knowing Arabic’.
Frederick II (1194- 1250), king of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, showed great favour to his Arab Sicilian subjects and so long he was alive they were safe from Christian hostility. He spoke fluent Arabic, could study in Arabic and even thought in Arabic and he filled his palace with Arab scholars, poets, savants and wits and held frequent debates with them until the early hours of the morning with all out mutual respect and lifelong friendship and loyalty.
But all these cultural achievements of Spanish Islam perhaps delayed but could not stop the eventual collapse of muslim power in Spain. As Christians worked towards unity and improvement in everything including government and military, Muslims broke into squabbling and warring petty princedoms each more than prepared to form alliances with Christian colleagues to destroy the other. The increasingly successful Christians formed their crucial unity when Isabella queen of Castille married Ferdinand king of Aragon (1469).
By then Muslim lands had dwindled into small pockets of princely domains slumbering in borrowed luxury and corrosive disunity. it took a mere 23 years for Isabella-Ferdinand union to both extinguish the ‘Moorish’ power (Spanih word for Muslim, possibly derived from Greek ‘mauros’, black on account of increasing importation of North Africans/Berbers into Andalusia) and preside over the revolutionary discovery of the Americas by Columbus.
These two momentous events marked the definitive turn of tide and the tables in favour of the Christian West and against Islamdom. Although it took another three centuries for Muslim power to decline enough to allow the West impose its authority on the rest, recovery of of Spain by the Christinas and the rush of wealth from across the Atlantic increasingly inconvenienced Islam and eventually brought it to almost terminal decline in politics and economics if not in faith. In 1492 the last European city of Islam, namely Granada, fell to Ferdinand and Isabella and there followed one of the worst ethnic cleansings in history, that of mass conversion/expulsion of muslims and their jewish appendage from Spain. A lot ‘converted’ on the pain of death, a lot were wantonly massacred, a lot barely made it to the shores to cross over into Africa. But for many even that was not a salvation. While many were honourably received and resettled by their brethren in Africa some less scrupulous African ‘rescuers’ variously robbed or sold into slavery their passengers or refugees.
The most decent and orderly rescue came from the then most pious Islamic state the Ottoman Empire whose sultan Murad II took great pains to ensure maximum rescue for not only the Spanish muslims but jews as well. The latter he settled especially around his Aegean shores, like the Thrace (especially Salonica), Eastern Aegean (Izmir or ‘Symrna’) and Istanbul itself. Those ‘converted’ Muslims were always suspected of secret Islam and nicknamed ‘moriscos’ and terribly discriminated against. ‘Converted’ Jews, for their part became ‘conversos’ and equally harassed. Eventully all were gradually expelled less those who died on Spainish soil in the horrors of the process, including the tortures and executions of the notorious Spainish Inquisition.
8. DECLINE OF THE ABBASIDS - DYNASTIES PROLIFERATING
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Reaching from Chinese borders in the East and to the Atlantic in the West the vastest and most civilized and advanced empire the world had so far seen was increasingly suffering from the disadvantages of size and complexity. Communications between the centrally placed Baghdad and provinces to east and west up to three thousand miles away each way could only be bad, considering that the fastest transport was on horseback and could only make about 80 miles a day. So before a report from the Atlantic shore to Baghdad could reach its destination the facts could change and the answer could be useless by the time it reached the Atlantic shore. Human nature being what it is here was then an opportunity for the governor to rule his province like and independent prince or a warlord topple and replace him and the khalifa helplessly rubberstamp the change. And that was what gradually came to be. All over the place practically independent states were created paying only lip service and perhaps also some token contributions to the Abbasid khilafa. These states were further made problematic by their fragility (splitting into smaller units after some bloodshed) and transiency. The cost of such instabilities made provincial contributions to the Baghdad treasury even more uncertain and in most cases altogether stopped them for good. Caliphal coffers quickly dried up as a result.
In the centre, namely Baghdad, the armed element of the government, the elite Turkish troops, quickly became the masters of both the khalifas and their Persian bureaucrats. However knowing both their abilities (military) and limits (khilafa itself and the bureaucratic skills) these Turks kept the other two legs of the government in place, enjoying the supreme as well as the arbitrary position of task- and puppet-masters yet ensuring efficiency and legitimacy. So, the empire’s fate came increasingly to depend on the quality and goodwill of the Turkish commanders, which factors unpredictably varied.
Under the Great Seljouk dynasty (11th to 13th centuries, who ruled both in Baghdad and vast domains around it) piety of conduct and respect for the khalifa was adequate to see all parties prosper while under some others the khalifas were both abused and savaged and in certain cases killed by devilish tortures. In one particularly bad case the poor man, suspected of seeking help from elsewhere, was grabbed and after being fed excessive amounts of salted fish and given no water was led to a hot Turkish bath where he was kept to sweat until he gasped for air from extreme dehydration. After many appeals for water he was then given a jug of ice cold water which he quickly drank only to drop dead from the bursting of his stomach. So, between these two fates the later Abbasid khalifas had to negotiate their existence, in all cases capable only of rubberstamping what the Turkish chiefs wanted. But such court brutalities were not Turkish specialities. All empires in decline suffered from exactly the same scandals. Roman and later Byzantine empire equally depended on slave origin barbarian mercenaries as their elite armies and the commanders of these armies similarly abused and savaged the Roman and Byzantine emperors, occasionally one commander claiming the purple and founding his own dynasty.
Turkish chiefs ‘protecting’ the Abbasid khalifas now with the first Seljouk emperor Tughrul bey adopted for the first time in history the title of ‘sultan’ which in Arabic did not originally mean ‘king’ (that was ‘melik’) but ‘authority’.
What is more these Turkish sultans proved to be the most pious rulers after so many impious ones preceding them and their lights proved as enduring as blessing Islam also in the much later Ottoman format and well into the modern age.
THE SELJOUK SULANATE
This dynasty descended from the Oghuz tribe of Turks originally from around the Aral Sea coast of Western Central Asia. After converting to Islam and valued for their superb military skills they migrated into the central heartlands of Islam as from late 10th century. By 1055 they were the rulers of a kingdom under their prince (the just mentioned) Tughrul bey (‘bey’ means chief)who also captured Baghdad at the secret invitation of the embattled khalifa and set the latter free from the clutches of another warlord. As long as these Seljoukites ruled in and around the capital the Abbasid khalifas were safe and at least enjoyed genuine respect as spiritual heads of Islam and were looked after very well. Tughrul bey died in 1063, was succeeded by equally worthy nephew in Alp Arslan (1029- 72) who, in 1071 at the head of a 30,000 strong Turkish army, massively defeated a 200,000 strong Byzantine force under emperor Romanus Diogenes near the town of Menzikert (later Malazgirt in Turkish), taking the emperor himself as a prisoner of war. He treated him however very kindly and horourably and set him free against a payment of war indemnity. He lightened the emperors gloom however by giving him many precious gifts. When the hapless emperor arrived back in his capital however he was almost ceremonially murdered after long tortures by his lordly peers. His eyes were gouged, he was variously mutilated and left to rot in dungeons.
With this crucial victory by Alp Arslan and those that followed it in rapid succession almost the whole Asia Minor including Armenia and to the walls of Constantinople became permanently Turkish and the kingdom so created by Alp Arslan came to be known as the Sultanate of Rum (Roman sultanate) on account of Anatolia being regarded as the heartland of the (Eastern) Roman empire. Aplaslan died in the hands of an assassin and was replaced his brilliant son Malik Shah who then ruled for 20 years until 1092. He more than complemented his fathers’s conquests in the west by conquering almost all Islamic lands to the east including Transoxania (‘Ma waraun nahr’, i.e., beyond the River, in Arabic meaning the Central Asia beyond the Oxus River).
He was also fortunate to have a vizier (wazir, prime minister) in Nizam al Mulk who had also graced Alp Arslan’s reign. Nizam was one of the most accomplished as well as spiritually refined wazirs in Islam’s history. He not only accomplished his political and administrative duties with rare excellence but was a great patron and arts, among others he patronized the legendary astronomer, mathematician and mystic poet Omar Khayyam; he built many magnificent mosques and colleges one of which, namely the Nizamia Medrassa proved to be the best university of the world of that age and could boast of Imam al Ghazalli as one of its professors. Economy prospered in all its forms and spheres and law and order prevailed. Nizam also proved his own erudition and literary abilities by authoring a superb work on the philosophy of government- Siyasat Nama (Book of Art and Science of Government) in excellent Persian. But because he was emphatic on the suppression of treacherous heresies like Ismailism he was black-listed by the notorious Ismaili gang of Hassan Sabbah and eventually assassinated by one of their fidais (self-sacrificing hitmen). A word or two about this terrorist organization is in order.
THE ASSASSINS
The word assassin is a Western corruption of the Arabic ‘al hashhashin’, or ‘the opium eaters’ on the premise that their perverse spirituality was nurtured by that drug. About in 1090 a certain Ismaili criminal genius Hassan Sabbah established himself as a warlord-sheikh in a formidable stronghold named the Alamut castle on the top of a very steep rocky hill almost only accessible to eagles. From there he recruited and indoctrinated a lot of impressionable young men from among the public and brainwashing them into Ismaili (at least his own even more extremist version of it) doctrines and imposing himself on them as a god for all practical intents and purposes trained them in dagger and poison type assassination methods and deployed them among the public as spies, subversives and hitmen.
Types like Hassan Sabbah are extremely intelligent men who however have a very serious satanic mad streak which leaves them lucid and logical so that no mental illness appears to be in them. The game is only given away by the implausibility and extremism of their spiritual claims as well as the incredible ruthlessness and wanton violence they are capable of hitting others with in the name of those claims. All great criminals of violent type, especially those with an ideology or cultish claim as their casus belli, are like him to this day (Pol Pot was one). They are masters of most sophisticated conspiracies and terrorist tactics as well as espionage, subversion and blackmail and also any amount and form of mass brutality. The reason for all this evil seems to be that they emotionally thrive on them. Just like the Satan in his story with Adam AS this type of negative superman is dead angry with Allah, at least as represented by Allah’s Will on earth. Unable to change things as Allah made them he avenges his frustration as an extremely bitter man by inflicting pain on others whom he thinks represent and/or are happy with the existing order or just stand in his way.
One potential victim of this gang of ‘Assassins’ was sultan Salahuddin al Ayyubi (Saladin to the Westerners). He nearly conquered their local stronghold in Syria but had suddenly to break up camp and depart because not only an assassin eventually found a way into the superbly guarded tent he was sleeping in and nearly stabbed him but the Assasin’s sheikh sent news that if the sultan persisted in his attempt to capture them the Assassins would then go on and exterminate and wipe out all his family near and far from the face of earth. This gang (or rather the network of gangs all over the central lands of Islam) also accepted contract killing commissions and worked both for the Crusaders and Muslim parties against anybody they earmarked, for pay. It was a business that is.
Only the Mongol power could put an end to them. As they devastated and subdued all muslim countries to the East Mediterranean shore the singular resistance of the Devil-proud Alamut Castle irritatated the Mongol prince Hulagu enough to ensure that it was adequately invested and attacked by best Mongol troops. They duly invested, battered and stormed and demolished it and especially brutally slaughtered all survivors inside. They also hunted down and exterminated all local branches from which disaster the Assassins never recovered. At last in Mongols they found their match.
Ismailis now survive as a minor sect in small pockets mainly in lands Northwest to India in an almost in-looking, secretive life no longer able or willing to do anything but mind their own business in their secretive ways and avoid trouble. A kindred sect are the Druze in Lebanon and Syria who again live as closely-knit secretive lives as a community- but skilful enough to run modern Syria as its elite community. Another are the Bektashis of Turkey and also many communities calling themselves Alawis, building and worshipping in no mosques and in fact even not bothering with the Qur’an (some hate it as a fabrication and not the ‘original’ which was totally pro-Ali). Their spirituality- I mean all such extreme sects claiming Alid sympathies- is based on myths and legends far pre-dating Islam as we know it and also moral fables and stories, mystical and philosophical moral stories and witticisms and proverbs and lastly an implacable bitterness and murderous hatred of Sunnis made worse by their impotency to punish them enough. In other words an extreme sense of betrayal and victimization underwrites and underpins All Shia mentality whether modertate mainstream or extremist. The extremist-secretive sects also do not practice the Sharia but have their own cultic practices to which those outside their sect are not admitted.
Some of these sects are part of the fallout from the disintegration of the Fatimid sect which once ruled half of North Africa rivalling the Abbasids. But of that later.
ANATOLIAN SELJOUKS
After their peak with Malik Shah the Seljouks went into a slow decline. They lost their Eastern territories to other Turkish dynasties like the Karamanites and Harezm Shahs who however could not survive the Mongol onslaught which was to come soon. Until Mongols reached Anatolia the Seljouks prospered and reached a modus vivendi with their Byzantine neighbours and rivals. What is more conquest brought conversions to Islam among both the Greek and Armenians thereby mixing all these races with the Turkish and making the latter indistinguishable from other Mediterranean races like the Greeks and Italians. Turkish became their common tongue as enriched by some Greek vocabulary. Greek also adopted some Turkish words however.
Muslims escaping from the advancing Mongols poured West, a lot eventually reaching Anatolia which Seljouk sultans governed from their capital Konya in the middle. Among these immigrants was the family of the world famous sufi master and poet our master sheikh Jalaluddin Rumi (QS). Soon after his demise also Mongols arrived at Anatolia and made Seljouk sultans their vassals. More about Seljouks later.
WESTERN ABBASID LANDS
These were north African regions including roughly today’s Egypt, Libya, Tunis and Algiers but not much or always Morocco. The rulers of the latter was more related to the Andalusia whose they variously became partners, saviours and occasionally rulers. Among them two dynasties are prominent- al Murabitun (Almoravids) and al- Muwahhidun (Almohads). The first was a sufi dynasty composed of holy warrior dervishes living in ‘ribats’ i.e., fortified convents, hence the word ‘murabitun’ (ribat dwellers). The latter was a ‘re-Islamizing’ fundamentalist warring sect (like the later Wahhabis but probably not as bad), hence their name ‘muwahhidun’, i.e., the unifiers (of Allah). These and others frequently crossed into Spain to fight alongside with the ruling Umayyads against their ever-encroaching Christian enemies. They succeeded in holding the ever-swelling Christian tide at bay so long the Andalusian muslims retained enough of their own honour and valour. But as the latter became more worldly, luxuriously and loose living and divided, their African brethren became less effective in protecting them for mainly two reasons.
Firstly some of them settled in Andalusia for good and learned and adopted the natives’ corrupt ways thereby losing their former lights of piety. Additionally these same impieties reached Africa itself brought back by those who had tasted them while in Africa. Secondly, both visiting warrior muslims and those who settled in Andalusia in garrisons naturally got bossier each time they did something for the native Spanish muslim rulers as the price of their increasingly costlier help. This in turn caused resentment among the native Andalusian rulers who had long been related by to their Christian colleagues by blood and and had learned how to deal with them. So, some of these native Muslim lords began to ally themselves with their Christian colleagues to curb the influence of the Africans, thereby mortally disappointing the latter. All such fitna and degeneration ate into the soul of Spanish Islam, their divisions and mutual treacheries increased easing the way for the rising Christians to conquer and mop them up one by one, until in 1092, the last Muslim stronghold Granada fell.
Nearer home we find several dynasties carve up the other north African lands between them or succeed each other in quick succession. Turkish dynasties began to emerge here also, like the Tulunids who flourished between 869-905 in Egypt (‘Tulunogullari’, sons of Tulun in Turkish) founded by Ahmad b. Tulun. They were replaced by another Turkish dynasty the Ikhshidid (935- 69). As Turkish speaking militarist rulers these could not mix well with their Arabic speaking subjects and despite their prosperous and increasingly accultured rule none could gain a permanent foothold in Egypt until much later when the Mamelukes came (1250- 1517). But that had to wait the invasion made by the Fatimids and their replacement the Ayyubids.
