The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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A.D. 870-92] THE TULUNinS 549
About this time, the Byzantine court, takinf^ advantac^e A.H. 256-
of the Cah'ph's domestic troubles, was making serious ^^
advances in Asia Minor. Tarsus, unfortunate in its Ahmed ibn
governors, allowed the fortress of Lu'lu'a to fall into the clm'"'^
•
enemy's hands. Ahmed ibn '1 ^'l'^'" ^^^^ long sought for Asia .Minor
leave to carr\' his Egyptian arms against the Greeks, but 26. a h'^'
Al-Muwaffak had scorned the offer. The Caliph, who 877 a.o.
regarded him with more favour than his brother, now
committed the campaign into his hands. Placing his son
Khumaraweih in charge at home, Ahmed gladly seizing the
opportunity, passed at once into S}'ria, which opposed his
advance
;
but easily defeating the governors who came out
against him, he took Damascus and Antioch, and advanced
upon Tarsus. There he was ill received, and, obliged to
return to Syria, left the Greeks to pursue their victories.
But he maintained his hold on Syria, and turning his arms
eastward took I.Iarran. While carrying all before him
in his farther advance on Mosul, he heard that his son
Khumaraweih had left the capital and retired to Barka with
all the treasure. There the foolish youth sought to found
a new kingdom of his own ; but warring westward was beaten
back by the Aghlabids on Barka. He was seized by his 268 a.h.
father's troops, and carried back to Fustat, a miserable
spectacle. By command of Ahmed, his son inflicted with
his own hand condign punishment on the advisers who had
led him astray. He was then himself beaten with a hundred
.stripes, after which Ahmed wept as, with a father's bowels
of compassion, he upbraided him for his folly.
Meanwhile Lu'lu'a, the freed INIemluk of Ahmed, had Ibn Talrm
been pursuing the victorious course begun by his Master, CaHphto*
and extending the Tulunid rule from Syria to Mosul, to Hgypt
268 A.H.
when an unexpected turn of affairs occurred. .\1-Muwaffak
being still in mortal combat with the Zenj, the empire
suffered everywhere from the helpless incapacity of his
'
The scene is told with much pathos. The punishment whicli
Ahmed made his son inflict on his evil counsellors is, however, so
barbarous as to mar the effect altogether ; and I have not ventured to
translate it into the text. The truant son was commanded to cut off
both their hands and their legs, leaving them miserable living trunks.
One may hope that these things arc exaggerated. But even worse tilings
were in store for wretched Egypt under the Memluk dynasty.