Al-Abbas ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun's revolt and flight to Barqa, 265/879

عصيان العباس بن أحمد بن طولون وفراره إلى برقة، ٢٦٥هـ/٨٧٩م

c. 879 CE · 265 AH

Barqa (Cyrenaica)

When Ibn Tulun marched on Syria he left Egypt to his eldest son and designated heir al-Abbas, who was soon persuaded to exploit his father's absence: he emptied the treasury, gathered great sums and went off with his partisans to Alexandria, then Barqa. On 4 Ramadan 265/30 April 879 his father wrote him a letter — preserved by al-Qalqashandi — promising pardon, but the rebel refused, claimed al-Mu'tamid had named him governor of Ifriqiya, and invaded it with 800 cavalry and 10,000 black infantry; he sacked Labda, besieged Tripoli, and was routed by Ilyas ibn Mansur al-Nafusi with Ibrahim II's reinforcements in mid-267/winter 880-881. Driven back to Egypt, he was captured in battle outside Alexandria, paraded into Fustat on a mule, flogged and imprisoned ¹.