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The mosque of Ibn Tulun opened for prayer, 265/879

افتتاح جامع ابن طولون للصلاة، ٢٦٥هـ/٨٧٩م

879 CE · 265 AH

Cairo

In 265/879 the mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun in al-Qata'i' was first opened for prayer. One of the first criticisms was that its sahn had no place for ablution; the builder answered that he had omitted it deliberately, for the uncleanliness it brings, and promised a tank behind the mosque — and people complained that the tank stood outside the mosque proper, contrary to their custom 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
Abbasid Fragmentation
Region
Egypt & Nile

In time

870880890
Abbasid Fragmentation

In space

Cairo

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Summary

In 265/879 the mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun in al-Qata'i' was first opened for prayer. One of the first criticisms was that its sahn had no place for ablution; the builder answered that he had omitted it deliberately, for the uncleanliness it brings, and promised a tank behind the mosque — and people complained that the tank stood outside the mosque proper, contrary to their custom 1.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Ahmad ibn Tulun
Occurred at
Cairo
During the reign of
al-Mu'tamid ala Allah

People and things also explored

Al-Abbas ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun's revolt and flight to Barqa, 265/879· Bayakbak's murder; Egypt's apanage passes to Yarjukh, 256/870· Ibn Tulun's troops swear personal allegiance; he takes Egypt's and the Marches' finances, 258/871-872· Ibn Tulun annexes Syria to Egypt, 264/878· Ibn Kundaj intercepts al-Mu'tamid and confines him, 269· Musa ibn Bugha's army sent to remove Ibn Tulun dissolves, 263/877· The Damascus assembly drops al-Muwaffaq from the succession; mutual cursing, 269/882-883· Al-Azhar Mosque

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 3 p. 306
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The mosque of Ibn Tulun opened for prayer, 265/879”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/masjid-ibn-tulun-opened-265/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-09.

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

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.