Ahmad ibn Tulun: the administrator who built Cairo’s red-brick mosque

In the old part of Cairo stands a vast red-brick building. Its minaret, with a staircase winding around the outside, can be recognised from far away. This is the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, built in the ninth century by Egypt’s ruler Ahmad ibn Tulun. He ruled Egypt from 868 to 884 and later Syria as well. According to Britannica, he founded the Tulunid dynasty and was the first Muslim ruler of Egypt to bring Syria under his control.

Early life

According to Britannica, Ahmad ibn Tulun was born in Baghdad in September 835. His family was of Turkic origin. As a child he was taken as a slave to Samarra, the new Abbasid capital, where he entered the personal service of the Abbasid caliph. He later studied in Tarsus, in present-day Turkey, and then rose through the administrative ranks of the Abbasid government.

His time in Samarra left a deep mark on his later life. The influence of Samarra’s architecture is clearly visible in the buildings he raised in Egypt.

Arrival in Egypt and administration

In 868, Ahmad ibn Tulun arrived in Egypt as deputy to the governor. According to Britannica, he soon realised that real authority in the province lay with the head of finance, and over the next few years he took the finance department under his own control. According to Britannica’s entry on the Tulunid dynasty, between 868 and 872 he organised a separate army in Egypt and took charge of the treasuries of Egypt and Syria.

In 878, Syria also came under his administration. According to Britannica, he never formally declared independence from the caliph, but in practice he was an autonomous ruler and at some point stopped sending tribute to Baghdad. Gold dinars of his period began to carry his own name alongside the caliph’s.

Economy and agriculture

Ahmad ibn Tulun is also remembered for his economic policies. According to Britannica, he increased agricultural output, which raised tax revenue. The surplus in the treasury at his death was proof of this success. Britannica also writes that during his reign agriculture continued to flourish in the provinces of Egypt and Syria, and trade and industry were encouraged.

A new capital: al-Qata’i

Egypt’s old centre was Fustat. To its north-east, Ahmad ibn Tulun built a new royal city, al-Qata’i, generally said to have been founded in 870. “Qata’i” means sections or plots. The city was divided into districts, and each unit of the army was given a separate section named after it. The plan was modelled on the Abbasid capital, Samarra.

According to Britannica, the Tulunids began a whole programme of official construction, which included al-Qata’i and its great mosque. Most of al-Qata’i vanished in later centuries and the area is now part of Cairo. The mosque is the largest surviving trace of the city.

The Mosque of Ibn Tulun

According to Britannica, the mosque was built in 876. UNESCO gives the period of construction as 876 to 879. Britannica describes it as a “great and splendid” red-brick building, whose central part is surrounded on three sides by outer enclosures, called “ziyadas” in Arabic.

The building is made of brick and stucco. According to Britannica, both materials had rarely been used in Egyptian architecture before but were common in Iraq, and the model for the mosque was the Great Mosque built by Caliph al-Mutawakkil at Samarra. The outer walls of the mosque are topped with crenellations shaped decoratively into openwork. Around the courtyard are arcades of wide arches and heavy piers, and the arches carry fine carved stucco decoration. The covered prayer hall is divided by piers into five long aisles, which originally carried carved wooden panels.

The minaret and later history

The mosque’s present minaret is its most famous feature. According to Britannica, the mosque underwent major repairs between 1296 and 1299, and the minaret was rebuilt during this time. It has three storeys, each of a different shape: the first square, the second round with a stair winding around it, and the third octagonal. UNESCO also mentions its spiral minaret.

Over the centuries the building saw many uses. According to Britannica, in the eighteenth century it housed a workshop making chests, and in 1814 it was divided into shops. In 1890 it was declared a historic monument and was then fully restored. Today it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site “Historic Cairo”.

Death and successor

Ahmad ibn Tulun died in 884. Britannica gives March as the month of his death, while some other sources say May. He was succeeded by his son Khumarawayh. According to Britannica, Ahmad’s reign was the most important period of Tulunid history. Under his successors, financial and military stability weakened, and in 905 Egypt returned to direct Abbasid administration.

Legacy

According to Britannica, under the Tulunids the Abbasid artistic traditions of Baghdad and Samarra reached the western Islamic world for the first time, and later influenced the art of those who ruled Egypt. Ahmad ibn Tulun’s city of al-Qata’i has vanished, but his mosque of brick and stucco still stands in Cairo after more than eleven centuries.