Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Turkish soldier in the service of the Abbasids, had been appointed governor of Egypt in 868. Over the course of the next several years he took advantage of the instability of the Abbasid central government and managed to turn Egypt into a strong power base for himself, gaining absolute mastery over its administration and significantly improving its fiscal situation. As Ibn Tulun grew increasingly entrenched in his governorship he continued to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tamid, but at the same time he gradually became a de facto autonomous amir in his own right, backed by his own personal army that he had built and the large stream of revenues that Egypt provided him.[1]