Ibn al-Ikhshad

Ibn al-Ikhshad or Ibn al-Ikhshid was the governor of Tarsus for the Abbasid Caliphate from April 898 until his death in battle against the Byzantines in early 900.

The name Ibn al-Ikhshad or Ibn al-Ikhshid derives from the Persian title ikhshid.^[1] From 890 until 897, the city of Tarsus and the borderlands (thughur) with the Byzantine Empire were controlled by the autonomous Tulunid dynasty of Egypt, but in 897 a pro-Abbasid party under Raghib took power in the city and arrested the Tulunid governor Damian and other pro-Tulunid officials. Envoys were then sent to the Abbasid capital Baghdad to ask for the appointment of a new governor.^[2][3] This was done, as Caliph al-Mu'tadid appointed Ibn al-Ikhshad as governor (amir), the latter leaving Baghdad to take up his post on 17 April 898 along with the Tarsiote envoys.^[4]

In the same winter (December 898/January 899) he undertook a raid against the Byzantines, reaching the fortress of Salandu (Traianopolis), which he captured, returning to Tarsus in early 899.^[4][5] Following the arrest of Raghib at ar-Raqqa in August 899, Ibn al-Ikhshad arrested his servants and confiscated his possessions in Tarsus.^[6] Ibn al-Ikhshad was killed in another expedition into Byzantine territory shortly after, probably in early 900, leaving Abu Thabit as his deputy and successor behind him.^[5][7]

References

1. Rosenthal 1985, p. 71 (note 368).
2. Rosenthal 1985, pp. 41, 44.
3. Stern 1960, p. 220.
4. Rosenthal 1985, p. 71.
5. PmbZ, Ibn al-Iḫšād (#22696).
6. Rosenthal 1985, p. 79.
7. Rosenthal 1985, p. 83.

Sources

• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Zielke, Beate; Pratsch, Thomas, eds. (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). De Gruyter.
• Rosenthal, Franz, ed. (1985). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXXVIII: The Return of the Caliphate to Baghdad: The Caliphates of al-Mu'tadid, al-Muktafi and al-Muqtadir A.D. 892-915/A.H. 279-302. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-87395-876-4.
• Stern, S. M. (1960). "The Coins of Thamal and of Other Governors of Tarsus". Journal of the American Oriental Society 80 (3): 217–225. doi:10.2307/596170.