and to generosity; yet he was a domineering tyrant, a prodigal shedder of blood.

Al-Qudaʿī said: Those whom he had executed in cold blood, or who died in his prisons, were counted and came to eighteen thousand (1).

He built, on the outskirts of Miṣr, a congregational mosque on which he spent one hundred thousand dinars (2). His commitment to Islam was sound, and he revered its sacred rites.

He left in ready cash ten thousand thousand dinars, twenty-four thousand mamluks (3), a host of sons, and six hundred pack-mules for heavy loads (4).

It is also said that the annual revenue of Egypt during his rule rose to more than four thousand thousand dinars (5). The caliph was too preoccupied with the Zanj wars to give Ibn Ṭūlūn his attention, and Ibn Ṭūlūn in turn looked down on the Turkish commanders for the excesses they committed.

Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Harawī said: “We were with al-Rabīʿ al-Murādī when a messenger from Ibn Ṭūlūn arrived bearing one thousand dinars, and he accepted them.”

It is related that Ibn Ṭūlūn once sat down to eat, and a beggar stood before him. He ordered that the man be given a chicken and some sweets. The servant returned and said, “I gave them to him, but he showed no interest.”

“Bring him to me,” said Ibn Ṭūlūn.

When the beggar stood before him, he did not tremble out of awe. Ibn Ṭūlūn said, “Produce the books you are carrying and speak truthfully, for you are a man with information. Bring the whips!” The man confessed, and Ibn Ṭūlūn said—