forty-seven amirs, setting fire to many of their vessels and carrying off vast sums of wealth. Praise and gratitude belong to Allah.

In Muḥarram of this same year, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, the governor of Egypt, laid siege to the city of Antioch, where Sīmā al-Ṭawīl was stationed. He captured it and did not desist—after a series of battles too long to recount here—until he had taken the city, killed the aforesaid Sīmā, and remained there ⦗1⦘ until gifts from the Byzantine emperor reached him. Included with those gifts was a group of Muslim prisoners, each captive accompanied by a copy of the Quran. Among them was ʿAbd Allah ibn Rashīd ibn Kāwūs, who had once been commander of the frontier districts. Thus Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn came to possess the whole of Syria in addition to Egypt, for when the deputy of Damascus, Amākhūr, died ⦗2⦘, Ibn Ṭūlūn rode out from Egypt. Ibn Amākhūr met him at al-Ramla, confirmed him in office, and Aḥmad proceeded to Damascus and entered it, then to Ḥimṣ, which he received in submission, then to Aleppo, which he took, and finally he rode on to Antioch, where the events just described occurred.

Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn had left his son al-ʿAbbās as deputy over Egypt. When al-ʿAbbās learned that his father was on his way, he seized the revenues stored in the treasury, aided by a number of supporters, and fled to Barqah, abandoning his father’s authority. Aḥmad dispatched men who brought him back in humiliation and disgrace; they returned him to Egypt, imprisoned him, and executed several of his companions ⦗3⦘.

In this year a man called al-Qāsim ibn Mahāh rebelled against Dulf ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Dulf al-ʿIjlī; he killed him and took possession of Isfahan. Dulf’s partisans avenged him by killing this al-Qāsim and appointing Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz as their leader ⦗4⦘.

In the same year, Muḥammad al-Muwallad joined Yaʿqūb ibn al-Layth, arriving in Muḥarram; the sultan thereupon ordered that his wealth, goods, properties, and estates be plundered.

That year, the Zanj leader entered al-Nuʿmāniyyah ⦗5⦘, killing and burning, then marched on to Jarjarāyā ⦗6⦘. Panic seized the populace; the people of the Sawād fled into Baghdad and sought refuge there, hemmed in.

Also in this year, Abū Aḥmad appointed ʿAmr ibn al-Layth to govern Khurasan, Fars, Isfahan, Sijistān, Kirmān, and Sind, sending him the official decree together with robes of honor and gifts.