[Among the eminent figures who died in this year]

Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn (1): Abū al-ʿAbbās, governor of Egypt and builder of the mosque there that bears his name. He also held Damascus, the ʿAwāṣim frontier region, and the border fortresses for a long period. His father, Ṭūlūn, was one of the Turks whom Nūḥ ibn Asad ibn Sāmān al-Sāmānī, the governor of Bukhārā, presented to al-Maʾmūn in 200 AH; some say the gift was made to Hārūn al-Rashīd in 190 AH.

Aḥmad was born in 214 AH; another report (2) places his birth in 220 AH. His father Ṭūlūn died in 230 AH, though it is also said he died in 240 AH.

Ibn Khallikān (3) relates that Ṭūlūn was not in fact his biological father but had adopted him—Allah knows best. Ibn ʿAsākir (4) reports that his mother was a Turkish concubine named Hāshim.

Aḥmad grew up upright and chaste, studying the Noble Quran and possessing a melodious voice. He reproved the Turkish youths for the forbidden and reprehensible deeds (5) they used to commit.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir states in his Tārīkh (6), citing some of the shaykhs of Egypt, that Ṭūlūn was not his real father but had adopted him, and that signs of brilliance were evident in him from childhood. On one occasion Ṭūlūn sent him to fetch something from the palace of government. As he went, he encountered one of his father’s favourite concubines committing a lewd act with a servant. He took the item his father had ordered him to bring (7) and hurried back without mentioning what he had seen. The concubine, fearing he might have reported what he witnessed (8), went to Ṭūlūn and said, “Aḥmad has just come to such-and-such a place and tried to seduce me.” Then she withdrew to her quarters.

The story found credence in Ṭūlūn’s mind, so he summoned Aḥmad, wrote a letter, sealed it, and sent him with it to one of the commanders, instructing: “When the bearer of this letter reaches you, strike off his head and send his head to me at once.”