The Tulunides (868-905)

The Tulunids were the first to grant mediaeval Egypt real political autonomy. During this short period, the richest province of the Abbassid Empire, as Egypt then was, enjoyed an unprecedented artistic blossoming.

The agent of this development was above all the founder of the dynasty; Ahmad ibn Tulun (835-884) who was succeeded by his two sons before the province once again fell under the sway of Irak. The works of art created in Egypt under the Tulunids owe much to the places in which Ibn Tulun spent his childhood, to the way he progressively took control of this rich province, and to the Egyptian artistic traditions that pre-dated the founding of the dynasty. They also attest to the Tulunids desire to shake off the yoke of caliphal authority.

As the son of a Turkish slave given to the caliph Al-Ma’mun around 815, Ahmad grew up in the caliphal capital of Samarra, lying 125 km to the north of Baghdad and built in 836 by the caliph Al-Mu‘tasim who wished to move away from Baghdad where he was under threat. The goal was thus to found a new caliphal capital in which would only reside the troops and men most faithful to the dynasty.  Ahmad was entrusted with the vice-governorship of Egypt in 868. In 871 he succeeded in outmanoeuvring his rival and was thus able to lay his hands on all the political and economic power, whilst also receiving the governance of Egypt’s coastal districts as far as Barqah, in zones that eluded him until then. When troubles in the province of Syria-Palestine finally forced Ahmad ibn Tulun to intervene there, he now settled into control of a single vast territory running from Libya to Syria. Though he did not totally shake off the Abbassid yoke, he effectively thus turned Egypt little by little into a quasi-independent emirate and, through meticulous management of its resources, secured its prosperity. He reorganized the tax system and increased his power by supporting the local elites and the trading class.

Emulating what he had known in Samarra, Ibn Tulun had a new capital, Al-Qatta’I, built for himself in 870, a little to the north of Al-Fustat. His plan was to provide accomodation there for his troops and supporters and to display his authority over the territory by means of monumental constructions.

There he established a palace and above all a great mosque (878-879) which is reminiscent of the buildings of Samarra. Built entirely of baked bricks covered with stucco, this mosque is one of the most famous edifices in Cairo today, and the only remnant of Tulunid architecture. Its plan, including a square courtyard bordered by three galleries, exerted a major influence on many later Egyptian mosques.

The prayer hall consists of three transverse aisles whose arches resemble those of the cupola of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, a model which may well have served as an inspiration for the master-builder of the mosque, since texts relate that he was a Christian (nasranî). The sculpted decoration on the intrados of the arches take up the styles of Ibn Tulun’s city of origin.

This mosque also continues the tradition of Samarra in using pillar arcades and ziyâda or large elongated courtyards situated between the external walls and the front and sides of the mosque. The effect of symmetry created by the ensemble, must have been accentuated a little more by the original minaret (the current minaret is a  thirteenth century resoration). It seems that it was aligned with the mihrab.  Accounts also describe its helicoidal shape, so typical of the minarets of Samarra (though it is today truncated).

The Copts, of whom there were many in Egypt, had in their art the necessary elements and skills for making such decors. It can thus not be ruled out that their techniques, inspired in their turn by the Byzantines, may have exerted an influence. Indeed, the way in which the stucco of the mosque’s decor has been incised resembles the woodwork in which the Copts were acknowledged masters. The interlaced designs, the chevrons or again the vine-leaves, as well as the inclination towards abstraction and geometry, that the Copts displayed in their artistic tradition are to be found in Ibn Tulun’s mosque, which thus seems to be the result almost as much of the recollections of the man who commissioned it, as of the techniques and traditions of local artists.

The handful of wooden panels dating from the same period, excavated from the sands of Fustat, echo the Coptic style, which is thus seen to play an ever more central role in the development of Tulunid art.

The development of the tiraz or luxury cloth under the Tulunids is yet more evidence of the role of the Copts. The period is notable for stronger investment in agriculture and particularly in the cultivation of flax, a raw material essential for the production of tiraz. Since the Byzantine period, the best tiraz workshops had been run by Copts in localities of the Nile Delta such as Damietta, Tinnis or Alexandrie. From the reign of Ibn Tulun this cultivation, which was very profitable for investors, was developed. The tiraz that have come down to us reveal not only the introduction of eastern motifs and skills, more or less proving that a part of the production was aimed at a new market, but also the revival of Coptic motifs which thus seem to show that the internal Egyptian market was developing too, riding on the wave of economic prosperity brought about by Ibn Tulun.

These linen or silken fabrics, often coloured or adorned with golden threads, were used to elaborate ceremonial garments which sovereigns snapped up in great number. Rather like the currencies that the Tulunids coined, the tiraz amounted to real political tools. Indeed, from 878 inscriptions observed on fabrics or coins cite the name and title of Ibn Tulun in lieu of the official office-bearer who had remained in Irak, and above all of the Abbassid caliph. This is thus a sure sign of his desire for political emancipation.

Tulunid Egypt was also a centre for the production of lustre ceramics. Although it is particularly difficult to trace the precise origins of this technique, which was a speciality of Mesopotamia, the very cradle of earthenware art, the tumuli of Fustat have revealed heaps of discarded shards which indicate local production. While it is perfectly possible that artisans from Irak emigrated to Egypt in order to practise and teach their skills there, the possibility of uninterrupted production from local workshops is not to be ruled out completely.

Thus the artistic production of the Tulunid period attests first and foremost to Egypt’s economic boom. It is characterized above all by the blending of Mesopotamian and Egyptian influences, giving rise to a practice which was to prove even more popular shortly afterwards.

D.B.