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| 868–905 |
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| THE TULUNIDS. The dynasty ruled Egypt and Syria as semi-independent governors. Its founder, Ahmad ibn Tulun (d. 884), was the son of a Turkish military slave. He started out as a deputy-governor of Egypt and then, using the Abbasid slave-military model, created his own army of Turkish cavalry and African infantry. Although he did not seek total independence from the Abbasids, he exercised a great measure of autonomous power in the province of Egypt, which began under him to assume a greater political importance in regional affairs. The local economy prospered, with much of the revenue staying in the province. The Abbasids did not acquiesce to Tulunid autonomy, and in 905, after several attempts, restored their direct rule over Egypt. | 1 |
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| 868 |
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| Malta captured by the Aghlabids. | 2 |
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| 869–83 |
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| The Zanj rebellion. The Zanj, slaves of East African origin employed to reclaim salinated farmlands, rose in a great rebellion that laid waste to much of lower Iraq and put a strain on Abbasid resources. Their charismatic leader claimed descent from the Shi’ite imam Ali and led his troops to sack Basra and establish a city in the marshlands. Agricultural slaves were never again used on such a massive scale. After the Zanj rebellion, slavery persisted in urban and village settings in the Islamic world, for the Qur'an allowed slavery but enjoined the kind treatment of slaves and defined their manumission as a blessing. Slaves labored in domestic, mercantile, and military situations. | 3 |
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| c. 870 |
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| Death of Ya’qub al-Kindi, considered the first Islamic philosopher. A native of Kufa, he benefited directly from the translation of Greek philosophical works into Arabic and analyzed all of Aristotle's work in 260 treatises. His most famous work, On First Philosophy, attempted to place Greek assumptions about creation and matter within an acceptable Islamic framework. He also wrote one of the earliest treatises on musical theory. | 4 |
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| 870 |
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| Death of Muhammad al-Bukhari (b. 810), who collected one of the most famous of the reliable Sunni compilations of hadith. By the 10th century, Sunni religious authorities recognized al-Bukhari's compendium as one of six canonical collections. | 5 |
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| 877 |
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| Ahmad ibn Tulun occupied Syria. He began construction of the mosque that remains in modern Cairo. | 6 |
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| 892 |
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| Death of Ahmad al-Baladhuri, the author of an important biographical dictionary (Ansab al-ashraf) and a history of the Muslim conquests (Futuh al-buldan). | 7 |
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| 892–902 |
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| AL-MU’TADID. The son of the regent al-Muwaffaq displayed talent in pulling together the military, which remained loyal to him and became critical to implementing his policies of state reconsolidation. He moved the capital from Samarra to Baghdad. | 8 |
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| 897 |
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| A Zaydi Shi’ite state was established in northern Yemen by the imam Husayn al-Rassi. The main Zaydi religious center remained there into the 20th century. | 9 |
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| c. 897 |
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| The Qarmati (Qaramita) movement of Isma’ili, or Sevener, Shi’ite Muslims began a series of rebellions against the Abbasid Empire. The founder, Hamdan Qarmat, believed that after the seventh imam, Isma'il (d. 760), no religio-political leader remained on earth, and that anyone who claimed to be the Mahdi, or redeemer, was not the true leader of the community—a belief that caused the Qarmatis' violent opposition to the Isma'ili Fatimid regime founded in Egypt by a Muslim who claimed descent from the seventh imam. The Qarmati movement combined esoteric religious doctrine with a program that advocated social justice and violence against other Islamic governments. The message spread in the late 9th century among the peasantry of Iraq and nomadic Arab tribes of Syria and Bahrain. Qarmati armies besieged Damascus (903), sacked Basra (923), threatened Baghdad (c. 928), and extracted payment for the peaceful continuance of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. | 10 |
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| 900 |
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| The Samanids occupied Khurasan, adding the province to their Transoxanian territories. They held the area until 999, when Mahmud of Ghazna annexed it. The dynasty was of Persian origin and encouraged Persian literary activity, which flourished. | 11 |
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| 905 |
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| The Abbasids regained Egypt in a military campaign that ended Tulunid rule. Syria was also captured (903). | 12 |
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