| Biographical detail : | The founder of the Tulunid dynasty in Egypt and Syria.
Talun Ahmad was a Turk who came to Egypt in 868 as governor and soon established his own dynasty, which was the first dynasty to exist independently of the Abbasid government in Baghdad. He ruled from 868 to 884. He occupied Syria in 878.
Talun Ahmad developed agricultural, encouraged industry and initiated a public building program in which the great mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun and the Tulinid capital, Al Qatai were built. After the fall of the Tulunids in 905, the arts in Egypt declined and did not recover till the 11th century when the Fatimids made Egypt the cultural centre of Muslims. |
