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In the year 213, the Caliph el-Mamun ordered Abd Allah ibn Tahir to retire, and confided the government of Egypt and also that of Syria to his own brother el-Mutasim, third son of the Caliph Ilarun er-Rashid. He was the first caliph who brought the name of God into his surname.
They repaid these favours later by the blackest ingratitude, especially when the formation of a Turkish guard brought a number of their own countrymen under their influence. Ever anxious to augment his own body-guard, and finding the number of Turks he annually received as tribute insufficient, el-Mutasim purchased a great many for the purpose of training them for that particular service.
Tulun spent twenty years at the court of el-Mamun and of his successor, Mutasim, and became the father of several children, one of which, Ahmed ibn Tulun,* known later as Abu l'Abbas, was the founder of the Tulunide dynasty in Egypt and Syria. * Ahmed ibn Tulun was, according to some historians, born at Baghdad in the year 220 of the Hegira, in the third year of the reign of el-Mutasim b' Illah.
In the year 219 of the Hegira, Kindi, the Governor of Egypt, died, and the caliph named his son, Mudhaffar ibn Kindi, as his successor. A year later the caliph dismissed Malik, and sent Ashas to Egypt in his place. This was the last governor appointed by el-Mutasim b'lllah, for the caliph died of fever in the year 227 of the Hegira.
On ascending the throne, he assumed the title el-Mutasim b'lllah, that is "strengthened by God," and his example was followed by all his successors. From the commencement of this reign, el-Mutasim b'lllah was forced to defend himself against insurgents and aspirants to the caliphate.
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