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Whatever uncertainty may rest upon these very remote specimens of pointed architecture, there is little if any about the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, also at Cairo, and built A.D. 885, or, according to another authority, A.D. 879. Here arcades of bold pointed arches spring from piers, and the effect of the whole structure is noble and full of character.
Suyuti adds that Tulun adopted the child on account of his good qualities, but this statement is unsupported and seems contradicted by subsequent events. Before Ahmed ibn Tulun had reached an age to take part in political affairs, two caliphs succeeded Mutasim b'lllah.
Mustain was, however, allowed to retire to Ma'szit. He was permitted to take an attendant with him, and his choice fell upon Ahmed, the son of Tulun, already mentioned. Ahmed served the dethroned prince truly, and had no part in the subsequent murder of this unhappy man.
To this day is to be seen the mosque of Ibn Tulun, built by him in the newer part of Fostât, a district which was later annexed to the town of Cairo. The numerous wars in which Muaffik was involved gave Ahmed the opportunity of extending his power beyond the boundaries of Egypt.
In the second category military adventurers fall, for example, the Turkish praetorians who made and unmade not less than four caliphs at Bagdad in the ninth century, and that bold condottiere, Ahmed ibn Tulun, who captured a throne at Cairo. Even Christian emperors availed themselves of these stout fighters.
At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem learning, built colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in every way. What had happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the Fatimides, was repeated on the death of Kamil.
It was in the late afternoon of a perfect day; the scene was, in the main, Oriental, the European touches being less visible from a distance. First, a confused stretch of domes, minarets, and roofs; then a separate mosque stood out, and we recognized Sultan Hasan and Ibn Tûlûn.
The Mosque of Ibn Tûlûn is the only monument that survives; it is also a congregational type and has the same general style as Amr; it is the earliest instance of the use of the pointed arch throughout a building, this being two centuries earlier than its use in England. Five rows of arches form the arcade, or cloisters, on the Mecca end of the building, with two rows on the other three sides.
With the political change in 868, which introduced the Turkish period, Ibn Tûlûn became the ruler, and another era of mosque and palace and hospital building prevailed.
Keeping still to the northeast, another city was added, in 860, by the first independent Muslim King of Egypt, Ibn Tûlûn, called El Katâi; the "wards" became divided into separate quarters for various nations and classes, and here was erected the remarkable Mosque of Ibn Tûlûn.
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