and illiterate as they were, now living in the midst of princes, soon
acquired a knowledge of Muhammedanism, the sciences, and, above all, the
politics of the country.

It was not long before they were able to fill the most responsible
positions, and, given their freedom by the caliphs, were employed by the
government according to their abilities. Not only were they given the
chief positions at court, but the government of the principal provinces
was entrusted to them. 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. But these
youths speedily abused the confidence shown them by the caliph, who,
perceiving that their insolence was daily growing more insupportable to
the inhabitants of Baghdad, resolved to leave the capital, rebuild the
ancient city of Samarrah and again make it the seat of the empire.

At this time the captain of the caliph's guard was one Tulun, a
freedman, whom fate would seem to have reduced to servitude for the
purpose of showing that a slave might found a dynasty destined to rule
over Egypt and Syria. Tulun belonged to the Toghus-ghur, one of the
twenty-four tribes composing the population of Turkestan. His family
dwelt near Lake Lop, in Little Bukhara. He was taken prisoner in battle
by Nuh ibn Assad es-Samami, then in command at Bukhara. This prince,
who was subject to the Caliph Mamun, paid an annual tribute of slaves,
Turkish horses, and other valuables. In the year 815 a. d., Tulun was
among the slaves sent as tribute to the caliph, who, attracted by his
bearing, enrolled him in his own body-guard.

Before long he had so gained the caliph's confidence that Mamun gave him
his freedom and the command of the guard, at the same time appointing
him Emir es-sitri, prince of the veil or curtain. This post, which was a
mark of the greatest esteem, comprised the charge of the personal safety
of the sovereign, by continually keeping watch without the curtain or
rich drapery which hung before the private apartments, and admitting no
one without a special order. Tulun spent twenty years at the court of
el-Mamun and of his successor, Mutasim, and became the father of