caliph to Rosetta; but Egypt was not
freed from the invaders till the year 921, when reinforcements had been
repeatedly sent from Bagdad to deal with them. The extortions
necessitated by these wars for the maintenance of armies and the
incompetence of the viceroys brought Egypt at this time into a miserable
condition; and the numerous political crises at Bagdad prevented for a
time any serious measures being taken to improve it. After a struggle
between various pretenders to the viceroyalty, in which some pitched
battles were fought, Mahommed b. Tughj, son of a Tulunid prefect of
Damascus, was sent by the caliph to restore order; he had to force his
entrance into the country by an engagement with one of the pretenders,
Ibn Kaighlagh, in which he was victorious, and entered Fostat in August
935.

Ikshidite Dynasty.

Mahommed b. Tughj was the founder of the Ikshidi dynasty, so called from
the title Ikshid, conferred on him at his request by the caliph shortly
after his appointment to the governorship of Egypt; it is said to have
had the sense of "king" in Ferghana, whence this person's ancestors had
come to enter the service of the caliph Motasim. He had himself served
under the governor of Egypt, Takin, whose son he displaced, in various
capacities, and had afterwards held various governorships in Syria. One
of the historians represents his appointment to Egypt as effected by
bribery and even forgery. He united in his person the offices of
governor and minister of finance, which had been separate since the time
of the Tulunids. He endeavoured to replenish the treasury not only by
extreme economy, but by inflicting fines on a vast scale on persons who
had held offices under his predecessor and others who had rendered
themselves suspect. The disaffected in Egypt kept up communications with
the Fatimites, against whom the Ikshid collected a vast army, which,
however, had first to be employed in resisting an invasion of Egypt
threatened by Ibn Raiq, an adventurer who had seized Syria; after an
indecisive engagement at Lajun the Ikshid decided to make peace with Ibn
Raiq, undertaking to pay him tribute. The favour afterwards shown to Ibn
Raiq at Bagdad nearly threw the Ikshid into the arms of the Fatimite
caliph, with whom he carried on a friendly correspondence, one letter of
which is preserved. He is even said to have given orders to substitute
the name of the Fatimite caliph for that of the Abbasid in public
prayer,