Ibrahim ibn Salih

Ibrahim was a son of Salih ibn Ali, a military commander who participated in the conquest of Syria and Egypt during the Abbasid Revolution and later became governor of both regions.^[2] As a member of the Banu al-Abbas, he was a first cousin to the first two Abbasid caliphs al-Saffah (r. 750–754) and al-Mansur (r. 754–775), and was additionally a son-in-law to the third caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) by virtue of his marriage to the latter's daughter Abbasa.^[3]

In 781 Ibrahim was appointed by al-Mahdi as governor of Egypt, with jurisdiction over both military and financial affairs within the province. During his administration one Dihyah ibn Mus'ab, a descendant of the Umayyad Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, launched an anti-tax revolt in Upper Egypt and proclaimed himself as caliph. Ibrahim apparently had a lackadaisical response to the affair, and within a short time much of Upper Egypt had fallen under Dihyah's control. As a result of his failure to stamp out the rebel, an angered al-Mahdi removed him from office in 784, and his assistants were forced to hand over a fine of 300,000 dinars to his successor Musa ibn Mus'ab al-Khath'ami before he was able to return to Baghdad.^[4]

During the 780s Ibrahim held several governorships in his father's old powerbase in Syria. As early as 780 he is mentioned as being governor of Palestine,^[5] and by the end of al-Mahdi's reign he was in charge of the districts of Damascus and Jordan. Under al-Hadi (r. 785–786) he was retained in those positions and was additionally granted Cyprus and the Jazira. Following the accession of Harun al-Rashid he lost his offices, but in 788 he was restored to the governorship of Damascus.^[6]

During his later tenure in Damascus, Ibrahim was forced to deal with a violent conflict that had broken out between the Qays and Yemen tribes of the region. He was eventually able to negotiate a truce between the two factions in 791, after which he led a delegation of Syrian ashraf to meet the caliph in Iraq. Despite his efforts, however, the cessation of hostilities proved to be short-lived, as the rebellion of Abu al-Haydham broke out soon after his departure from the province.^[7]

Ibrahim died in 792, shortly after having been appointed governor of Egypt a second time.^[8]

• Cobb, Paul M (2001). White Banners: Contention in 'Abbasid Syria, 750-880. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-4879-7.
• Gil, Moshe (1997) [1983]. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Translated by Ethel Broido. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
• Grohmann, Adolph & Kennedy, Hugh (1995). "Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAlī". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 985. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.
• Ibn 'Asakir, Abu al-Qasim 'Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Hibat Allah (1995). al-'Amrawi, 'Umar ibn Gharama (ed.). Tarikh Madinat Dimashq (in Arabic). Vol. 6. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr.
• Ibn Qutaybah, Abu Muhammad Abdallah ibn Muslim (n.d.). Ukashah, Tharwat (ed.). Al-Ma'arif (in Arabic) (4th ed.). Cairo: al-Dar Ma'arif.
• Ibn Taghribirdi, Jamal al-Din Abu al-Mahasin Yusuf (1930). Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira, Volume II (in Arabic). Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya.
• Kennedy, Hugh, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXIX: Al-Mansūr and al-Mahdī, A.D. 763–786/A.H. 146–169. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0142-2.
• Kennedy, Hugh (1998). "Egypt as a Province in the Islamic Caliphate, 641-868". In Petry, Carl F. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 62–85. ISBN 0-521-47137-0.
• Khalifah ibn Khayyat (1985). al-Umari, Akram Diya' (ed.). Tarikh Khalifah ibn Khayyat, 3rd ed (in Arabic). Al-Riyadh: Dar Taybah.
• Al-Kindi, Muhammad ibn Yusuf (1912). Guest, Rhuvon (ed.). The Governors and Judges of Egypt (in Arabic). Leyden and London: E. J. Brill.