Battle of the Mills

Battle of at-Tawahin

Location of the battle (small yellow star)

Date	5/6 April 885
Location	Al-Tawahin (Antipatris), near Ramlah
Result	Tulunid victory

Belligerents

Tulunids

Abbasids

Commanders and leaders

Khumarawayh
Sa'd al-Aysar

Abu'l-Abbas ibn al-Muwaffaq

Strength

70,000

4,000

The Battle of Tawahin (Arabic: وقعة الطواحين‎‎ Waqʿat al-Ṭawāhīn, "Battle of the Mills") was fought in 885 between the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate under Abu'l-Abbas ibn al-Muwaffaq (the future Caliph al-Mu'tadid) and the autonomous Tulunid ruler of Egypt and Syria, Khumarawayh. The battle took place near Ramlah (modern Israel) and ended with a Tulunid victory.

Following Khumarawayh's ascension to power in 884, the Abbasid central government decided to reassert its control over the provinces ruled by him and invaded northern Syria that year. By early 885 the conflict was proceeding favorably for the Abbasids, forcing Khumarawayh to personally take the field and try to stop their advance toward Egypt. In the battle that followed, the Abbasid troops initially defeated the Tulunids and plundered Khumarawayh's camp, but were then ambushed by a Tulunid reserve force and routed in turn.

As a result of the battle, the Abbasid forces were forced to withdraw from Syria, and Tulunid control over the province was reaffirmed. In the following year the Abbasid government agreed to a treaty which formally recognized Khumarawayh's rule over both Egypt and Syria.

Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Turkish soldier, had managed to become governor of Egypt in 868. By using the country's immense wealth to raise an army of his own, and exploiting the instability of the central Abbasid government, over the next years he became de facto autonomous, although he continued to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Abbasid caliph—for most of his reign the powerless al-Mu'tamid—and to forward some tax revenue to the central government. Ibn Tulun's power made him a major rival to the real power behind the Abbasid throne, al-Mu'tamid's brother and regent al-Muwaffaq. The latter tried in 877 to wrest Egypt from Ibn Tulun, but the attempt failed spectacularly, and in the following year Ibn Tulun extended his area of control over Syria up to the border zone with the Byzantine Empire in the north and up to Raqqa in the western Jazira in the east, immediately adjacent to the Abbasid metropolitan province of Iraq.

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