Tughj ibn Juff

Ṭughj ibn Juff ibn Yiltakīn ibn Fūrān ibn Fūrī ibn Khāqān (died 906) was a Turkic military officer who served the Abbasid Caliphate and the autonomous Tulunid dynasty. He was the father of Muhammad al-Ikhshid, the founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty.

Tughj was the son of Juff, the first member of the family to enter the service of the Abbasid Caliphate under Caliph al-Mu'tasim (reigned 833–842). The family hailed from the Farghana Valley and were recruited by al-Mu'tasim along with many other inhabitants of Ferghana into his army (the Faraghina regiment). His family claimed royal descent; the name of his ancestor, "Khaqan", is a Turkish royal title. Juff and his descendants therefore were not members of the military slave caste (mamlūks or ghulāms), but a freeborn, likely even noble-born, man. Tughj had also brothers, Badr and Wazar, who also entered military service, but they are only occasionally mentioned and little is known about them.

Like his father, Tughj served the Abbasids, but later entered the service of the Tulunids, who since 868 had become autonomous rulers of Egypt and Syria. According to Ibn Khallikan, Tughj first entered the service of Lu'lu', a ghulām of the Tulunid dynasty's founder Ahmad ibn Tulun, but then went on to serve under the governor of Mosul, Ishaq ibn Kundaj, until after Ibn Tulun's death in 884. Ibn Tulun's death seemed to present an opportunity for his enemies capture some of the Tulunid in Syria from his inexperienced son and heir, Khumarawayh. Ibn Kundaj and another strongman, Ibn Abu'l-Saj, as well as the Abbasid regent, al-Muwaffaq, attacked the Tulunids, but in the event Khumarawayh proved victorious, and Ibn Kundaj was forced to acknowledge his suzerainty in 886/7. During the negotiations between Ibn Kundaj and Khumarawayh, according to Ibn Khallikan, the latter noticed Tughj and was struck by his appearance, taking him into his service.

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