Khamarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun

Succeeding his formidable father Ahmad ibn Tulun, Khamarawayh secured Egyptian rule over Syria and Cilicia by defeating Abbasid armies at the Battle of Tawahin in 885. In 893, he sealed an imperial peace by marrying his daughter Qatr al-Nada to Caliph Al-Mu'tadid with a dowry that amazed the medieval world.

In Al-Qata'i (Cairo), he created the most lavish royal estate of the Islamic early middle ages, featuring an aviary of singing birds, a domesticated blue-eyed lion named Zuraik, and a shimmering basin filled with liquid mercury upon which his leather bed floated gently to cure his insomnia.