Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali al-Madhara'i (871–956) was the last important representative of the bureaucratic al-Madhara'i dynasty of fiscal officials. He served as director of finances of Egypt and Syria under the Tulunid dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as becoming vizier for the Tulunid ruler Harun ibn Khumarawayh, and later occupying high office under the Ikhshidids.

Born in 871, Muhammad was the son of Ali ibn Ahmad al-Madhara'i and grandson of the family's founder, Abu Bakr Ahmad. Ahmad had been appointed head of finances of Tulunid Egypt in 879, and his family were likewise appointed to senior positions in the fiscal bureaucracy. As its nisba shows, the family hailed from the village of Madharaya near Wasit in lower Iraq. Muhammad came to Egypt in 885, where his father had become vizier to the Tulunid ruler, Khumarawayh (reigned 884–896). Ali appointed him deputy director of finances. His father was murdered along with Khumarawayh's short-lived successor, Jaysh, in 896, and Muhammad became vizier of the new Tulunid ruler, Harun (r. 896–904).

Following the overthrow of the Tulunids and the re-establishment of direct control over Egypt and Syria by the Abbasid Caliphate in 904–5, Muhammad and many of his followers were deported to the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, while his uncle, Abu Ali al-Husayn, thanks to his contacts in the Abbasid court, managed to survive the regime change and become financial director of Egypt. The family now became involved in factional struggles between the leading bureaucratic factions in Baghdad, siding with the opposition to the Banu'l-Furat clan. Its fortunes fluctuated as a result: in 913, al-Husayn was moved once more to Syria, while Muhammad departed Baghdad to take over the finances in Egypt, but both were dismissed in 917, when the Banu'l-Furat regained the vizierate in Baghdad.

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