Thamal al-Dulafi

Thamal al-Dulafi (fl. 917/8–932) was an Abbasid military commander and longtime governor (wali or amir) of Tarsus and the borderlands with the Byzantine Empire in Cilicia (thughur ash-Shamiya). A former Dulafid slave, he commanded several successful raiding expeditions, mostly by sea, against the Byzantines, but also against the Fatimids in Egypt and against the Qarmatians in Iraq.

Thamal was a eunuch, and, as his nisba of "al-Dulafi" indicates, began his career as a slave (ghulam) of the autonomous Dulafid dynasty of Jibal. He is first mentioned in 917/8, when he was appointed by the Abbasid caliph as commander of a naval expedition against the Byzantine Empire. He led his fleet to a successful raid, returning with prisoners and booty, while the governor of Tarsus, Bishr al-Afshini, led the year's overland raid.

In 920, he led his fleet of 25 ships to Egypt, where he participated in the repulsion of a Fatimid invasion. His arrival prevented the Fatimid ships from entering the Rosetta branch of the Nile, and on 12 March, near Abukir, he inflicted a crushing defeat on the Fatimid fleet, whose vessels were driven to the shore by the wind. Most of the Fatimid crews were either killed or captured. In spring 921, Thamal and his fleet sailed to Alexandria, captured by the Fatimids in 919. The fleet entered the city's harbour and after a fight drove out its Fatimid garrison, while the populace was evacuated to Rosetta as a precaution. He then joined with the rest of the army under the Abbasid commander-in-chief Mu'nis al-Muzaffar to blockade the Fayyum Oasis, where the remaining Fatimid forces had withdrawn, and forced them to burn their equipment and retreat westwards over the desert.

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