Abdawayh was a member of the "abna"', a group descended from the Khurasani troops who had helped bring the Abbasid dynasty to power and which formed the mainstay of the army in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. In 826 or 827 he became the chief of security ("shurtah") in Egypt for the governor Abdallah ibn Tahir, in place of Abdallah's first chief Mu'adh ibn Aziz.