Ahmad ibn Tulun
Several medieval authors wrote about Ahmad ibn Tulun. The two major sources are two biographies by two 10th-century authors, Ibn al-Daya and al-Balawi. Both are called "Sirat Ahmad ibn Tulun", and al-Balawi's work relies to a large extent on Ibn al-Daya's, although it is much more extensive. Ibn al-Daya also wrote a book ("Kitab al-mukafa'a") with anecdotes from the Tulunid-era Egyptian society. Further information comes from Ibn Tulun's contemporary, the geographer and traveler Ya'qubi, whose works cover the first years of his rule in Egypt, and from later Egyptian authors, especially the 15th-century historians Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi, who drew on a variety of earlier sources to write on the history of the Tulunid state. Several other medieval Arabic chroniclers from the 13th to the 16th centuries mention Ibn Tulun or his officials, but most are of a later date and not very reliable, especially in comparison to Ibn Duqmaq and al-Maqrizi.