Isa ibn Shaykh al - Shaybani Abu Musa Isa ibn al - Shaykh ibn al - Salil al - Dhuhli al - Shaybani ( died 882 / 3 ) was an Arab leader of the Shayban tribe . Taking advantage of the domestic turmoil of the Abbasid Caliphate , he created a virtually independent bedouin state in Palestine and southern Syria in ca . 867 – 870 , before an Abbasid army forced him to exchange his domains with the governorship of Armenia and Diyar Bakr . In Armenia , he struggled to contain the rising power of the Christian princes , but after failing to suppress the revolt of one of his own subordinates , abandoned the country and returned to his native Jazira . There he spent his last years until his death in a struggle with a rival strongman , the ruler of Mosul Ishaq ibn Kundajiq . Life . Isa ' s early life is obscure . He was a member of the Shayban tribe from the Jazira , but otherwise not even the exact name of his father is known , it being variously given as al - Shaykh , Ahmad or abd al - Razzak . Isa first appears in 848 , in the ranks of the Abbasid army under Bugha al - Sharabi that was sent against the rebel Muhammad ibn al - Ba ' ith in his stronghold of Marand . Muhammad and most of his followers belonged to the Rabi ' a tribal group , the same that the Shayban were part of . Consequently Bugha employed Isa as an envoy to the rebels , and Isa managed to convince several among them to surrender . Career in Syria and Palestine . It has been suggested that Isa served as governor of Damascus in 861 , but according to M . Canard this is a confusion with Isa ibn Muhammad al - Nawshari . In 865 , according to al - Tabari , he defeated and captured a Kharijite rebel named al - Muwaffaq . At the time , he held a post in Syria , since al - Tabari records him asking for aid from the Caliph al - Mutawakkil in preparing a raid against Byzantium , including four ships to be set ready in Tyre . He was probably already governor of Palestine at the time , a post which he seems to have held , according to Ya ' qubi , at the time of the deposition of al - Musta ' in in January 866 . According to Ya ' qubi , Isa was one of the governors who refused to immediately acknowledge the new Caliph , al - Mu ' tazz , perhaps because his old patron Bugha still remained loyal to al - Musta ' in . This led al - Nawshari to campaign against him , and the two armies clashed by the Jordan River . Al - Nawshari ' s son was killed , but Isa was defeated and fled to Egypt with what wealth he could gather , while al - Nawshari occupied the capital of Palestine , Ramla . In Egypt , Isa finally conceded the oath of loyalty ( " bay ' ah " ) to al - Mu ' tazz , while al - Nawshari in his turn fell out with the Caliph , who had not sanctioned his seizure of Ramla and dispatched an army under Muhammad ibn al - Muwallad to drive him out . Isa then returned to Palestine , bringing with him money , supplies , and possibly troops recruited in Egypt , and built a fortress called al - Husami , situated between Ramla and Ludd . From this base , he managed to withstand the repeated attacks of Ibn al - Muwallad , until — probably after a truce was agreed — both returned to the caliphal capital , Samarra . There , in December 866 , Isa secured his re - appointment to the governorship of both Palestine ( " Filastin " ) and the province of Jordan ( " Jund al - Urdunn " ) . Al - Tabari attributes this to the influence of Bugha al - Dharabi , whom he bribed with 40 , 000 gold dinar s , while al - Mas ' udi claims that this was because of the riches he brought with him from Egypt , as well as 70 Alids who had fled from the Hijaz . He did not immediately return to Palestine , instead sending his lieutenant Abu ' l - Maghra ' ibn Musa ibn Zurara there as his deputy . When he finally arrived in Ramla , Isa used the ongoing anarchy in Iraq to set himself up as a virtually independent ruler . He kept the province ' s revenues for himself , and even intercepted the tax caravans from Egypt . He then used this money to secure the loyalty of the local Arab tribes , the Rabi ' a in the north and the Banu Kilab in the south , with whom he even formed a marriage alliance , marrying a Kilabi wife . Soon , his nascent Bedouin state was strong enough that he seized Damascus itself . When Caliph al - Muhtadi ascended the throne in July 869 , he offered a general amnesty , and wrote to Isa , offering a pardon in exchange for him handing over the treasure he had wrongfully appropriated , according to al - Kindi amounting to a sum of 750 , 000 dinars . When Isa refused , the Caliph ordered the new governor of Egypt , Ahmad ibn Tulun , to march against him . Ibn Tulun , complied , but no sooner had he reached Arish with his army orders came to turn back . In 870 , the new Caliph , al - Mu ' tamid , again sent envoys to Isa to persuade him to return the money , but Isa again refused , and an army under the Turk Amajur al - Turki , who was named governor of Damascus . Initially based in Tyre , Isa managed to push back Amajur ' s numerically much inferior forces — al - Tabari reports that Isa had 20 , 000 men while Amajur only 200 – 400 — to Damascus , but in a battle before the city Isa ' s son al - Mansur fell , and he was defeated and he was forced to withdraw to Ramla . Instead of an army there came a new embassy from the Caliph ( in 870 or 871 ) , offering him the governorship of Armenia if he would abandon Syria . Isa agreed , and left for his new post in May 871 . In Armenia and the Jazira . The governorship of Armenia included not only Armenia proper , but also Azerbaijan and the Diyar Bakr in the Jazira , the latter being the main settlement area of the Shayban and Isa ' s own homeland . Soon after his appointment , Isa ( called " Yise , son of Šeh " by Armenian sources ) was approached by the Uthmanids and the Kaysites , local dynasties of Arab emirs established around Lake Van , who were threatened by the rise of the Christian Armenian ruler Ashot Artsruni , prince of Vaspurakan . Ashot was preparing to besiege the Uthmanid fortress of Amiwk , when Isa assembled a league of the emirs of Armenia , and with 15 , 000 men came to Vaspurakan . Unable to confront these numbers , the Artsruni backed down and concluded a peace with Isa . Isa ' s situation in Armenia was precarious , however . Without any hope of support from the Abbasid government , Armenia was effectively left to its own devices , and the two great Christian dynasties of the Artsruni in the south and the Bagratids in the north had effectively partitioned the country and acted as independent princes . This necessitated a careful balancing act by Isa , who could not afford to alienate the various Armenian rulers , especially after his lieutenant in Azerbaijan , Muhammad ibn Abd al - Wahid al - Tamimi al - Yamami , rebelled in 877 . Isa besieged Muhammad in the provincial capital , Bardha ' a , but despite receiving aid from Ashot the Bagratid ( the future King of Armenia ) , after 13 months of fruitless siege he was forced to abandon it . Isa then departed Armenia altogether , returning to Amid in the Diyar Bakr . Although regarded by the Armenian and Arab historians nominally as governor of Armenia until his death in 882 / 3 , he never again left the Jazira . In the Jazira , he faced a major rival in the person of the Turk Ishaq ibn Kundajiq , who ruled Mosul and had ambitions to govern all of the Jazira . Isa and his long - time lieutenant , Abu ' l - Maghra ' , allied with other enemies of Ibn Kundajiq , the local Kharijites under a certain Ishaq ibn Ayyub and the Taghlib i chieftain Hamdan ibn Hamdun . This coalition managed to defeat Ibn Kindajiq , but the latter ' s position was soon bolstered by receiving appointment by the Caliph as governor of Diyar Rabi ' a and Armenia ( 879 / 80 ) , although he never seems to have exercised any authority over the latter . The Shaybanids then offered peace on the basis of maintaining the territorial " status quo " , and in exchange for an annual tribute of 200 , 000 dinars . Ibn Kundajiq initially accepted , but in 880 / 1 the coalition against him was renewed , and open warfare broke out . This time , Ibn Kundajiq was victorious in a battle fought in April / May 881 , driving his opponents before him to Amid , which he left under siege . A few inconclusive skirmishes followed , and the situation was not resolved by the time of Isa ' s death in 882 / 3 , as Ibn Kundajiq became involved in the Abbasid efforts to recover Syria from the Tulunids . Isa was succeeded by his son Ahmad , who ruled the Diyar Bakr as an independent prince . Ahmad expanded his territory into southern Armenia , and , after Ibn Kundajiq ' s death in 891 / 2 , occupied even Mosul . In the next year , however , the resurgent Abbasids under Caliph al - Mu ' tadid wrested the city from him , and in 899 the rest of the family ' s Jaziran domains from Ahmad ' s heir , Muhammad . Legacy . As " rulers by usurpation " ( " ʿalā sabīl al - taghallub " ) , Isa and his son Ahmad are judged harshly by contemporary Muslim historians , but according to M . Canard , " in the disturbed period in which these Mesopotamian Arabs lived , they were no worse in their behaviour than the other soldiers of fortune of the Abbasid regime " . Isa in particular had a " certain reputation for magnificence and generosity " ( Canard ) , and like all the Shayban , Isa and Ahmad too were esteemed for the quality of their Arabic poetry .