Ahmad ibn Isa al - Shaybani Ahmad ibn Isa al - Shaybani ( died 898 ) , was an Arab leader of the Shayban tribe . In 882 / 3 he succeeded his father , Isa ibn al - Shaykh , as the virtually independent ruler of Diyar Bakr , and soon expanded his control over parts of southern Armenia as well . He gained control over Mosul as well in 891 / 2 , but faced with a resurgent Abbasid Caliphate , he was deprived of the city and forced into a position of vassalage by Caliph al - Mu ' tamid . Shortly after his death in 898 , the Caliph deprived his son and heir , Muhammad , of the last territories remaining under the family ' s control . Life . Ahmad was the son of Isa ibn al - Shaykh al - Shaybani . In the 860s , exploiting the turmoil of the " Anarchy at Samarra " , which paralysed the Abbasid Caliphate and encouraged separatism in the provinces , Isa had for a short time made himself master of a de facto independent bedouin state in Palestine . Eventually he was compelled to leave Palestine and assume the governorship of Armenia , but unable to enforce his authority against the local princes , he abandoned the province in 878 and returned to his native Jazira . There he established himself as the ruler of Diyar Bakr , with Amid as his capital . At Isa ' s death in 882 / 3 , Ahmad succeeded his father . An ambitious man , he used his position as the virtually independent governor of Diyar Bakr to extend his influence in both the rest of the Jazira and northwards into Armenia . Although unlike his father he held no official post on behalf of the Caliphate in Armenia , in 887 he was sent by Caliph al - Mu ' tamid to confer the royal crown to the Bagratid prince Ashot I , thereby establishing a practically independent Armenian kingdom . In the Jazira , like his father before him , Ahmad was opposed by the Turkish ruler of Mosul , Ishaq ibn Kundajiq , who had been recognized by the Caliph as governor of the Jazira . It was only after Ibn Kundajiq ' s death in 891 / 2 that Ahmad managed to expand his domains , seizing Mardin and eventually Mosul itself , driving out Ibn Kundajiq ' s son Muhammad . His success did not last long , for in 893 , the energetic new Abbasid caliph al - Mu ' tadid campaigned in the Jazira and placed Mosul under direct caliphal administration , limiting the Shaybanids to their original province of Diyar Bakr . In view of the resurgence in Abbasid power under al - Mu ' tadid , Ahmad endeavoured to win the Caliph ' s favour to secure his position . Thus , upon the Caliph ' s request , he dispatched Ibn Kundajiq ' s treasure to Baghdad and included many presents of his own , as well as a Kharijite rebel he had captured . Al - Mu ' tadid ' s cousin and panegyrist , Ibn al - Mu ' tazz , celebrated Ahmad ' s submission and claimed that he " contemplated crossing into Byzantine territory and becoming a Christian " , but Marius Canard considers the latter doubtful . In the direction of Armenia , Ahmed began expanding in ca . 890 : he imprisoned Abu ' l - Maghra ibn Musa ibn Zurara , the emir of Arzanene in southern Armenia , who was related to the Bagratids and had even secretly become a Christian himself , and annexed his territory to his own . Taking advantage of the war between Ashot I ' s successor Smbat I and the Sajid Muhammad al - Afshin , Ahmad launched an invasion of the principality of Taron , capturing Sasun . After the death of prince David , Ahmad engineered the murder of his nephew and successor , Gurgen , and managed to seize the entire principality ( 895 or early 896 ) . As the princes of Taron were members of the royal Bagratid house , this action embroiled Ahmad in a direct conflict with King Smbat I , who now requested of the Shaybanid emir to vacate Taron , in exchange for securing his nomination as the Caliph ' s representative governor in Armenia . Ahmad refused , and Smbat assembled a huge army ( reportedly 60 , 000 or even 100 , 000 men according to medieval sources ) to march against him . Smbat ' s campaign failed , however , due to the treachery of Gagik Apumrvan Artsruni , regent of Vaspurakan : Smbat ' s army relied on Gagik as their guide , and he led them deliberately along difficult roads over the mountains , so that when they arrived in Taron , the Armenian army was exhausted . With Gagik working to undermine the soldiers ' morale , the royal army was almost destroyed in the following battle , and King Smbat himself barely managed to escape . Ahmad died in 898 , and was succeeded by his son , Muhammad , who ruled briefly until , in the next year , al - Mu ' tadid put an end to Shaybanid power and placed Diyar Bakr under his direct administration . In Taron , power was taken over by a cousin of the murdered prince Gurgen , Grigor . Legacy . As " rulers by usurpation " ( " ʿalā sabīl al - taghallub " ) , Ahmad and his father 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 " . Like all the Shayban , however , Isa and Ahmad too were esteemed for the quality of their Arabic poetry . The historian al - Mas ' udi also wrote a detailed account of Ahmad ' s life in his " Akhbar al - zaman " , now lost .