Abu Sulaym Faraj al-Khadim al-Turki, sometimes erroneously called Faraj ibn Sulaym, was an

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

court eunuch and official. In 787, Caliph

Harun al-Rashid Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd (), or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Hārūn al-Rāshīd (), was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 unti ...

() established a new province encompassing the borderlands () with the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

and

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...

. As part of this, he sent Faraj to rebuild and repopulate the city of Tarsus. Faraj first sent 3,000

Khurasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West Asia, West and Central Asia that encompasses wes ...

is to the city, followed by a thousand each from the Syrian districts of al-Massisa and

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

. The troops arrived in June 788 and encamped outside the city until the reconstruction of its walls, and the erection of a mosque, were completed. Furthermore, he supervised the very first prisoner exchange with the Byzantines recorded by

al-Mas'udi al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

for Harun's reign, in 805, on the Lamos River. Faraj evidently played an important role in the Byzantine frontier, as he is attested as the collector of the tithe in the area during the last years of Harun al-Rashid, and is recorded as having restored the "palace of Sayhan" in the area, and as the owner of a house in Antioch. He is mentioned in 819, as accompanying the captured anti-caliph,

Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī (; 779–839) was an Abbasid prince, singer, composer and poet. He was the son of the third Abbasid caliph, al-Mahdi, and the half-brother of the poet and musician Ulayya. Ibrahim was contemporary of Abbasid caliph al-Ha ...

, into the presence of Caliph

al-Ma'mun Abū al-ʿAbbās Abd Allāh ibn Hārūn al-Maʾmūn (; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name al-Ma'mun (), was the seventh Abbasid caliph, who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. His leadership was marked by t ...

().

References

Sources

* * * * {{cite journal, first = C. E. , last = Bosworth , authorlink = C. E. Bosworth , title = The City of Tarsus and the Arab-Byzantine Frontiers in Early and Middle ʿAbbāsid Times , journal = Oriens , year = 1992 , volume = 33 , pages = 268–286 , doi = 10.1163/1877837292X00105 , jstor = 1580607 , issn = 0078-6527 8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate Eunuchs from the Abbasid Caliphate Courtiers from the Abbasid Caliphate Abbasid people of the Arab–Byzantine wars History of Tarsus