Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 21, 2017

Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid (882–946) was an Abbasid commander who became the ruler of Egypt and parts of Syria from 935 until his death. His Ikhshidid dynasty ruled until the Fatimid conquest of 969. In his turbulent early career, he was imprisoned along with his father Tughj ibn Juff by the Abbasids in 905, participated in the murder of the vizier al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan al-Jarjara'i in 908, and fled Iraq to enter the service of the governor of Egypt, Takin al-Khazari. He became governor himself, and quickly defeated a Fatimid invasion. His reign marks a rare period of peace and good government for early Islamic Egypt. He vied with other regional strongmen for control over Syria, without which Egypt was vulnerable to invasion from the east, but unlike many other Egyptian leaders, he was prepared to bide his time and compromise with his rivals. In 944 he received recognition of his hereditary rule over Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz for thirty years from Caliph al-Muttaqi of Baghdad. Ibn Tughj's son Unujur succeeded him, under the guardianship of the powerful Ethiopian eunuch Abu al-Misk Kafur.