Hamdanid was able to escape through the desert to Baghdad, while at Wasit the Turkish officers acclaimed Tuzun as their chief (amir), bringing him myrtle and herbs in accordance with ancient Persian custom, and Khajkhaj was made commander-in-chief (ispahsalar). Master of the Caliphate On learning of the Turkish revolt, the Baridis began to move against Wasit and sent an envoy to Tuzun urging him to march on Baghdad, and requesting the rights of tax-farming in Wasit. Tuzun gave a non-committal answer, but his spies soon informed him that Khajkhaj was planning to desert to the Baridis. On 20 May, Tuzun with his retainers surprised Khajkhaj in his bed, seized him and blinded him. Leaving 300 men under Kaighalagh to safeguard Wasit, Tuzun marched on Baghdad. There Sayf al-Dawla had promised the Caliph to resist, but on the Turks' approach, the Hamdanid and his officers fled north, and on 3 June, Tuzun entered the capital and was named amir al-umara by the Caliph. Tuzun's first act was to march south against Wasit, which Kaighalagh had been forced to abandon in the face of Baridi superiority. On his way south he met with Muhammad ibn Shirzad, a defector from the Baridis, whom he appointed as his personal secretary. Tuzun pursued a peace with the Baridis, who now had to face an unexpected attack by Yusuf ibn Wajih, the ruler of Oman, on Basra itself. The deal was sealed with a marriage alliance between Tuzun and a daughter of Abu Abdallah al-Baridi. Back in Baghdad, however, the news of the peace between Tuzun and the Baridis was not welcomed: the vizier Abu'l-Husayn ibn Muqla distrusted both Tuzun and especially Ibn Shirzad. Fearing for his own position if he could not satisfy the financial demands of the Turks, he made contact with the Hamdanids. A Hamdanid army under Nasir al-Dawla's cousin Abu Abdallah al-Husayn appeared before the Harb Gate of Baghdad, and both the vizier and the Caliph went over to him and were escorted north to Mosul. Hearing about these events, Tuzun quickly granted al-Baridi the tax-farming of Wasit and returned to Baghdad with his troops. Tuzun followed the Hamdanids north, heavily defeated Sayf al-Dawla in two battles near Tikrit, and captured Mosul. The Hamdanid brothers and the Caliph to abandon Mosul for Nisibis, from where the Caliph and his entourage, accompanied by Sayf al-Dawla, went to Raqqa. An agreement was concluded between