denounced al-Muwaffaq as a usurper, condemned his maltreatment of the Caliph, declared his place in the succession as void, and called for a jihad against him. Only three participants, including the chief of Egypt, Bakkar ibn Qutayba, refused to pronounce the call for jihad publicly. Ibn Tulun had his rival duly denounced in Friday sermons in the mosques across the Tulunid domains, while the Abbasid regent responded in kind with a ritual denunciation of Ibn Tulun. Despite the belligerent rhetoric, however, neither made moves to confront the other militarily. After his failure to take control of the Caliph, Ibn Tulun turned on Tarsus. He appointed Abdallah ibn Fath in Lu'lu's place in Aleppo, and marched in person to Cilicia. The Egyptian ruler laid siege to Tarsus in autumn 883, but Yazaman diverted the local river, inundating the Tulunid camp and forcing Ibn Tulun to retreat. Ibn Tulun fell ill on his return to Egypt, and was carried to Fustat on a wheeled vehicle. In the same year, a campaign to take over the two holy cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, also failed. Back in Egypt, he ordered Bakkar to be arrested and replaced him with Muhammad ibn Shadhan al-Jawhari. A thorough examination of Bakkar's accounts while head of the charitable endowments, however, revealed no misappropriations. Although Ibn Tulun ordered him released, the elderly and sick refused to leave his cell. At the same time, the illness of Ibn Tulun himself worsened. "Muslims, Christians and Jews, including women and children, converged separately upon the flank of the Muqattam to implore God to save him", as Bianquis writes, but Ibn Tulun died at Fustat on 10 May 884 and was interred on the slopes of the Muqattam. According to al-Balawi, Ibn Tulun left his heir 24,000 servants, 7,000 men and 7,000 horses, 3,000 camels, 1,000 mules, 350 ceremonial horses, and 200 fully equipped warships. Succession and aftermath At Ibn Tulun's death, Khumarawayh, with the backing of the Tulunid elites, succeeded without opposition. Ibn Tulun bequeathed his heir "with a seasoned military, a stable economy, and a coterie of experienced commanders and bureaucrats". Khumarawayh was able to preserve his authority against the Abbasid attempt to overthrow him at the Battle of Tawahin and even made additional territorial gains, but his extravagant spending exhausted the treasury, and his assassination in 896 began the rapid decline of the Tulunid regime. Internal strife sapped Tulunid