Abu al-Misk Kafur al-Ikhshidi () (?–968), also called al-Laithi, al-Suri, al-Labi was a dominant personality of Ikhshidid Egypt and Syria. Originally a black slave, from Abyssinia or Nubia, he was made vizier of Egypt, becoming its de facto ruler from 946 after the death of his master, Muhammad bin Tughj. Thereafter, he ruled the Ikshidid domains—Egypt and southern Syria (including Damascus)—until his death in 968.
Biography
Abu al-Misk Kafur, whose name means "musky camphor", is described by the sources variously as coming from Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the Bilad al-Sudan (Land of the Blacks) or Nubia. Muhammad ibn Tughj, the founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty of Egypt, purchased him as a slave in 923. He is recorded as having a dark complexion and being a eunuch. Recognising the slave's intelligence and talent, Ibn Tughj freed him.
Kafur became the de facto ruler of Egypt in 946 (since Kafur was the guardian of bin Tughj's sons, he ruled in their stead upon the death of their father). Though subsequent historians have portrayed him as a just and moderate ruler, he owes a great deal of his fame to the scathing satirical poems directed against him by al-Mutanabbi, a medieval Arab poet.
Kafur died in April 968, and was buried in Jerusalem next to the Ikhshidid emirs, at a location close to the Gate of the Tribes on the Haram al-Sharif.
Status as former slave
Kafur's status as a former slave did not hinder him from rising to power under the Ikhshidids. It was customary for mamluks (that is, former slaves) to enter the military organization and even reach high positions in it, and many Africans such as Kafur were employed in various occupations and maintained a cohesive culture interacting with that of their hosts. Kafur's rise to power, from being an African slave to the ruler of Egypt and parts of Syria, is one of the earliest examples in Islamic history of a sovereign with the lowliest of origins.
He was also able to delay the Fatimid expansion into Egypt, frustrating the efforts of the latter's agents. So long as Kafur was alive, the Ikhshidid establishment kept the Fatimids at bay; upon his death, the Fatimids took over.