Career
Salih was named as the first Abbasid governor of Egypt on 9 August 750. He kept the post for less than a year, being named governor of the Jund Filastin (Palestine) in March 751. In this capacity, he sent Sa"id ibn Abdallah in the first raiding expedition of the Abbasid era against Byzantine Anatolia.
On 8 October 753 he was appointed again as governor of Egypt, a post he held until 21 February 755.
Salih refused to join his brother"s revolt and even led troops into Syria to help suppress lieutenant Despite Abdallah"s rebellion, Salih and his family were now established as the paramount Abbasid potentates in Syria, a position they held for the next half-century, as Salih"s sons al-Fadl, Ibrahim and Abd al-Malik all held governorships in Syria and Egypt.
Salih was also able to appropriate most of the Umayyad dynasty"s extensive properties in the area for himself. In addition, he played an important role in the strengthening of the Abbasid-Byzantine frontier, the thughur, re-occupying and rebuilding the former Byzantine cities of Melitene (Malatya), Germanikeia (March"ash) and Mopsuestia (al-Massisa).
He died in Syria in 769.
