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Hārūn ibn Malik al-Turk, better known as Ibn Khān (died 1070), was the leader of the first recorded group of free Turkmen troops to enter Bilad al-Sham. Previous groups of Turks that had been present in Syria were ghilman and their descendants. Ibn Khan had been invited to Syria to bolster the Mirdasid dynasty emir of Aleppo, Atiyya ibn Salih, against his nephew and rival claimant to the emirate, Mahmud ibn Nasr, in 1064.
As a result of Atiyya's assault, most of Ibn Khan's men were killed. Together with the survivors, Ibn Khan headed for Upper Mesopotamia, but was blocked by the Bedouin groups in the region. He thus headed westward to Sarmin where he met Mahmud and joined his forces. With only a handful of his troops left, he and Mahmud left for Tripoli where Ibn Khan may have replenished his Turkmen forces.Zakkar 1971, p. 207. The collective name for the mostly Turkmen troops of Ibn Khan may have been the “al-Nawakiya”. The Arabic chroniclers described the latter as groups of mostly Turkmen, but also other non-Arab nomadic groups, who had not submitted to Seljuk Empire authority and migrated to southwestern Syria, Palestine and Byzantine Empire-controlled Anatolia. According to Zakkar, their presence in the Tripoli region possibly predated Ibn Khan's entry into Syria or Ibn Khan belonged to the Nawakiya and had been their paramount chieftain.
Ibn Khan's troops were the most effective force in Mahmud's siege of Aleppo, which ended with Atiyya's defeat in August 1065.Zakkar 1971, p. 208. Following this, Ibn Khan left for Iraq to recruit more troops and returned to Aleppo in 1066 with about 1,000 Turkmen, Kurds and Daylamites horsemen. To avoid conflict with the , Ibn Khan refrained from entering the city and was given the (fief) of Maarrat al-Numan, which he entered with his troops on 10 September 1066.Zakkar 1971, p. 176. In 1067, Ibn Khan and Mahmud subdued the Bedouin of the Hama plain, who had been assisting Atiyya, who was in nearby Homs at the time.Zakkar 1971, p. 177. Despite the effectiveness of Ibn Khan against the Bedouin, Mahmud had an uneasy relationship with him as testified in Mahmud's response to Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir’s request to dismiss Ibn Khan from service; Mahmud informed the caliph that he was unable to dismiss Ibn Khan and only employed him to avoid bearing the brunt of the trouble he could cause if independent of Mahmud's authority. He also informed the caliph that he would assist any Fatimid army that could be sent against Ibn Khan.
Ibn Khan's nephew Qurlu was recorded as the leader of the Nawakiya Turkmens in 1071, at a time when the group numbered 12,000 horsemen. He had briefly aided Mahmud in his confrontation with Alp Arslan, but withdrew to southwestern Syria, leaving Mahmud with 1,000 Turkmen troops led by Ahmad-Shah.
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