Abu Thabit served briefly as governor of Tarsus for the Abbasid Caliphate in 900. Governor Ibn al-Ikhshad left him behind in the city as his deputy and successor when the former went on a raid against the Byzantine Empire in late 899/early 900. Ibn al-Ikhshad was killed during the raid, and Abu Thabit succeeded him. He soon had to face a Byzantine counter-raid, which in March 900 reached the gates of Tarsus. Abu Thabit pursued the Byzantines to the river Rayhan (unidentified), but there was defeated and captured. According to al-Tabari, along with other Muslim prisoners he was taken prisoner to Iconium and thence to Constantinople.