 In September 896, he supervised the prisoner exchange with the Byzantines on the Lamos River, which began on 16 September and lasted for twelve days, leading to the ransoming of 2,504 Muslim men, women and children according to al-Tabari, while al-Mas'udi variously numbers the exchanged prisoners as 2,495 or 3,000.At this time, al-Mas'udi names Ahmad as "commander of the Syrian borderlands and of Antioch".In October, after the exchange was concluded, Ahmad left Tarsus by sea, leaving the Byzantine renegade Damian of Tarsus (a former servant of Yazaman) in his place as governor of Tarsus.