The Mamelukes Takeover Egypt

This is the second half of Mamelukes Usurp Power In Egypt
our selection from The Mamelukes or Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1260–1517 AD by Sir William Muir published in 1896.

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Previously in Mamelukes Usurp Power In Egypt.

Time: 1250
Place: Egypt

It was now that the Charizmian hordes fell upon Syria, and, with horrible atrocities, sacked the holy city. Forming an alliance with these barbarians, the Sultan sent the mameluke general Beibars to join them against his uncle, the Syrian prince Ismail, between whom and the crusaders an unholy union had prevailed. Near Joppa the combined army of Franks and Moslems met at the hands of Beibars and the eastern hordes, with a bloody overthrow; and thus all Syria again fell under Egypt. To establish his power both at home and abroad, the Sultan bought vast numbers of Turkish mamelukes; and it was he who first established them as Baharites on the Nile. His son Turan was the last Eyyubite sultan.

In his reign Louis IX of France invaded Egypt, and, advancing upon Cairo, was defeated and taken prisoner. Turan allowed him to go free; and for this act of kindness, as well as for attempts to curb their outlawry, he was pursued and slain by the Baharite mamelukes, who thereupon seized the government.

The leading mamelukes chose one of themselves, the emir Eibek, to be head of the administration. He contented himself at first to govern in the name of Eyyub’s widow, who, indeed, had been in complicity with the assassins of her stepson Turan. The Caliph of Bagdad, however, objected to a female reigning even in name, and so Eibek married the widow; and still further to conciliate the Eyyubites of Syria and Kerak, elevated to the title of sultan a child of the Eyyubite stock.

This concession notwithstanding, Nasir the Eyyubite, ruler of Damascus, advanced on Egypt, but, deserted by his Turkish slaves, was beaten back by Eibek, who returned in triumph to the capital. He soon found it, however, impossible to hold the turbulent mamelukes in hand, for, with the victorious general Aktai at their head, they scorned discipline and defied authority. Eibek, therefore, compassed the death of Aktai, on which the Baharite emirs all rose in rebellion. They were defeated. Many were slain and cast into prison; the rest fled to Nasir, and eventually to Kerak. Among the latter were Beibars and Kilawun, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.

Eibek was now undisputed Sultan, recognized as such by all the powers around. And so he bethought him of taking a princess of Mosul for another wife; on which the Sultana, already estranged, caused him to be put to death; and she too, in the storm that followed, was assassinated by the slave girls of still another wife.

Eibek’s minor son was now raised by the emirs to the titular sultanate; and Kotuz, a distinguished mameluke of Charizmian birth, persuaded to assume the uninviting post of vicegerent. The Eyyubite Prince of Kerak, in whose service many of the Baharite mamelukes still remained, attempting, with their help, to seize Egypt, was twice repulsed by Kotuz, and thus obliged to disband the Baharites, who returned to their Egyptian allegiance.

Their return was fortunate, a time of trial being at hand. For it was now that Holagu with his Mongol hordes, having overthrown Bagdad and slain the last of the Abbassides, launched his savage troops on the West. He fulminated a despatch to Nasir the Eyyubite head of Syria, in which he claimed to be “the scourge of the Almighty, sent to execute judgment on the ungodly nations of the earth.” Nasir answered it in like defiant terms; but, not being supported by Kotuz, had to fly from Damascus, which was taken possession of by the Mongol tyrant.

After ravaging Syria with unheard-of barbarity, Holagu was recalled to Central Asia by the death of Mangu. Leaving his army behind under Ketbogha, he sent an embassy to Egypt with a letter as threatening as that to Nasir. Kotuz, who had by this time cast the titular Sultan aside and himself assumed the throne, summoned a council and by their advice put the embassy to death. Then awakening to the possibilities of the future, he roused the emirs to action by a stirring address on the danger that threatened Egypt, their families, and their faith.

Gathering a powerful army, the Egyptians advanced to Acre, where they found the crusaders bound by a promise to the Mongols of neutrality. The two armies met at Ain-Jalut, and there, after a fiercely contested battle, and mainly by the bravery of Beibars as well as of Kotuz himself, the Mongols were beaten and Ketbogha slain. On the news reaching Damascus, the city rose upon their barbarian tyrants, and slew not only all the Mongols, but great numbers also of the Jews and Christians who, during the interregnum, had raised their heads against Islam.

Following up their victory, the Egyptians drove the Mongols out of Syria, and pursued them beyond Emessa. Kotuz, thus master of the country, reappointed the former governors throughout Syria, on receiving oath of fealty, to their several posts. For his signal service, Kotuz had led Beibars to expect Aleppo; but, suspicion aroused of dangerous ambition on Beibars’ part, he gave that leading capital to another.

Beibars upon this, fearing the fate that might befall him at Cairo, resolved to anticipate the danger. On the return journey, while Kotuz was on the hunting-field alone, he begged for the gift of a Mongol slave girl, and, taking his hand to kiss for the promised favor, seized hold of it while his accomplices stabbed him from behind to death. Beibars was forthwith saluted sultan, and entered Cairo with the acclamations of the people, and with the same festive surroundings as had been prepared for the reception of his murdered predecessor.

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