Burji dynasty

The Burji or Circassian[1] Mamluk (Arabic: المماليك الشركس) dynasty ruled Egypt from 1382 until 1517, during the Mamluk Sultanate. It proved especially turbulent, with short-lived sultans. Political power-plays often became important in designating a new sultan. During this time Mamluks fought Timur and conquered Cyprus. Constant bickering may have contributed to the ability of the Ottomans to challenge them. Their name means 'of the tower', referring to them ruling from the Citadel east of Cairo.

Map of the Mamluk Sultanate (orange), under Burji dynasty rule in 1389.

History

Tomb of al-Zahir Qansuh, a Burji Mamluk Sultan, in Cairo.
Tomb of Sultan al-Zahir Qansuh circa 1858

From 1250 Egypt had been ruled by the first Mamluk dynasty, the mostly Cuman-Kipchak Turkic Bahri dynasty.[1] In 1377 a revolt broke out in Syria which spread to Egypt, and the government was taken over by the Circassians Barakah and Barquq; Barquq was proclaimed sultan in 1382, ending the Bahri dynasty. He was expelled in 1389 but recaptured Cairo in 1390. Early on, the Zahiri Revolt threatened to overthrow Barquq though the conspiracy was discovered before agitators could mobilize. Permanently in power, he founded the Burji dynasty.

Faced with a common enemy, Timur, Barquq joined with Bayezid I and Toktamish in a combined resistance and executed Timur's peace envoys.[2] In the following months Timur was engaged in Georgia and unable to respond to Barquq's actions, while Barquq had died by 1399.[2] In 1401, Timur invaded Syria and sacked Aleppo[3] and Damascus. Syria was regained by sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj after Timur died in 1405, but Faraj continually faced rebellions from the emirs there and he was forced to abdicate in 1412.

In 1421 Egypt was attacked by the Kingdom of Cyprus, and although the Egyptians were unable to capture the island they forced the Cypriotes to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Egyptian sultan Barsbay. During Barsbay's reign Egypt's population was greatly reduced from what it had been a few centuries before, with only 1/5 the number of towns. He frequently raided Asia Minor, but died in 1438.

During the reign of Sayf-ad-Din Jaqmaq an attempt to conquer Rhodes in 1444 from the Knights of St. John was repelled.

Sayf ad-Din Inal came to power in 1453 and had friendly relations with the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who captured Constantinople later that year, causing great rejoicings in Egypt. However, under the Greek reign of Khoshkadam,[4] who took power in 1463, Egypt began the struggle between the Egyptian and the Ottoman sultanates which finally led to the incorporation of Egypt in the Ottoman Empire. Both Koshkadam and Mehmed II supported different candidates to the principality of Karaman; then in 1467 sultan Kait Bey offended the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II, whose brother was poisoned while being entertained by Kait. Bayezid II seized Adana, Tarsus and other places within Egyptian territory, but was eventually defeated by Kait. Kait also tried to help the Muslims in Spain by threatening the Christians in Syria, but without effect. He died in 1496, leaving several hundred thousand ducats debts to the great Venetian trading families.

List of Burji Sultans

Titular Name(s) Personal Name Reign
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Sayf-ad-Din Barquq
سیف الدین برقوق
1382–1389
first reign
Sultan As-Saleh Al-Muzaffar Al-Mansur
سلطان الصالح المظفر المنصور
Salah-ad-Din Hajji II
صلاح الدین حاجی ثانی
1389
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Sayf-ad-Din Barquq
سیف الدین برقوق
1390–1399
second reign
Al-Nasir
الناصر
Nasir-ad-Din Faraj
ناصر الدین فرج
1399–1405
first reign
Al-Mansur
المنصور
Izz ad-Din Abd al-Aziz
عز الدین عبدالعزیز
1405
Al-Nasir
الناصر
Nasir-ad-Din Faraj
ناصر الدین فرج
1405–1412
second reign
Al-Adil
العادل
Al-Musta'in Billah
المستعین باللہ
1412
Al-Mu'ayyad
المؤید
Shaykh al-Mahmudi
شيخ المحمودى
1412–1421
Al-Muzaffar
المظفر
Ahmad
أحمد
1421
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Sayf ad-Din Tatar
سیف الدین تتر
1421
As-Saleh
الصالح
An-Nasir ad-Din Muhammad
ناصر الدین محمد
1421–1422
Al-Ashraf
الأشرف
Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay
سیف الدین برسبای
1422–1437
Al-Aziz
العزیز
Jamal-ad-Din Yusuf
جمال الدین یوسف
1437–1438
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq
سیف الدین جقمق
1438–1453
Al-Mansur
المنصور
Fakhr-ad-Din Uthman
فخرالدین عثمان
1453
Al-Ashraf
الأشرف
Sayf-ad-Din Inal
سیف الدین إینال
1453–1461
Al-Mu'ayyad
المؤید
Shihab-ad-Din Ahmad
شھاب الدین أحمد
1461
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Sayf ad-Din Khushqadam
سیف الدین خوش قدم
1461–1467
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Sayf ad-Din Bilbay
سیف الدین بلبأی
1467
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Taimur Bugha
تیمور بغا
1467–1468
Al-Ashraf
الأشرف
Sayf-ad-Din Qait Bay
سیف الدین قایتبای
1468–1496
Al-Nasir
الناصر
Muhammad bin Qait Bay
الناصر محمد بن قایتبای
1496–1497
first reign
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Qansuh Khumsama'ah
قانصوه خمسمائة
1497
Al-Nasir
الناصر
Muhammad bin Qait Bay
الناصر محمد بن قایتبای
1497–1498
second reign
Al-Zahir
الظاہر
Qansuh Al-Ashrafi
قانصوہ الأشرفی
1498–1500
Al-Ashraf
الأشرف
Al-Ashraf Janbalat
جنبلاط
1500–1501
Al-Adil
العادل
Sayf-ad-Din Tuman Bay I
سیف الدین طومان بای
1501
Al-Ashraf
الأشرف
Qansuh Al-Ghawri
قانصوہ الغوری
1501–1516
Al-Ashraf
الأشرف
Tuman Bay II
طومان بای
1516–1517
Burji dynasty of the Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) falls to Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim I in 1517 C.E.
  • Orange shaded row signifies brief interruption in the rule of Burji dynasty by Bahri dynasty.
    • Silver shaded row signifies interruption in the rule of Burji dynasty by Abbasid dynasty.

Conquest by Ottomans

The relationship between the Ottomans and the Mamluks had been adversarial since the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453; both states vied for control of the spice trade, and the Ottomans aspired to eventually taking control of the Holy Cities of Islam.[5] An earlier conflict, which lasted from 1485 to 1491, had led to a stalemate.

By 1516, the Ottomans were free from other concerns—Sultan Selim I had just vanquished the Safavid Persians at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514[6]—and turned their full might against the Mamluks, who ruled in Syria and Egypt, to complete the Ottoman conquest of the Middle East.[6]

In 1517 the Ottoman Turks and their Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks with the capture of Cairo on January 20. The centre of power transferred from Cairo to Constantinople. However, the Ottoman Empire retained the Mamluks as an Egyptian ruling class and the Mamluks and the Burji family succeeded in regaining much of their influence, but remained technical vassals of the Ottomans.

See also

References

  1. McGregor, Andrew James (2006). A Military History of Modern Egypt: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 15. ISBN 9780275986018. By the late fourteenth century Circassians from the north Caucasus region had become the majority in the Mamluk ranks.
  2. The Mamluk Sultans: 1291–1517, Mustafa M. Ziada, A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Vol. III, ed. Kenneth Setton, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1975), 490.
  3. Aleppo:the Ottoman Empire's caravan city, Bruce Masters, The Ottoman City Between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul, ed. Edhem Eldem, Daniel Goffman, Bruce Master, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 20.
  4. Kenneth Meyer Setton (1969). A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by .... Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 502.
  5. Ottoman seapower and Levantine diplomacy in the age of discovery by Palmira Johnson Brummett p.52ff
  6. The Ottoman Empire: A Short History by Saraiya Faroqhi p.60ff

Further reading

  • Petry, Carl Forbes (2012). "Circassians, Mamlūk". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
Royal house
Burji dynasty
Preceded by
Bahri dynasty
Ruling house of Egypt
1382 – 1571
Succeeded by
Ottoman dynasty
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