Sultan of Egypt
Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Mamluk_Sultan_Al-Ashraf_Qansuh_al-Ghuri_by_Florentine_painter_Cristofano_dell%27Altissimo_Galleria_degli_Uffizi.jpg/220px-Mamluk_Sultan_Al-Ashraf_Qansuh_al-Ghuri_by_Florentine_painter_Cristofano_dell%27Altissimo_Galleria_degli_Uffizi.jpg) Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri ("
Campson Gavro re d'Egitto
") by Florentine painter
Cristofano dell'Altissimo
, Galleria degli Uffizi
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Reign
| 20 April 1501 ? 24 August 1516
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Predecessor
| Tuman bay I
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Successor
| Tuman bay II
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Born
| c.
1441
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Died
| 24 August 1516 (aged 75?76)
Dabiq
, near Aleppo, Syria
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Spouse
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- Khawand Baysiwar
- Khawand Fatima
- Jan-i-Sukkar
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Dynasty
| Burji
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Religion
| Sunni Islam
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Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri
(
Arabic
:
?????? ?????? ??????
) or
Qansuh II al-Ghawri
(c. 1441/1446 ? 24 August 1516) was the second-to-last of the
Mamluk Sultans
. One of the last and most powerful of the
Burji dynasty
, he reigned from 1501 to 1516.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Qansuh, born between 1441 and 1446, was bought by
Qaitbay
, and educated at the al-Ghuri military school in
Cairo
, from which he gained his nickname "al-Ghuri".
[2]
Consequently, he held several official positions in
Upper Egypt
,
Aleppo
,
Tarsus
and
Malatya
. Later on, a revolt against
Tuman bay
by the conspiring emirs, led to the appointment of Qansuh as Sultan against his will,
[3]
because he feared to be deposed by execution like his predecessors.
[4]
Consolidation of power
[
edit
]
Venetian embassy to the Mamluk Governor in
Damascus
in 1511, during the reign of Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri. Workshop of
Giovanni Bellini
.
The reign began as usual with the removal of all
Tuman bay
's adherents. As dangerous to the throne, they were laid hold of, imprisoned or exiled and their property escheated; while the opposite party were restored to freedom and raised again to power and office. Tuman bay I from his hiding-place was found to be plotting against the new Sultan; after some weeks, betrayed by his friends, he was murdered by the
Mamluks
of an Emir whom he had put to death; and so Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri was saved from that danger without arousing the hostilities of his predecessor's party. On the other hand, the remains of Sultan Al-Ashraf Janbulat were brought from
Alexandria
where Tuman bay I had caused him to be executed, and royally interred at
Cairo
.
Present danger thus averted, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri turned to the revenue administration. To replenish the empty treasury, exorbitant demands were levied on every kind of property to the extent of from seven to ten months' income; even religious and charitable endowments not escaping. This was exacted with such severity, not only from Jews and Christians, but from every class, as to create outbreaks in the city.
There is not much of importance to tell of the earlier years of this reign. The outrages of the royal Mamluks must have become intolerable, for twice while Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri took fresh oaths of loyalty from his Emirs, he also on his own part swore upon
Quran
, that he would no more suffer his Mamluks to do them harm. We read also of some suspected treason, which led to punishments of more than ordinary barbarism. Till near the close of the
Sultanate
, much was not done in fighting. The
Bedouins
attacked
Kerak
and
Jerusalem
, but were repulsed by the
Syrian
Emirs
. Rebellion and rival factions at Mecca and
Yanbu
also rendered measures necessary for chastising the
Sharifs
and restoring order.
On 15 June 1512, Al-Ghuri received an envoy of the
King of Georgia
with 20
horses
, who was dressed in gold and his cap was adorned with
ermine
. He came to Al-Ghuri to ask for reopening of the
Church of Holy Sepulchre
which was closed down for Christians for two years.
[5]
[6]
Portuguese-Mamluk War
[
edit
]
The Mamluks defended
Jeddah
against the Portuguese under Ottoman naval commander
Selman Reis
, in the
Siege of Jeddah (1517)
The chief concern was the fitting-out a fleet which should protect the Eastern seas from Portuguese attack. For it was at this time that
Vasco da Gama
, having in 1498 found his way round the
Cape
and obtained pilots from the coast of
Zanzibar
, pushed his way across the Indian Ocean to the shores of
Malabar
and
Kozhikode
, attacked the fleets that carried freight and Muslim pilgrims from India to the
Red Sea
, and struck terror into the potentates all around. The Rulers of
Gujarat
and
Yemen
turned for help to
Egypt
. Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri accordingly fitted out a fleet of 50 vessels under his Admiral,
Hussein the Kurd
.
Jeddah
by forced labor was soon fortified under Barakat II bin Muhammad better known as Barakat Efendi as a harbor of refuge from the Portuguese; now
Arabia
and the Red Sea were protected. But the fleets in the Indian Ocean were at the mercy of the enemy.
Various engagements took place; in one of these, an Egyptian ship belonging to Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri, and in the following year a fleet of seventeen vessels from Arabian harbors- were after a hard struggle taken by the Portuguese, the cargo seized, the pilgrims and crew slain, and the vessels burned. The Sultan was affronted and angry at the attacks upon the Red Sea, the loss of tolls and- traffic, the indignities to which
Mecca
and its Port were subjected, and above all at the fate of his own ship, and he vowed vengeance upon Portugal. But first, through the
Priory of Sion
, he threatened the
Pope
that if he did not check
Ferdinand
and
Manuel I of Portugal
in their depredations on the Indian Seas, he would destroy all Christian holy places, and treat Christians as they were treating the followers of Islam. Foiled in this demand, a naval enterprise was set on foot and carried out with various successes. In
Battle of Chaul
in 1508,
Lourenco de Almeida
was defeated and lost his life; but in the following year this defeat was avenged by a terrible defeat of the Egyptian fleet at the
Battle of Diu
in which the Port city of
Diu
was wrested from the
Gujarat Sultanate
of India by
Francisco de Almeida
. Some years after,
Afonso de Albuquerque
tried to take
Aden
, while the Egyptian troops suffered disaster in Yemen. Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri now fitted out a new fleet to punish the enemy and protect the Indian trade; but before its results were known, Egypt had lost her sovereignty, and the Red Sea with Mecca and all its Arabian interests had passed into
Ottoman
hands.
Ottoman-Safavid intrusions
[
edit
]
Wikala of Al-Ghuri
, one of al-Ghuri's many constructions in Cairo, completed in 1505
Ottoman
Sultan
Bayezid II
was still engaged in Europe when there suddenly in 1501 appeared a new ground of hostility with
Egypt
. It arose out of the relations of the two kingdoms with the
Safavid
dynasty in
Persia
. Shah
Ismail I
of Persia was a
Shia
Muslim who had embarked on a war with the
Sunni
Ottoman Sultanate over the
Caucasus
and religious differences. Many
Sufi
sects had been arrested or exiled by Sultan Bayezid II as dangerous to his rule; and Shah Ismail I's request, that instead they should be allowed free transit into Europe across the
Bosporus
, was rejected. Upon this, Shah Ismail I sent an Embassy to the
Venetians
via
Syria
inviting them to join his arms and recover the territory taken from them by the
Porte
. Sultan Bayezid II, angry with the
Mamluk
Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri, complained bitterly that this Embassy had been suffered to pass through Syria. To appease him, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri placed in confinement the
Venetian
merchants then in Syria and Egypt. And although, fearing reprisals from Venice, he after a year released them, yet the relations between Egypt and the Porte remained peaceful for a time.
On the succession, however, of
Selim I
to the throne of Ottoman Sultanate, things took a very different turn. Not only had the attitude of Shah Ismail I become more threatening, but Sultan Selim I himself was more of the warrior than his father. Selim I set out against him, and the
Battle of Chaldiran
was fought near
Tabriz
on 23 August 1514. The fanaticism of the Sufis, which led even to their women joining in the combat, failed against the cavalry and artillery of the Turks, and Ismail after a disastrous defeat fled and escaped. Selim I, his provisions failing, returned westward and spent the winter at
Amasia
. In the spring taking the field again, he attacked the bey of
Dulkadirids
who as Egypt's vassal had stood aloof, and sent his head with tidings of the victory to Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri. Selim I later overran
Diyarbakır
and
Iraq
, taking Roha,
Nineveh
, the
Nineveh Plains
,
Nisibin
,
Mosul
and other cities. Secure now against Shah Ismail I, a larger project dawned upon Selim I; it was the conquest of Egypt, and the fact that the invasion must be made from Syria. With no anxieties toward the North, he could now safely make the advance, and so in the spring of 1516 CE he drew together for this end a great and well-appointed army; and with the view of deceiving Egypt, represented his object to be the further pursuit of Shah Ismail I.
Fall of the Mamluk Sultanate
[
edit
]
Ottoman painting showing the head of Mamluk Sultan al-Ghuri being remitted to
Selim I
Leaving
Al-Ashraf Tuman bay II
the Vizier, in charge, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri marched against the
Ottoman Turks
. He was defeated by
Selim I
at the
Battle of Marj Dabiq
, north of
Aleppo
, on 24 August 1516; the betrayal of two Mamluk leaders
Janbirdi al-Ghazali
and
Khayr Baig
led to the Mamluk defeat and to the death of the Sultan Qansuh. This marked the end of Mamluk control of the Middle East that eventually passed to the Ottomans. Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri himself fell upon the field and his head was carried to the Conqueror.
Accounts however vary to how he met his end. It is said that Khayr Baig spread report of his death to precipitate the Egyptian flight. According to some the Sultan was found alive on the field, and his head cut off and buried to prevent its falling into the enemy's hands. The Ottoman account is that he was beheaded by an Ottoman soldier whom Sultan Selim I would have put to death, but afterwards pardoned.
Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri had reigned a little more than 15 years. Of his private life and domestic administration we know but little, for as we reach the later years of the Mamluk Sultanate, details become too scanty for a judgment. He could, as we have seen, be cruel and extortionate, but so far as our information goes, there is less to say against him than against most of the previous Sultans.
His descendants now live in
Aleppo
and
Lebanon
.
Family
[
edit
]
One of Qanush's wives was Khawand Baysiwar. She was known as
Khawand-i-Kubra
.
[7]
Another wife was Khawand Fatima. She was the daughter of Ala al-Din Ali bin Ali bin Al-Khassbak and was a descendent of Sayf al-Din Khassbak al-Nasiri (died 1433), a prominent officer in the service of Sultan
Al-Nasir Muhammad
. She was former wife of sultans
Qaitbay
and
Tuman bay I
. She died at the age of sixty on 6 June 1504.
[8]
[9]
Another wife
[10]
or concubine
[11]
was Jan-i-Sukkar. She was a Circassian
[10]
and was Qanush's favourite consort.
[11]
She made the acquaintance of the noted litterateur and hadith scholar Abd al Rahim Abbasi (died 1557), with whom she exchanged poems. She also composed panegyrics in elegant verses to honour her hosts Ibn Aja and his wife Sitt al-Halab for their generosity and hospitality.
[10]
She died in 1516. Abbasid Caliph
Al-Mutawakkil III
was involved in funerary prayers for her.
[11]
He had two sons named An-Nasiri Muhammad
[7]
and Muhammad (
c.
1502 ? 1540),
[12]
and a daughter named Khawand.
[7]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- William Muir,
The Mameluke; Or, Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1260?1517, A. D.
- ^
"
The Encyclopedia of World History: The Postclassical Period, 500?1500
"
. Bartleby.com. Archived from
the original
on 25 August 2006
. Retrieved
25 August
2019
.
- ^
Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. "
Cairo
of the Mamluks".
Cairo
:AUC Press, 2008. p 295
- ^
Moshe ??ron (1997).
Handbook of Oriental Studies: Handbuch Der Orientalistik
. BRILL. p. 180.
ISBN
9004170855
.
- ^
Petry, Carl F. (1994).
Protectors or Praetorians?: The Last Mamluk Sultans and Egypt's Waning as a Great Power
. State University of New York Press.
ISBN
9780791421406
.
- ^
Viaggio di Domenico Trevisan, ambasciatore veneto al gran Sultano del Cairo nell’anno 1512, descritto da Zaccaria Pagani di Belluno, ed. N. Barozzi (Venice, 1875).
- ^
How Many Miles to Babylon?: Travels and Adventures to Egypt and Beyond, 1300 to 1640, Anne Wolff, p161
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a
b
c
?amzah, K. (2009).
Late Mamluk Patronage: Qansuh Al-Ghuri's Waqf and His Foundation in Cairo
. Universal Publishers. pp. 105, 118.
ISBN
978-1-59942-922-9
.
- ^
Keddie, N.R.; Baron, B. (2008).
Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender
. Yale University Press. p. 142.
ISBN
978-0-300-15746-8
.
- ^
Winter, M.; Levanoni, A. (2004).
The Mamluks in Egyptian and Syrian Politics and Society
. The medieval Mediterranean peoples, economies and cultures, 400-1500. Brill. pp. 278?79.
ISBN
978-90-04-13286-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
Dallh, M. (2023).
Sufi Women and Mystics: Models of Sanctity, Erudition, and Political Leadership
. Routledge Sufi Series. Taylor & Francis. p. 94.
ISBN
978-1-000-95802-7
.
- ^
a
b
c
Banister, Mustafa (23 October 2020). "Princesses Born to Concubines: A First Visit to the Women of the Abbasid Household in Late Medieval Cairo".
Hawwa
.
20
(4). Brill: 26.
doi
:
10.1163/15692086-bja10009
.
ISSN
1569-2078
.
S2CID
228994024
.
- ^
Trausch, T.; Borm, H.; Buschken, D.; Buttner, A.; Fahr, P.; Klaus, K.; Kremer, S.; Kubisch, S.; Mauder, C.; Plassmann, A. (2019).
Norm, Normabweichung und Praxis des Herrschaftsubergangs in transkultureller Perspektive
. Macht und Herrschaft. V&R Unipress. pp. 169, 176.
ISBN
978-3-8470-1076-0
.
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