Burji dynasty

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

The Burji dynasty (Arabic: المماليك البرجية‎‎) was a Circassian^[1] Mamluk dynasty which 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 Lenk 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.

History

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

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 reign of Khoshkadam, 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 Abdal-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	Sayf-ad-Din Tatar I سیف الدین تتار	1412–1421
Al-Muzaffar المظفر	Ahmad أحمد	1421
Al-Zahir الظاہر	Sayf-ad-Din Tatar II سیف الدین تتار	1421
As-Saleh الصالح	Nasir-ud-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 قایتبای الناصرمحمدبن	1496–1497 first reign
Al-Zahir الظاہر	Qansuh Al-Burji قانصوہ البرجی	1497
Al-Nasir الناصر	Muhammad bin Qait Bay قایتبای الناصرمحمدبن	1497–1498 second reign
Al-Zahir الظاہر	Qansuh Al-Ashrafi قانصوہ الأشرفی	1498–1500
Al-Ashraf الأشرف	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

In 1515 there began the war with the Ottoman sultan Selim I which led to the incorporation of Egypt and its dependencies into the Ottoman Empire. A result of the Mamluk cavalry .charges proving to be no match for the Ottoman artillery and the janissaries. Egyptian sultan Kansuh was charged by Selim with giving the envoys of the Safavid Ismail passage through Syria on their way to Venice to form a confederacy against the Turks, and with harbouring various refugees. At the Battle of Merj Dabik, on August 24, 1515, Kansuh was killed in the fighting. Syria passed into Turkish possession, who were welcomed in many places as deliverance from the Mamelukes.

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

• History of Arab Egypt
• History of Ottoman Egypt
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

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.