Al-Malik Az-Zahir Sayf ad-Din Barquq (; born ) was the first Sultan of the Circassians Mamluk Burji dynasty of Egypt ruling from 1382 to 1389 and 1390 to 1399. Born to a Christianity father in Circassia, Barquq was enslaved and later arrived in Egypt. He deposed sultan al-Salih Hajji to claim the throne for himself. Once in power, he placed many of his family members in positions of power. Rebelling governors in 1389 restored Hajji to the throne but Barquq was able to reclaim the throne shortly after and ruled until his death in 1399 and was succeeded by his An-Nasir Faraj. The name Barquq is of Circassian origin and is his birth name.[Tekindağ, Şehabeddin. Berkuk Devrinde Memlûk Sultanlığı (XIV. yüzyıl Mısır tarihine dair araştırmalar)]
Early life
Barquq was of
Circassians origin,
[Tekindağ, Şehabeddin. Berkuk Devrinde Memlûk Sultanlığı (XIV. yüzyıl Mısır tarihine dair araştırmalar)] and was acquired as a slave, presumably after a battle, and sold to a bathhouse in Crimea.
[Tekindağ, Şehabeddin. Berkuk Devrinde Memlûk Sultanlığı (XIV. yüzyıl Mısır tarihine dair araştırmalar)] According to one narration, while trying to escape and secretly go to Constantinople, he was attacked by Bulgarian bandits and sold to Egypt, while according to another narration he was directly brought from Crimea to Egypt.
[Tekindağ, Şehabeddin. Berkuk Devrinde Memlûk Sultanlığı (XIV. yüzyıl Mısır tarihine dair araştırmalar)] In Egypt, he became a mamluk in the household of Yalbugha al-Umari in approximately 1363–64 (or 764 on the
Islamic calendar).
[Holt, 2014, p. 127] During the reign of Sultan al-Mansur Ali, when Barquq held considerable influence in the Mamluk state, he brought his father to Egypt in March 1381. His father, originally a Christian,
[Tekindağ, Şehabeddin. Berkuk Devrinde Memlûk Sultanlığı (XIV. yüzyıl Mısır tarihine dair araştırmalar)] converted to Islam, adopted the name Anas and became the first father of a first-generation mamluk to be mentioned by the Mamluk era sources because of his Muslim faith; the fathers of first generation mamluks were typically non-Muslims. Anas was promoted to the rank of emir of one hundred (the highest Mamluk military rank) and was known for his piety, kindness and charitable acts. He died ten months after his arrival to Egypt.
[Sharon, 2013, p. 163]
Rise to power
Since 1341, the Mamluk empire had been ruled by the descendants of al-Nasir Muhammad. However, none of them were strong enough to exert effective control. Many of the rulers were minors at the time of their accession, and would act as puppets for one or another competing Mamluk faction.
This happened in 1377, when the sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban, who had ruled in his own stead since 1366, was overthrown and killed. The rebelling Mamluks replaced him on the throne with his seven-year-old son. When that puppet sultan died, he was replaced by the younger brother, al-Salih Hajji.
Barquq was a member of the faction behind the throne, serving in various powerful capacities in the court of the boy sultans. He consolidated his power until in November 1382 when he was able to depose sultan al-Salih Hajji and claim the sultanate for himself. He took the reign name al-Zahir, perhaps in imitation of the sultan Baibars.[Holt, 2014, p. 128]
First reign (1382–1389)
Barquq placed many of his own family in positions of power to the detriment of fellow Mamluks, attempting to solidify his position. He sponsored the construction of the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Barquq in the center of
Cairo. Completed in 1386, it was a pious foundation designed to serve as both a
khanqah and a
madrasah. It is one of the three dominant Islamic monuments clustered on the street Bayn al-Qasrayn in Fatimid Cairo. Although often called the Mausoleum of Barquq, only his daughter is buried there.
[Williams, 2002, pp. 170-172]
Barquq ended the public holiday in Egypt celebrating the Copts New Year Nayrouz.[Margoliouth, 1907, pp. 171−172]
The central caravanserai of the famous Cairo souk Khan El-Khalili was founded in the first year of his first reign, though it was founded by his emir, Djaharks el-Khalili.
Revolt
Early on, the 1386
Zahiri Revolt threatened to overthrow Barquq, though the conspiracy was discovered before any agitators could mobilize. The year 1389 saw the revolt of two Mamluk governors from the northern end of the empire, Mintash, governor of
Malatya, and Yalbogha al-Nasiri, governor of
Aleppo (not to be confused with Yalbogha al-`Umari). After securing
Syria they marched toward
Cairo. Barquq attempted to escape, but was captured and sent to the castle of
al-Karak. Meanwhile, the two governors restored Hajji to the throne, who now took the reign name al-Mansur. Fighting developed among the Mamluk factions in Cairo, and Barquq's supporters overcame the rebels. Barquq returned to Cairo in February 1390.
Second reign (1390–1399)
During Barquq's second reign he succeeded in replacing almost all governors and senior officials with members of his own household. Barquq became an enemy of the Turco-Mongol warlord
Timur after Timur's invasion of
Baghdad in 1393, and his intention to invade Syria. Hence, he joined an alliance with the
Ottoman Empire after 1393.
[ The Mamluks, Ivan Hrbek, The Cambridge history of Africa: From c. 1600 to c. 1790, Vol. III, Ed. Roland Oliver, (Cambridge University Press, 2001), 54.]
Barquq died in June 1399 and was succeeded by his son Nasir-ad-Din Faraj. He was buried in a mausoleum built by Faraj in Cairo's Northern Cemetery.
Family
Barquq's first wife was the daughter of Amir Tashtimur. They married on 17 April 1380, before his accession to the throne. In 1384, he married Khawand Fatima, the daughter of Amir Manjak al-Yusufi. On 12 February 1386,
he married Sitti Hajar, the daughter of Amir Menglibogha as-Shamsi and Khwand Fatima, daughter of Sultan Al-Ashraf Sha'ban.
With her, he had a daughter, Khawand Bairam.
She died on 2 April 1430.
In 1391, he married the daughter of Amir Ali bin Esendemir, the
naib of Syria, and the same year he married the daughter of Ash-Shahabi Ahmad bin at-Tuluni.
Another wife was Tandu Khatun, the daughter of Shaykh Uways Jalayir, ruler of the Jalayirid Sultanate. They married on 11 February 1394.
Another wife was Khawand Hajj Malak. She descended from elite Turkish origins. Her father was either Ibn Qara or a royal mamluk named Muqbil. After Barquq's death she married Taghribirdi, the father of 15th century historian Ibn Taghribirdi, and gave birth to his daughter Aisha also known as Shaqra. After his death, she married the Abbasid prince Yaqub bin al-Mutawakkil I and gave birth to the future caliph Al-Mutawakkil II. She died in 1429.
One of his daughters, Khawand Sara, born of a concubine,
Legacy
Sultan Barquq's reign was also marked by trade with other contemporaneous polities. Excavations in the late 1800s and early 1900s in modern-day northwestern
Somalia unearthed, among other things, coins identified as having been derived from Barquq. All of the pieces had been struck in either
Cairo or
Damascus.
Most of these finds are associated with the medieval
Adal Sultanate.
[Bernard Samuel Myers, ed., Encyclopedia of World Art, Volume 13, (McGraw-Hill: 1959), p.xcii.] They were sent to the
British Museum in
London for preservation shortly after their discovery.
[Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), The Geographical Journal, Volume 87, (Royal Geographical Society: 1936), p.301.]
See also
-
List of rulers of Egypt
-
Sayyid Husayn Ahlati
Notes
Bibliography
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Al-Maqrizi, Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk, Dar al-kotob, 1997.
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Idem in English: Bohn, Henry G., The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades, AMS Press, 1969.
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(pp. 29 n, 31, 35 f*, 57, 69, 90*f.*, 92, 96, 114*f*, 126, 147, 172, 185, 200, 216*, 225, 247, 253 ff, 257)
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