Early life Qaitbay was born between 1416 and 1418 in
Circassia in the
Caucasus. Skilled in archery and horsemanship, he was enslaved (see
Black Sea slave trade) and taken to Cairo around 1440. He was quickly purchased by the reigning sultan Barsbay and assigned to the palace guard. Barsbay's successor Jaqmaq emancipated Qaitbay after learning that he was a descendant of the Ayyubid Emir of Damascus
Al-Ashraf Musa (d. 1237). Jaqmaq then appointed the freed Qaitmat third executive secretary. Under the sultans
Sayf ad-Din Inal, Khushqadam and Yilbay, Qaitbay was further promoted through the
Mamluk military hierarchy. He eventually achieved the rank
taqaddimat alf, commander of 1,000 Mamluks. Under the Sultan
Timurbugha, finally, Qaitbay was appointed
atabak, or field marshal, of the entire Mamluk army. Qaitbay amassed a considerable personal fortune with which as sultan he would use for charitable endowments.
Accession in
Medina, located behind the Nabawi Mihrab, the mosque's Nabawi mihrab. in
Alexandria. The reign of Timurbugha lasted less than two months; he was deposed in a palace coup on 30 January 1468. Qaitbay was proposed as a compromise candidate to replace Timurbugha, who would be acceptable to the various court factions. He was made Sultan on 31 January. Qaitbay insisted that Timurburgha be granted an honorable retirement instead of the enforced exile usually imposed on the deposed. He did exile the leaders of the coup that had removed Timurburgha, and he created a new ruling council made up of his own supporters as well as experienced advisors who had fallen out of favor.
Yashbak min Mahdi was appointed
dawadar, or executive secretary, and Azbak min Tutkh was named
atabak; the two men would remain Qaitbay's closest advisors until the ends of their careers despite their profound dislike for each other. Qaitbay would typically appoint rivals to posts of equivalent authority, thus preventing any single subordinate from acquiring too much power while he held the authority to settle any disputes himself.
Early reign Qaitbay's first major challenge was the insurrection of Shah Suwar, leader of a small
Turkmen dynasty, the Dhu'l-Qadrids, in eastern
Anatolia. The first expedition against the upstart was soundly defeated, and Suwar threatened to invade
Syria. A second Mamluk army under Azbak, was likewise defeated in 1469. Not until 1471 did a third expedition, this time commanded by Yashbak, succeed in routing Suwar's army. In 1473, Suwar was captured and led back to Cairo, together with his brothers; the prisoners were drawn and quartered, and their remains were hung from
Bab Zuwayla. Qaitbay's reign was also marked by trade with other contemporaneous polities. Excavations in the late 1800s and early 1900s at over fourteen sites in the vicinity of
Borama in modern-day northwestern
Somalia unearthed, among other things, coins identified as having been derived from Qaitbay. Most of these finds are associated with the medieval
Sultanate of Adal, and were sent to the
British Museum in
London for preservation shortly after their discovery.
Ottoman-Mamluk war In 1480 Yashbak led an army against the
Aq Qoyunlu dynasty in Northern Mesopotamia, but was soundly defeated while attacking
Urfa, taken prisoner, and executed. These events foreshadowed a longer military engagement with the far more powerful
Ottoman Empire in
Anatolia. In 1485, Ottoman armies began to campaign on the Mamluk frontier, and an expedition was dispatched from
Cairo to confront them. These Mamluk troops won a surprising victory in 1486 near
Adana. A temporary truce ensued, but in 1487 the Ottomans reoccupied Adana, only to be defeated once more by a massive Mamluk army. As the concomitant Ottoman expansion in the western Mediterranean represented an increased threat to the
Catholic Monarchs of Spain,
Ferdinand II of Aragon made a temporary alliance with the Mamluks against the Ottomans from 1488 until 1491, shipping wheat and offering a fleet of 50 caravels against the Ottomans. In 1491, a final truce was signed that would last through the remaining reigns of Qaitbay and the Ottoman Sultan
Bayezid II. Qaitbay's ability to enforce a peace with the greatest military power in the
Muslim world further enhanced his prestige at home and abroad.
Final years ,
Northern Cemetery,
Cairo. The end of Qaitbay's reign was marred by increasing unrest among his troops and a decline in his personal health, including a riding accident that left him comatose for days. Many of his most trusted officials died, and were replaced by far less scrupulous upstarts; a long period of palace intrigue ensued. In 1492, the
plague returned to Cairo, and was reported to have claimed 200,000 lives. Qaitbay's health became markedly poor in 1494, and his court, now lacking a figure of central authority, was wracked by infighting, factionalism, and purges. He died on 8 August 1496 and was interred in the spectacular
mausoleum attached to his mosque in Cairo's Northern Cemetery, which he had built during his lifetime. He was succeeded by his son, an-Nasir Muhammad (not to be confused with the famed 14th-century sultan of the same name.) ==Family==