ABSTRACT
The Circassian Mamluk sultans, sometimes known from Kalavun's original recruitment of Circassians as the Burjiyya, formed a succession of 23 rulers from Barkuk's usurpation in 1382 to the Ottoman conquest in 1516-17. Like al-Ẓāhir Baybars and Kalavun before him, Barkuk hoped to found a dynasty. In Rabī' I November 1399, Etmish and his supporters were ousted by a faction headed by Yashbeg al-Sha'bānī, the sultan's tutor. Syria was to play an important part in politics by serving as a base for ambitious malcontents as it had served Sanjar al-Ḥalabī and Sungur al-Ashqar in earlier times. Al-Nāṣir Faraj now seemed fairly set to begin his effective reign. The administration of the kingdom was undertaken by Ibn Ghurāb, who held the secretaryship, while the magnates struggled for power. Jakam, foiled in his attempt with Shaykh to seize power in Egypt in 1405, declared himself sultan in Aleppo.
