ABSTRACT
The situation of al-Nasir Muhammad on his second restoration in 709/1310 offered him particular opportunities which he was not slow to exploit. For the first time since the inception of the Mamluk sultanate sixty years before, there was no danger from an external enemy. The Frankish states had ceased to exist, and the unsuccessful Mongol invasion ofSyria in the winter of712/ 1312-13 demonstrated that the ilkhan, even in alliance with powerful Mamluk malcontents, was no more to be feared. Thus for nearly thirty years al-Nasir Muhammad was free to concentrate on the internal problems of his realm. The passing of the external danger in itself subtly altered his relations with the Mamluk magnates. They traditionally regarded the sultan as essentially a warleader and the first among equals, but it was al-Nasir Muhammad's achievement to establish a firm autocratic monarchy in time of peace. He also sought, like al-Zahir Baybars and his own father, to ensure hereditary succession to the sultanate. In this he was in appearance remarkably successful: his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons reigned without interruption by a usurper until 784/1382, but his autocratic rule perished with him. Almost without exception the later Kalavunids were puppet sultans, in whose name the faction-ridden Mamluk magnates held power.
