The Mamluk Sultanate in Decline (2): The Later Circassian Mamluk Sultans 1461–1517

The last period of the Mamluk sultanate, which opened with the usurpation of al-Zahir Khushqadam in 865/1461 and ended with the Ottoman conquest by Selim I, a little over half a century later, was a time of increasing political instability, military inefficiency and economic impoverishment. The two sultans who showed most capacity as rulers, aI-Ashraf Kayitbay (872-901/1468-96) and aI-Ashraf Kansawh alGhawri (906-22/1501-16), could do little to avert the general decline.