Reign of Sultan Baibars
Baibars, a Kipchak former slave soldier who had fought at al-Mansurah and Ain Jalut, took the throne after the murder of Sultan Qutuz and consolidated the Mamluk state of Egypt and Syria: he installed an Abbasid caliph in Cairo, took a string of crusader strongholds and fought the Mongols of the Ilkhanate.
- Date
- 24 October 1260 – between 30 June and 1 July 1277start: exact date; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 17 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Cairotoday: Cairo, Egypt · Middle East and Egypt
- Participants
- Baibars, Mamluk Sultanate
- Threads
- Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century
- Also known as
- Baybars; al-Zahir Baybars; Бейбарс; Байбарс
Qutuz was killed on 24 October 1260, seven weeks after Ain Jalut, by conspirators who included Baibars — reportedly because the sultan had refused him the governorship of Aleppo. To strengthen his legitimacy, in 1261 Baibars had an Abbasid refugee proclaimed caliph in Cairo as al-Mustansir II; after his death that same year another Abbasid became caliph as al-Hakim I (1262), and this line of caliphs, without real power, remained in Cairo until 1517.
Year after year Baibars campaigned in Syria. He took Caesarea and Arsuf (1265), Safed (1266), Jaffa and Antioch (1268) and Krak des Chevaliers (1271); he defeated Cilician Armenia at Mari (1266), sent an army into Nubia (1276) and beat a Mongol army at Elbistan in Anatolia (1277). Against the Ilkhans he sought the friendship of Berke, khan of the Golden Horde, and he set up a relay post that carried messages from Cairo to Damascus in four days. He died in Damascus at the end of June or on 1 July 1277 — according to a widespread account, after drinking poisoned kumis meant for someone else — and was buried there in the building of the Zahiriyya library.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Battle of Ain Jalut3 September 1260 · Middle East and EgyptQutuz was murdered on his way back from Ain Jalut, and Baibars took the throne
Related events
- Ibn al-Nafis describes the pulmonary circulationbetween 1239 and 1242 · Middle East and EgyptBy some accounts Ibn al-Nafis was physician to Sultan Baibars
- Mamluks seize power in Egypt2 May 1250 · Middle East and EgyptIn 1250 Baibars had been among the Mamluks who killed Sultan Turanshah
- Yekuno Amlak founds the Solomonic dynasty1270 · AfricaIn 1273 Yekuno Amlak wrote to Baibars, suzerain of the Patriarch of Alexandria, asking for help in obtaining a new metropolitan (abuna)
- Fall of Acre18 May 1291 · Middle East and EgyptThe war on the crusader states that Baibars waged was completed by al-Ashraf Khalil with the capture of Acre
Same place
- Arab conquest of EgyptDecember 639 – September 642 · Middle East and Egypt
- Ahmad ibn Tulun rules Egypt: al-Qata'i and the Mosque of Ibn Tulun15 September 868 – 10 May 884 · Middle East and Egypt
- Al-Mas'udi writes ‘The Meadows of Gold’between 943 and 947 · Middle East and Egypt
- The Fatimids conquer Egypt and found Cairo6 February 969 – 10 June 973 · Middle East and Egypt
- The caliphate of al-Mustansir and the ‘Mustansirite hardship’13 June 1036 – 29 December 1094 · Middle East and Egypt
- Saladin ends the Fatimid caliphateSeptember 1171 · Middle East and Egypt
- Maimonides' ‘Guide for the Perplexed’between 1185 and 1191 · Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of Ridaniya22 January 1517 · Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of the Pyramids21 July 1798 · Middle East and Egypt
- French invasion of Egypt and Syria19 May 1798 – 2 September 1801 · Middle East and Egypt
- Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of EgyptMay 1805 · Middle East and Egypt
Adjacent events in the thread
- Mapungubwe Hill, capital of the kingdom of Mapungubwec. 1220 – c. 1300 · Africa
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274
- Rise of the Hanseatic League1241–1356
- Rebuilding of Chartres Cathedral and the High Gothic10 June 1194 – 24 October 1260
Eastern Europe
- Battle of Wesenberg18 February 1268
- Formation of the Principality of Moscowbetween 1263 and 1283
- Death of Alexander Nevsky14 November 1263
- Mongol census of Rus’1257–1259
- Reign of Mindaugasc. 1236 – between August and September 1263
Balkans and Anatolia
- Rumi composes the Masnavi in Konyac. 1258 – 17 December 1273
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261
Africa
- Yekuno Amlak founds the Solomonic dynasty1270
- Mapungubwe Hill, capital of the kingdom of Mapungubwec. 1220 – c. 1300
- Great Zimbabwe, the stone capital of a Shona kingdom1200–1299 – c. 1450
Central and Northern Asia
- Completion of the Secret History of the Mongolsbetween 1228 and 1264
- Pax Mongolicac. 1250 – c. 1350
South Asia
- Reign of Rudrama Devi, queen of the Kakatiyasbetween 1262 and 1263 – November 1289
East Asia
- Proclamation of the Yuan dynasty1271
- First Mongol invasion of JapanNovember 1274
- Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295
North America
- The Thule migrate east across the Arctic to Greenlandc. 1200 – c. 1300
- Great Drought and the Ancestral Puebloan departure from Mesa Verde1276–1299
- Ancestral Puebloans build Cliff Palace at Mesa Verdec. 1190 – c. 1280
- Mississippian centres after Cahokia: Moundville, Etowah and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complexc. 1200 – c. 1450
Latin America
- The Mexica enter the Valley of Mexico and settle at Chapultepecbetween 1245 and 1280 – 1299
- The Kingdom of Cusco: the Inca state before the empirec. 1200 – c. 1438
- Mayapan, capital of Postclassic Yucatán1220s – between 1441 and 1461
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Baybars
- Wikipedia (English): Mamluk Sultanate
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бейбарс I
- Wikipedia (Russian): Мамлюкский султанат
- Thorau P. The Lion of Egypt: Sultan Baybars I and the Near East in the Thirteenth Century / Transl. P. M. Holt. — London: Longman, 1992.
- Amitai-Preiss R. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260–1281. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.