Al-Nasir Hasan

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This article is about the Mamluk sultan. For the Zaidi imam of Yemen, see an-Nasir al-Hasan. For Sultan Hassan, see Sultan Hassan.
Hasan
Al-Malik al-Nasir
Bahri
FatherAl-Nasir Muhammad
ReligionIslam

Al-Nasir Badr ad-Din Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun (1334/35–17 March 1361), better known as al-Nasir Hasan, was the

al-Salih Salih by emirs Shaykhu and Sirghitmish
.

During his second reign, al-Nasir Hasan maneuvered against the leading emirs, gradually purging them and their supporters from the administration through imprisonment, forced exile and execution. He replaced many

Sultan Hasan Mosque-Madrasa complex in Cairo, as well as other architectural works, namely religious structures, in Cairo, Jerusalem, Gaza and Damascus
.

Early life and family

Al-Nasir Hasan's birth name was 'Qamari' (also spelled 'Qumari'[1]) in Cairo in 1334/35; he changed his given name to 'Hasan' upon his accession to the sultanate in 1347.[2] According to historian Ulrich Haarmann, his revocation of his Turkish name and replacement with the Arabic 'Hasan' was meant to dissociate himself from the predominantly Turkish mamluks, a symbolic act in line with his policy of minimizing the role of mamluks in the state and relying instead on the descendants of mamluks, known as awlad al-nas.[1] He was the son of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (r. 1310–1341) and his Tatar wife, Kuda, who died while al-Nasir Hasan was an infant.[3][2] He was raised by his mother-in-law Khawand Urdukin in the Cairo Citadel, the sultanate's administrative headquarters.[2] In 1341, al-Nasir Muhammad died and a succession of his sons acceded to the throne, with real power often being held by the rival emirs of al-Nasir Muhammad's inner circle.[2]

Al-Nasir Hasan was married to Tulubiyya (d. 1363), a daughter of one of his father's emirs, Abdullah al-Nasiri.[4] With her and possibly other wives or concubines, al-Nasir Hasan had eleven sons and six daughters. His sons were Ahmad (d. 1386), Qasim (d. 1358), Ibrahim (d. 1381), Ali, Iskandar, Sha'ban (d. 1421), Isma'il (d. 1397), Yahya (d. 1384), Musa, Yusuf and Muhammad.[4] Of his six daughters, only Shaqra (d. 1389) was named in the sources.[4] She married Emir Baybugha al-Qasimi (also known as Aurus), one of the principal emirs of the sultanate during al-Nasir Hasan's reign.[4]

Sultan of Egypt

First reign

Following the death of al-Nasir Hasan's half-brother,

Black Death in Egypt, which peaked in October–December 1348 and ended in February 1349.[2] In 1350, al-Nasir Hasan attempted to assert his executive power by assembling a council of the four qadis (chief judges), declaring to them that he had reached adulthood and thus no longer required the emirs' guardianship. He concurrently dismissed Manjak as wazir (vizier) and ustadar.[2] However, al-Nasir Hasan's attempt to assert administrative authority was stifled by Taz a few months later.[2]

In August 1351, Taz maneuvered to have al-Nasir Hasan replaced by his half-brother

Shafi'i scholar al-Bayhaqi, dala'il al-nubuwwah ("The Signs of Prophethood").[1] Al-Nasir Hasan was also known to be highly skilled in Arabic and compared to his predecessors, he was a more cultured figure.[1]

Second reign

Complex. This manuscript is part of the National Library of Egypt's Collection of Mamluk Qur'an Manuscripts inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register

Under Salih's three-year reign, Taz was the strongman of the sultanate until he was ousted in a coup by Shaykhu and Emir Sirghitmish al-Nasiri in 1355.[2] In October of that year, al-Nasir Hasan was restored to the sultanate.[2] Al-Nasir Hasan's second reign was marked by efforts to monopolize executive power by ridding his administration of its powerful and fractious emirs.[2] His first major action in this regard was to imprison Taz, but after the intervention of Shaykhu, who, along with Sirghitmish, wielded considerable influence Hasan's court, al-Nasir Hasan agreed to appoint Taz as na'ib of Aleppo instead. In effect, Taz was exiled from Cairo, but was spared incarceration.[2] In November 1357, Shaykhu was killed, and following the latter's death, al-Nasir Hasan made moves, namely through forced exile, to hinder the authority of Shaykhu's partisans, who were led by Khalil ibn Qawsun.[2] Those among Shaykhu's mamluk partisans who were not exiled, were imprisoned in Alexandria.[2]

Al-Nasir Hasan's political maneuvers left Sirghitmish as the most powerful emir in al-Nasir Hasan's court.

Safad.[7] Among those who reached the rank of amir mi'a were two of al-Nasir Hasan's sons.[8]

Al-Nasir Hasan's stated purpose behind elevating the awlad al-nas was his strong trust in their reliability and his belief that they were less prone to rebellion than mamluks.

Peter Malcolm Holt.[10] However, historian Ulrich Haarmann asserts that a'-Nasir Hasan's demise "in no way impeded the further strengthening of the position of the awlad al-nas in the military and the administration", but only under the Bahri regime, which ended in the last years of the 14th century.[7]

Death

On 17 March 1361,[4] Hasan was killed at age 27 by one of his own mamluks, Yalbugha al-Umari,[11][9] who led a mamluk faction opposed to al-Nasir Hasan's policy of elevating the awlad al-nas to positions of authority.[11] In Mamluk-era commentary regarding al-Nasir Hasan's death, it was stated that "his murder ... came at the hands of his closest mamluks and confidants ... he had purchased and fostered them, given them riches and appointed them to the highest offices."[12]

According to historian Carl F. Petry, al-Nasir Hasan and Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban were "perhaps the exception" among al-Nasir Muhammad's largely powerless descendants who acceded to the throne because they wielded real power,[13] and al-Nasir Hasan in particular was the only descendant of al-Nasir Muhammad to have "had a significant impact on events" in the sultanate.[14] The Mamluk historian al-Maqrizi lauded him as "one of the best kings of the Turks".[1]

Building works

Sultan Hasan Mosque and Madrasa
, commissioned by al-Nasir Hasan in 1357 and completed in 1363

In line with the favoritism he showed to Muslim scholars in his court,

Jean Thevenot both described it as the finest mosque they had ever seen.[17]

The complex's construction was noted to be remarkable by the modern historian Oleg Grabar because in his opinion, the complex's patron, al-Nasir Hasan, was a generally weak leader for much of his reign and construction of the expensive complex occurred at a time of severe economic instability in the aftermath of the

Black Plague in Cairo.[16] Mamluk historian Ibn Iyas wrote that most of the funds for the complex derived from a huge treasure of gold found under the site, but Egyptian historian Howayda Al-Harithy contends that the funds likely came from mass appropriations of property by al-Nasir Hasan from plague victims who left no legal heirs.[16] Al-Nasir Hasan chose the complex's site from the two palaces built by his father for his emirs Altunbugha al-Maridani and Yalbugha al-Yahyawi, demolishing both to make way for the complex.[9]

A double-mausoleum structure in Cairo's Southern Cemetery (the Qarafa or City of the Dead), known as the Sultaniyya Mausoleum, is also attributed to Sultan Hassan and was dedicated to this mother.[18]

Starting in 1360, al-Nasir Hasan commenced other architectural projects in the sultanate, including the Qa'a al-Baysariyya tower at the Cairo Citadel, described by al-Maqrizi as a structure unique in Mamluk architecture.

al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Haarmann 1998, p. 67.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Al-Harithy 1996, p. 70.
  3. ^ Bauden, Frédéric (2009). "The Sons of al-Nāṣir Muḥammad and the Politics of Puppets: Where Did It All Start?" (PDF). Mamluk Studies Review. 13 (1). Middle East Documentation Center, The University of Chicago: 63.
  4. ^ a b c d e Bauden, Frédéric. "The Qalawunids: A Pedigree" (PDF). University of Chicago. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
  5. ^ Holt 1986, p. 123.
  6. ^ Levanoni, p. 119.
  7. ^ a b Haarmann 1998, p. 68.
  8. ^ Al-Harithy 1996, pp. 70–71.
  9. ^ a b c d Al-Harithy 1996, p. 72.
  10. ^ Holt 1986, p. 140.
  11. ^ a b Petry 1998, p. 637.
  12. ^ Levanoni 1995, p. 103.
  13. ^ Petry 1998, p. 253.
  14. ^ Petry 1998, p. 287.
  15. ^ Petry 1998, p. 268.
  16. ^ a b c d e Al-Harithy 1996, p. 69.
  17. ^ a b c Al-Harithy 1996, p. 68.
  18. ISBN 978-1-84511-549-4
    .
  19. ^ a b c Al-Harithy 1996, p. 79.
  20. ^ Armstrong 1997, p. 314.

Bibliography

Regnal titles
Preceded by Mamluk Sultan
December 1347–August 1351 		Succeeded by
Al-Salih Salih
Preceded by
Al-Salih Salih
 Mamluk Sultan
October 1355–1361 		Succeeded by
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