Capture of Cairo (1517)

Capture of Cairo (1517)
Part of the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517)
Execution of Tuman bay II
Date 27-30 January 1517 Location Cairo, present-day Egypt Result Ottoman victory Cairo captured by the Ottomans Egypt annexed by the Ottoman Empire End of the Abbasid dynasty Execution of Tuman bay II
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	Mamluk Sultanate
Commanders and leaders
Selim I	Tuman bay II  Al-Mutawakkil (POW)
Strength
unknown	10,000–20,000
Casualties and losses
unknown	heavy losses 50,000 civilians dead[1][2]

The capture of Cairo was the final major engagement of the Ottoman Mamluk war of 1516-1517. The city of Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate, was sacked and fell into the hands of the Ottoman forces led by Sultan Selim I during the 27^th-30^th January 1517. Following Cairo's fall and the subsequent execution of the last Mamluk Sultan and member of the Abbasid dynasty: Tuman Bay II, the Mamluk Sultanate was absorbed into the expanding Ottoman Empire. Following its conquest, Cairo saw its status being reduced from the once prosperous capital of the Mamluk Sultanate to a provincial city governed from Constantinople. The economic decline present from the later years of the Mamluk Sultanate would continue under Ottoman rule, with the country being increasingly burdened by taxation by the imperial government and its status as a military base with the purpose of launching further expansion into surrounding lands.

Background

The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was a

Tumanbay escaped from Cairo and tried to organize a new army composed of Egyptians together with what was left out of the Mamluk army. His army was no match for the Ottoman army. But he was planning to raid Selim's camp on Vustatiye island. However Selim heard about his plan and sent a force on Tumanbay to forestall his plans. After some small scale clashes Tumanbay was arrested on 26 March 1517. Selim's initial decision was to send Mamluk notables to İstanbul. But after a while, he changed his decision. Tumanbay and the other notable Mamluks were executed on 13 April 1517 by a former Mamluk commander who had switched sides.[4] The Ottoman conquest of Egypt marked the end of the Abbasid dynasty, and the final caliph Al-Mutawakkil III was captured together with his family and transported to Constantinople.^[5]

References