Tuman bay II

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Al-Ashraf Tuman bay
Burji Dynasty
ReligionSunni Islam

Al-Ashraf Abu Al-Nasr Tuman bay (

Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, by Ottoman Sultan Selim I at the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516.[3] He was the last person to hold the title of Sultan of Egypt until the re-establishment of the sultanate 397 years later under Hussein Kamel
in 1914.

A

Mamluks.[3] Despite the troubled context, he was popular throughout his brief reign. In the course of time, the fugitive chiefs, with Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali, arrived from Damascus; but another month elapsed before an army could be organized.[3]

Name

Al-Ashraf (

Arabic: أبو النصر) means "who brings victory"; Tuman (Turkic: tümen) means "ten thousand"; and bay is a Turkic title meaning "chief". Tuman bay literally means "chief of 10,000 (soldiers)" in Turkic
.

Gaza campaign of 1516

Meanwhile,

Mamluks, set out under Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali in the forlorn hope of saving Gaza;[3] but before it reached its destination, Gaza had already fallen, and the army was beaten back. During Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali’s absence, an Embassy arrived with a dispatch from Selim I who, boasting of his victories, and the adhesion of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, judges, and other leaders who had joined him, demanded that the Sultan formally acknowledge his supremacy, both in the Coinage and the public Prayers.[3]
He said;

Do this and Egypt shall remain untouched; else swiftly I come to destroy thee, and thy Mamluks with thee, from off the face of the earth.[3]

Though Selim’s envoy and his entourage were treated with hostility in the city, Sultan Tuman bay II was inclined to fall in with the Selim I's demand;[3] but his infatuated emirs overcame his better judgment, and the Ottoman messengers were put to death.[3] Tidings of disaster now followed rapidly on one another. Terror and dismay pervaded Cairo. The treachery of Khayr Baig and many other emirs made the prospect all the darker.[3] The inhabitants of Gaza having, on a false report of Egyptian victory, attacked the Turkish garrison, whereby Selim's order in great numbers massacred. The news of Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali's discomfiture increased the gloom; the more so as he, shortly after appearing, attributed the defeat not only to the numbers of the enemy but to the cowardice of his mercenary followers, while even his loyalty began to be suspected.

Battle of Ridanieh

Sultan Tuman bay II now resolved himself to march out as far as Salahia, and meet with the Turks, weary by the desert journey;

Battle of Ridanieh was fought January 22, 1517.[3]

Sultan Tuman bay II fought along with a band of devoted followers; he threw himself into the midst of the Turkish ranks and reached even to Selim's tent.

Bulaq.[3] The following day, his Vizier, entering the city, endeavored to stop the wild rapine of the Turkish troops; and the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III
, who had followed in Selim's train, led the public service invoking blessing on his name. The Caliph's prayer is thus given by Ibn Ayas;

"O Lord, uphold the Sultan, Monarch both of land and the two Seas; Conqueror of both Hosts; King of both Iraqs; Minister of both Holy cities; the great Prince Selim Shah! Grant him Thy heavenly aid and glorious victories! O King of the present and the future, Lord of the Universe!"[3]

Still plunder and riot went on. The Turks seized all they could lay hold of and demanded their captives pay large ransoms to escape death. The Circassian were everywhere pursued and mercilessly slaughtered, their heads being hung up around the battlefield.[3] It was not till some days had passed that Selim I’s presence in the city, along with Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, whose influence for mercy began now to be felt, put an end to these wild hostilities, and the inhabitants began again to feel some measure of security.[3]

The following night, Sultan Tuman bay II reappeared in Cairo and with his

Mamluks into their hiding places, while the Sultan fled across the Nile to Giza, and eventually found refuge in Upper Egypt.[3]

Satisfied with this victory, Selim I, returning again to his island, had a red-and-white flag in token of amnesty hoisted over his tent. The

Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri was received with distinction and granted the college founded by the Sultan his father as a dwelling place.[3]

Soon after the initial amnesty, even the hidden emirs were given the chance to come forward and face Selim I's wrath. However, they were not allowed to roam free and were instead placed in cells in the Citadel. Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali, who had fought bravely at the

Battle of Ridanieh, and then deeming the cause hopeless retired and went over to the Ottomans about the end of January.[3] Having strongly garrisoned the Citadel, Selim I
now took up his residence there, and for security had a detachment quartered at the foot of the great entrance gate.

Guerrilla campaign from Giza

Sultan Tuman bay II had again assumed the offensive. Well supported by

Bedouins, he had taken up a threatening attitude there, and stopped the supplies from Upper Egypt.[3] At the last, however, wearied with the continued struggle, he made advances and offered to recognize Selim I’s supremacy if the invaders would retire. Selim thereupon commissioned the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III with the four Qadis to accompany a Turkish deputation for the purpose of arranging terms, but the Caliph, disliking the duty, sent his Deputy instead. When Tuman bay II heard the conditions offered, he would gladly have accepted them; but was overruled by his emirs, who were distrusting Selim I, slew the Turkish members of the embassy with one of the Qadis, and thus stopped negotiations.[3] Selim I upon this revenge himself by the equally savage act of putting to death the emirs imprisoned in the Citadel, to the number of 57.[3]

Sultan Tuman bay II who had still a considerable following now returned to Giza; and Selim I, finding difficulty in the passage of his troops, was obliged to build a bridge of boats across the Nile.[3] Tuman bay II gathered his forces under the Pyramids of Giza, and there, towards the end of March, the two armies met.[3] Though well supported by his General Shadi Baig he was, after two days of fighting, beaten and sought refuge with a Bedouin chief whose life he once had saved, but who now ungratefully betrayed him into Turkish hands.[3] He was carried in fetters into Selim I's presence, who upbraided him for his obstinate hostility and the murder of his messengers.

Capture and death

Execution of Tuman bay II (etching by Jan Luyken)

The captive Sultan held a noble front; he denied complicity in the assassination, and spoke out so fearlessly on the justice of his cause and duty to fight for the honor and independence of his people, that Selim I was inclined to spare him, and carry him in his train to Constantinople.[3] But the traitor Khayr Baig, and even Janberdi Al-Ghazali, urged that so long as he survived, the Ottoman rule would be in jeopardy. The argument was specious; and so the unfortunate Tuman bay II was cast into prison, and shortly after, hanged as a malefactor at the City Gate on April 15, 1517. The body remained suspended thus three days, and then was buried.[3]

General Shadi Baig, similarly betrayed, was at the same time put to death. The sad death of Sultan Tuman bay II created such a sensation that an attempt was made by an Emir and a body of devoted followers to assassinate Selim I by night.[3] But the Palace guard was on the alert, or the desperate design might have succeeded. Tuman Bay II, forty years of age, had reigned but three months and a half. He left no family; only his widow, a daughter of Akbercly, was captured and tortured.[3]

Both as

Muhammad Ali Dynasty[3]

In popular culture

A fictionalized version of his rise, in the context of the Mamluks' competition against the Ottomans over the control of the Middle East, serves as the basis for the TV series Kingdoms of Fire, in which he was portrayed by Khaled El Nabawy.

References

  1. ^ "Palace of Fatima al-Khasbakiyya". Exploring Historic Cairo. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  2. ISSN 2470-7074
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj The Mameluke; Or, Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1260-1517, A.D. William Muir. Published by Smith, Elder, 1896, Public Domain

Further reading

  • William Muir. The Mameluke; Or, Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1260-1517, A. D.
  • Abdel-Malek, Anouar. Egypt: Military Society (1968), p. 309.
  • Ibn Abi Surur. Laila Sibagh (editor). Al-Minah Al-Rahmaniyyah Fi Ad-Dawlah Al-Uthmaniyyah (1995), p.p. 86-90

External links

Media related to Tuman bay II at Wikimedia Commons

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Qansuh al-Ghawri
Mamluk Sultan of Egypt

1516–1517
Ottoman conquest of Egypt
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