fought valiantly against the Crusaders, was just and humane to Christians, raised Egypt to a great and powerful state, overran the Sudan, and left a reputation in Egypt second only to that of Saladin. He died from accidentally drinking a cup which he had prepared for someone else.[1] During Baibars' time the Mongols had put an end to the Abbasid Khalifs at Bagdad (p. 97). He then brought an Abbasid (Al-Ḥākim) to Cairo in 1262, and set him up as Khalif, but with a purely spiritual authority. From now till 1538 there is a Sunni Khalif in Egypt, under the protection of the Mamluk Sultan, reverenced by all Sunni Moslems as their spiritual head, but having no claim to temporal authority. It is through these last Abbasids at Cairo that the Khalifate comes to the Sultan of Turkey (p. 248).[2] The next most famous Mamluk Sultan is Ḳalā'ūn[3] (which means a duck), 1279-1290. He too had been a slave of Aṣ-Ṣāliḥ. He succeeded in founding a dynasty in his own family, which lasted till the end of the Baḥri Sultans (1390). His son Ḫalīl (1290-1293) took Acre, the last possession of the Crusaders, in 1292, and so ended the episode of the Crusades. The period of the Baḥri Mamluks was brilliant. They built splendid mosques, endowed Moslem colleges, and made Egypt the most sumptuous kingdom in Islam.[4] But the fitful massacre and continual persecution of Christians went on under them as before. During all the 14th century there was continual fierce persecution. In 1320 various fires burst out in towns of Egypt. These were ascribed, not, it appears, altogether without reason, to Christian incendiaries. There was enormous excitement among the Moslem mob. Vast numbers of Copts were massacred, churches without number were pillaged and destroyed. For a year no one dared to celebrate any Christian service in Egypt. Maḳrīzī says that persecution was caused by the unparalleled insolence of the Copts, of whom one (a writer in a government
- ↑ There are several cases of this in Moslem history. If you habitually prepare poison for other people, you should be very careful to keep their drinks separate from your own.
- ↑ A list of the Khalifs in Egypt is given by Lane-Poole: Hist. of Egypt, p. 265, n. 1.
- ↑ As-Sulṭān al-Maliku-lManṣūr, Saifu-dDīn, Ḳalā'ūn al-Alfīyu-ṣṢāliḥi (the Sultan, the Victorious King, Sword of the Religion, the Military Duck of Ṣāliḥ).
- ↑ A list of the Baḥri Sultans is given by S. Lane-Poole: op. cit. p. 254.
