an-Nasir Ahmad I.

Shihab al-Din Ahmad ( Arabic شهاب الدين أحمد, DMG Šihāb ad-Dīn Aḥmad , royal name al-Malik an-Nasir Schihab ad-Din Ahmad  /الملك الناصر شهاب الدين أحمد / al-Malik an-Nāṣir Shihāb ad-Dīn Aḥmad ; * in Cairo ; † 1344 in Karak ) was Sultan of the Mamluks in Egypt in 1342.

Life

Shihab al-Din Ahmad was the third son of Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad I to ascend the Mamluks' throne. His mother was a singer named Bayyad. His father sent him to Kerak in what is now Jordan to learn the art of riding there. After his father died, he agreed to his younger brother Saif ad-Din Abu Bakr's accession to the throne . However, he was deposed in 1341 by the powerful emir and sultan's secretary Qusson and interned in Qus together with six of his brothers, whereupon Qusson was appointed vice-sultan of the seven-year-old new sultan Kujuk , also a son of an-Nasir Muhammad, and thus became real ruler of Egypt rose. But in the following year, Qusson was arrested by the most influential emirs under the leadership of Emir Aidaghmash and the child sultan Kujuk was dethroned.

Now Emir Baibars al-Ahmadi was sent to Kerak together with other emirs to lead Shihab al-Din Ahmad as the new sultan to Egypt. Meanwhile, the houses of Qusson's Mamluks were ransacked by the mob and all of Qusson's possessions were transferred to the Sultan before Ahmad's arrival in Egypt. However, Sultan Ahmad refused to receive the emirs' embassy in Kerak and sent them back to Gaza to wait for him. This worried Emir Aidaghmash, who was waiting impatiently in Cairo for the arrival of the new sultan in order to quickly restore order. Because the looting, violent clashes and acts of revenge had already spread to all of Cairo. Instead, he received a message from Shihab al-Din Ahmad, in which he thanked him for his services and asked him to rule the country on his behalf until his arrival. The six brothers of the Sultan imprisoned by Qusson in Qus were freed and brought back to Cairo, where the emirs and the people gave them a joyful welcome. But when the emirs of Gaza came to Kerak again, Shihab al-Din Ahmad did not receive them again. Instead, he gave them a written order to return to Egypt. The emirs, annoyed by the sultan's behavior, informed Aidaghmash in Cairo, but soon afterwards Ahmad's ambassadors arrived there and delivered news that the new ruler, accompanied by Bedouins, was on his way to Egypt and Cairo by night through the cemetery gate and the citadel will be entered through a secret entrance.

Sultan Shihab al-Din Ahmad actually arrived at night accompanied by ten men from Kerak - however, to the amazement of the emirs and Aidaghmashs, his face was veiled. The next morning the Sultan received Aidaghmash and told him, “I didn't want to become a Sultan. I was happy where I was, but after you called me I had no choice. "The streets of Cairo were decorated and Aidaghmash informed the Syrian emirs of his arrival on behalf of the monarch, giving the message" The Mamluke Ahmad, Son of Muhammad ”. The emirs did not like the behavior of the new sultan and asked Aidaghmash to meet them in Siryakus, a small town north of Cairo, to discuss how to proceed.

At the end of the fasting month of Ramadan , the feast of Eid ul-Fitr (Lesser Bairam or Feast of Breaking the Fast ), the Sultan did not attend the public prayer and forbade the evening feast in the citadel, which was common among all previous sultans. He also forbade the emirs to enter the citadel, where he was staying alone with his companions from Kerak. After the Syrian emirs, including Qatlubugha and Tshatmar Homos Akhdar, arrived in Cairo, they too complained to Aidaghmash about the sultan's strange behavior and about his Bedouin clothes. Aidaghmash then proposed the removal of the new ruler, but the emirs refused. Shihab al-Din Ahmad appointed Tshatmar Homos Akhdar as vice-sultan and Aidaghmash as his deputy in Aleppo, but shortly afterwards Tshatmar was imprisoned in the citadel for abuse of power and improper treatment of Sultan's friends from Kerak. Emir Qatlubugha was arrested soon after in Bisan by Aidaghmash. The sultan informed the emirs that he would ride to Kerak with the caliph and some emirs and return after a month.

Veiled and in Bedouin clothing, Sultan Shihab al-Din Ahmad left Cairo with the caliph and some emirs and rode to Kerak, where he ordered the caliph to travel on to Jerusalem . The arrested Emirs Qatlubugha and Tshatmar Homos Akhdar were taken to Kerak and imprisoned in the fortress. All their belongings and all of Qatlubugha's women were also moved to Kerak, the possessions looted and the women ill-treated. Ahmad did not return to Cairo as promised. In Egypt people wondered about the absence of the ruler and the emirs were appalled by the brutal treatment of Qatlubugha. Over time, the situation became untenable. An envoy from Cairo with the message to the Sultan to return there urgently, he did not even receive. Instead he let him know in writing: “I will stay in the place I love and will only return to you if I want to.” News also reached Cairo stating that he was the two emirs Qatlubugha and Tshatmar Homos Akhdar got killed.

Eventually the emirs decided to dethrone the sultan and replace him with his brother Ismail. He had ruled for three months and thirteen days. When he did not comply with the request to return the money and possessions that he had transported to Kerak, the city was besieged. Eventually, in 1344, Ahmad was captured, killed, and his head sent to Egypt.

swell

• Abu al-Fida: The Concise History of Humanity
• Al-Maqrizi: Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk , Dar al-kotob, 1997
• Al-Maqrizi, al-Mawaiz wa al-´i'tibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-´athar, Matabat aladab , Cairo 1996, ISBN 977-241-175X
• Henry G. Bohn: The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades. AMS Press, 1969
• Urbain Bouriant: Description of the topographique et historique de l'Egypte. Paris 1895
• Ibn Taghri: al-Nujum al-Zahirah Fi Milook Misr wa al-Qahirah , al-Hay'ah al-Misrehyah 1968
• Yusef: History of Egypt, 1382–1469 AD (translated by William Popper), Abu L-Mahasin ibn Taghri Birdi, University of California Press, 1954

predecessor	Office	successor
al-Ashraf Kujuk	Sultan of Egypt ( Bahri Dynasty ) 1342	as-Salih Ismail