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Qaitbay

Type Figure Region Egypt Time c. 1416–1496 Also known as Qatbay

Ninth sultan of the Mamluk Sultanate, of Caucasian origin, who seized power by coup in 1468 and ruled Egypt and Syria for nearly thirty years, buildi…

Timeline

  1. c. 1430–1467Cairo · Mamluk SultanateSold from the Caucasus to Egypt, he rose through the ranks of the Mamluk military system, holding key posts in Alexandria, Syria, and elsewhere, accumulating military merit and political capital.
  2. 1468–1480Cairo · Mamluk SultanateAfter seizing the throne by coup in 1468, he consolidated control over Egypt and Syria. Between 1471 and 1480 he vigorously built citadels, mosques, and caravanserais, expanded the navy at Alexandria, maintained a tense standoff with the Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean, and sustained diplomacy with the Aq Qoyunlu.
  3. 1481–1496Cairo · Mamluk SultanateIn his later years he continued to contend with Ottoman pressure and internal succession issues; in 1488 he sent troops to support the Nasrid dynasty of Granada against Castile, and he died in Cairo in 1496, buried beside the Qaitbay Mosque.

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