Baybars II

Baybars al-Jashankir (Arabic: بيبرس الجاشنكير; died 1310) or Baybars II, royal name al-Malik al-Muzaffar Rukn ad-Din Baybars aj-Jashankir al-Mansuri (الملك المظفر ركن الدين بيبرس الجاشنكير المنصورى), also known as Abu al-Fath (أبوالفتح), was the 12th Mamluk sultan of Egypt in 1309–1310.

Background

He was a Circassian Mamluk of Sultan Qalawun and served at the court of Qalawun's Sons Al-Ashraf Khalil and Al-Nasir Muhammad. He became an Emir (a prince) then a Jashnakir.¹ During the second reign of Sultan Al-Nasir Mohammed from 1299 to 1309 he was the Vice-Sultan of Egypt. In 1302 he took part in suppressing a rebellion in upper Egypt and in 1303 he was a commander in the Egyptian army that defeated the Mongols led by Qutlugh-Shah at the Battle of Shaqhab.

In 1302, the Mamluk army of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad crushed a Bedouin rebellion in Upper Egypt and "slew mercilessly every Bedouin in the land and carried off their women captive". G. W. Murray said that "This drastic solution of the Bedouin question removed the pure Arab descendants of the Conquerors from the scene and so enabled the Beja to preserve themselves as an African race practically uninfluenced by Arab blood, while leaving the desert edges of Upper Egypt free for settlement by the Western Bedouin."² The army was led by the Oirat Mongol Mamluk Sayf al-Din Salar and Circassian Mamluk al-Baibars al-Jashnakir (Beibars).³

Etymology of the name

The monarch's name was a combination of Turkic, Persian and Arabic terms. The given name Baibars was a name, meaning "Chosen by the chief/lord". The title of al-Malik al-Muzaffar was an Arabic honorific title that meant "the victorious king", and the title Rukn al-Din was an Arabic honorific title meaning the "pillar of faith". The second portion, "Jashangir", is Persian, meaning "Food connoisseur": the mamluk prince who tastes the Sultan's food to make sure it is not poisoned.