-
The battle of Ayn Jalut and the defeat of the Tatars — c. 3 September 1260 CE · 15 Ramadan 658 AH
In 658 the Tatars crossed the Euphrates, put Aleppo to the sword and reached Damascus; the Egyptians marched that Sha'ban, al-Muzaffar leading with Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari his shalish — they met the Tatars at Ayn Jalut on Friday 15 Ramadan and routed them utterly, the first great breaking of their tide. The rejoicing flew to Damascus; Baybars drove them beyond Aleppo — promised the city, then refused it — the germ of their falling-out .
-
The murder of al-Muzaffar Qutuz and the sultanate of Baybars — c. 24 October 1260 CE · 16 Shawwal 658 AH
Al-Muzaffar turned home nursing ill for Baybars; forewarned, Baybars and amirs killed him on the road, 16 Dhu'l-Qa'da 658. Baybars took the sultanate as al-Malik al-Qahir, lifted the wrongs al-Muzaffar had laid on Egypt — then vizier Ibn al-Zubayr warned no bearer of that laqab had thrived: al-Qahir ibn al-Mu'tadid deposed and blinded, Mosul's lord's son poisoned — so he took al-Malik al-Zahir .
-
Four madhhab qadis appointed in Egypt, 663 — c. 1265 CE · 663 AH
The four-madhhab judiciary instituted in Egypt in 663: when Taj al-Din Ibn Bint al-A'azz's sole Shafi'i bench stalled the casework, Jamal al-Din Aydoghdi al-Azizi proposed appointing four qadis, one per madhhab — the sultan approved and enacted it at year's end, then extended it to Damascus .
-
Baybars takes Safed, 664 — c. June 1266 CE · c. 8 Sha'ban 664 AH
Baybars's coastal campaign of 664 — his columns raided Acre, Tyre, Tripoli and Hisn al-Akrad, then he sat down before Safed on 8 Ramadan; the great Templar fortress was tricked into surrender in forty days, two hundred of its knights were beheaded, and many of the besiegers fell martyred beneath it .
-
Baybars takes Jaffa, Beaufort and Antioch, 666 — c. February 1268 CE · Jumada I 666 AH
Jumada I 666: Jaffa stormed, its citadel aman'd, the town demolished; Beaufort taken in ten days by aman; Tripoli's orchards felled and rivers diverted; Hisn al-Akrad submitted at sight — then Antioch, the ancient patriarchate-city, in four days, with more than forty thousand slain .
-
Baybars takes Hisn al-Akrad and Akkar, 669 — c. April 1271 CE · Sha'ban 669 AH
Sha'ban 669 — Hisn al-Akrad, the Hospitallers' master-fortress, taken by the sword; Hisn Akkar then yielded for aman, and the lord of Tripoli abased himself, paying what was asked and taking a ten-year truce .
-
Death of al-Zahir Baybars, 676 — c. 26 June 1277 CE · 28 Muharram 676 AH
Mid-Muharram 676 — Baybars sickened at his Ablaq palace by Damascus's hippodrome and died thirteen days later (Dhahabi: Thursday 28 Muharram). His death concealed, the na'ib Bilbak marched the litter south feigning a sick sultan until the army was inside Egypt; then the mourning was declared and the amirs swore to his son al-Malik al-Sa'id. Forty Frankish fortresses had fallen to him by the sword .
-
The second battle of Homs, 680 — c. 1281 CE · 680 AH
The great encounter at Homs in 680 — among the martyrs Azdamur the jamadar, Sunqur al-Ashqar's Damascus na'ib ('advancing, not retreating', at fifty-odd) and the adib Shams al-Din Ibn Maktum of Baalbek .
-
The conquest of Acre and the expulsion of the Franks from Syria, 690 AH — c. 1291 CE · c. 690 AH
In 690 — praise and thanks be to God — all that the Christians held of Syria's coast was taken and no fortress or refuge remained to them there .
-
Ghazan's devastation of Syria, 699 — c. 1299 CE · 699 AH
In 699 the Tatar ruler Ghazan's upheaval struck Syria: more than a hundred souls, among them hadith shaykhs in Damascus and al-Jabal (meaning al-Salihiyya), died; some four hundred were killed in al-Jabal or died of cold and hunger; and some four thousand were taken captive, seventy of them descendants of Shaykh Abu Umar .
-
Khushqadam's death and the succession through Yalbay and Timurbugha to Qaytbay — c. 20 October 1467 CE · 10 Rabi' I 872 AH
Khushqadam died Saturday 10 Rabi' I 872 after six and a half years; the amirs seated Yalbay (14th of the Circassian kings) then deposed him after two months minus four days, raised Timurbugha (15th) whose sultanate lasted two months minus one day before exile to Alexandria, and invested al-Ashraf Qaytbay (16th) at midday Monday 6 Dhu'l-Hijja 872 .
-
The Battle of Marj Dabiq and Selim's Entry into Egypt — c. 24 August 1516 CE · c. Rajab 922 AH
In his colophon Suyuti's student Jaramard al-Nasiri names the ninth century's calamity: Selim Shah ibn Uthman — his wars on his brothers and their killing 'the worst of killings, leaving none great or small', his breaking of the lord of the East and killing of Ali Dawlat, then meeting Egypt's host and sultan at Marj Dabiq, killing the sultan and his great amirs, then entering Egypt 'in the swiftest state and shortest time' — a blow, he says, beside which the Tatars' and Timur's calamities seem small, for they never entered Egypt .
-
Capture of Cairo — 1517 CE · 923 AH†
After [[event/battle-ridaniyya-923|Ridaniyya]] Selim I entered Egypt; al-Salabi quotes the chronicler Salahsur — companion of Selim and author of the manuscript *Fath-nameh Diyar al-Arab* — that Selim wept long in the Dome of the Rock and prayed for Egypt's opening . He appointed [[person/khayr-bak|Khayr Bak]] over Egypt and [[person/janbardi-al-ghazali|Janbirdi al-Ghazali]] over Damascus ; at Shadharat, Tuman Bay was hanged at Bab Zuwayla and the Circassian state ended .