ain required. He further founded a hospital for
clinical research on a scale formerly unknown.

Malik al-Nasir.

Mongol Wars.

Decline of the Bahri power.

Kala'un was followed by his son _Khalil_ (_Malik al-Ashraf Salah
al-din_), who carried out his father's policy of driving the Franks out
of Syria and Palestine, and proceeded with the siege of Acre, which he
took (May 18th, 1291) after a siege of forty-three days. The capture and
destruction of this important place were followed by the capture of
Tyre, Sidon, Haifa, Athlit and Beirut, and thus Syria was cleared of the
Crusaders. He also planned an expedition against the prince of Lesser
Armenia, which was averted by the surrender of Behesna, Marash and Tell
Hamdun. The disputes between his favourite, the vizier Ibn al-Sa'lus,
and his viceroy Baidara, led to his being murdered by the latter
(December 12th, 1293), who was proclaimed sultan, but almost immediately
fell a victim to the vengeance of the deceased sultan's party, who
placed a younger son of Kala'un, _Mahommed Malik al-Nasir_, on the
throne. This prince had the singular fortune of reigning three times,
being twice dethroned: he was first installed on the 14th of December
1293, when he was nine years old, and the affairs of the kingdom were
undertaken by a cabinet, consisting of a vizier ('Alam al-din Sinjar), a
viceroy (Kitboga), a war minister (Husam al-din Lajin al-Rumi), a
prefect of the palace (Rokneddin Bibars Jashengir) and a secretary of
state (Rokneddin Bibars Mansuri). This cabinet naturally split into
rival camps, in consequence of which Kitboga, himself a Mongol, with the
aid of other Mongols who had come into Egypt after the battle of Homs,
succeeded in ousting his rivals, and presently, with the aid of the
surviving assassins of the former sultan, compelling Malik al-Nasir to
abdicate in his favour (December 1st, 1294). The usurper was, however,
able to maintain himself for two years only, famine and pestilence which
prevailed in Egypt and Syria during his reign rendering him unpopular,
while his arbitrary treatment of the amirs also gave offence. He was
dethroned in 1296, and one of the murderers of Khalil, Husam al-din
_Lajin_, son-in-law of the sultan Bibars and formerly governor of
Damascus, installed in his palace (November 26th, 1296). It had become
the practice of the Egyptian sultans to bestow all offices of importance
on their own freedmen (Mamelukes) to the exclusion of the