ainly with struggles between rival
amirs, _Malik al-Nasir_ was murdered (October 31st, 1498), and his uncle
and vizier _Kansuh_ proclaimed sultan with the title _Malik al-Zahir_.
His reign only lasted about twenty months; on the 30th of June 1500 he
was dethroned by Tumanbey, who caused _Jan Belat_, the Atabeg, to be
proclaimed sultan. A few months later _Tumanbey_, at the suggestion of
Kasrawah, governor of Damascus, whom he had been sent to reduce to
subjection, ousted Jan Belat, and was himself proclaimed sultan with the
title _Malik al-'Adil_ (January 25th, 1501). His reign lasted only one
hundred days, when he was displaced by _Kansuh al-Ghuri_ (April 20th,
1501). His reign was remarkable for a naval conflict between the
Egyptians and the Portuguese, whose fleet interfered with the pilgrim
route from India to Mecca, and also with the trade between India and
Egypt; Kansuh caused a fleet to be built which fought naval battles with
the Portuguese with varying results.

The Turkish conquest.

In 1515 there began the war with the Ottoman sultan Selim I. which led
to the close of the Mameluke period, and the incorporation of Egypt and
its dependencies in the Ottoman empire (see TURKEY: _History_). Kansuh
was charged by Selim with giving the envoys of the Safawid Isma'il
passage through Syria on their way to Venice to form a confederacy
against the Turks, and with harbouring various refugees. The actual
declaration of war was not made by Selim till May 1515, when the Ottoman
sultan had made all his preparations; and at the battle of Merj Dabik,
on the 24th of August 1515, Kansuh was defeated by the Ottoman forces
and fell fighting. Syria passed quickly into the possession of the
Turks, whose advent was in many places welcome as meaning deliverance
from the Mamelukes. In Cairo, when the news of the defeat and death of
the Egyptian sultan arrived, the governor who had been left by Kansuh,
_Tumanbey_, was proclaimed sultan (October 17th, 1516). On the 20th of
January 1517 Cairo was taken by the Ottomans, and Selim shortly after
declared sultan of Egypt. Tumanbey continued the struggle for some
months, but was finally defeated, and after being captured and kept in
prison seventeen days was executed on the 15th of April 1517.

(8) _The Turkish Period._--The sultan Selim left with his viceroy Khair
Bey a guard of 5000 janissaries, but otherwise made few changes in the
administration of the country. The register by which a