s regent; as he met with no opposition,
he conceived the idea of setting the sultan, Nasir, aside; and he hoped
to carry out his plan with the assistance of Lajin and Kara Sonkor,
El-Ashraf's murderers, and their numerous following. He had the pardon
of these two emirs proclaimed, whereupon they left their hiding-places
and joined Ketboga, for it was to their interest also that the sultan
should be put out of the way. This _coup d'etat_ was a complete success
(December, 1294), but in spite of these plans, Ketboga's reign was both
unfortunate and brief. The old emirs were vexed with him because he
raised his own Mamluks to the highest posts of honour, and the clergy
were displeased because he received favourably a number of Mongols,
although they were heathens. The people blamed him for the severe famine
which visited Egypt and Syria and which was followed by a terrible
pestilence. Several emirs, with Lajin again at their head, conspired
against him, and forced their way into his tent while he was on the way
to Syria; overpowering the guard, they attempted to get possession of
his person. He managed to escape, however, and so saved his life and
liberty, but Lajin obtained possession of the throne, with the agreement
of the other emirs. In spite of his advantages, both as man and as pious
Moslem, and in spite of his brilliant victories over the princes of
Armenia, Lajin was murdered, together with his successor, and Nasir, who
was then living in Kerak, was recalled as sultan (January, 1299).

Nasir was still too young to reign alone; he had to let himself be
ruled by the emirs who had already assumed a kind of regency before his
return. At the head of these emirs stood Sellar and Beybars Jashingir.
Distrust and uneasiness existed between these two, one of whom was
regent and the other prefect of the palace, for each wanted to assume
the chief power; but soon their private intrigues were put into the
background by a common danger. The Ilkhan Gazan was actively preparing
for war against the Mamluk kingdom because the Governor of Aleppo
had fallen upon Mardin, a town belonging to the Mongols, and brutally
maltreated the inhabitants; also because the refugees from Egypt and
Syria assured him that the moment was favourable for extending his
dominion over these lands.

The internal history of Egypt at this period offers nothing but tedious
strifes between different emirs, and specially between the two most
powerful, Beybars an