s Tunis, and the father of
a large family, ended his life like a stranger, was buried like a poor
man, and brought to his grave like a man without wife or child. Nasir
was the last sultan who ruled over the Bahritic Mamluk kingdom with a
firm hand. After his death we read of one insurrection after another,
and the sultans were either deposed or became mere slaves of the emirs.
Abu Bekr, whom Nasir had appointed his successor, did not hold his own
for quite two months, because he maltreated the discontented emirs
and put his favourites in their places. An insurrection, with the Emir
Kausun at its head, was formed against him; he was dethroned and his
six-year-old brother Kujuk was proclaimed sultan in his stead. The
dethroned sultan was banished to Upper Egypt, whither his elder brother
Ahmed should have been brought; Ahmed, however, refused to leave his
fortress of Kerak, and, finding support among the Syrian emirs, he
conspired against Kausun, who was at this moment threatened also with an
insurrection in Cairo. After several bloody battles, Kausun was forced
to yield, and Ahmed was proclaimed sultan (January, 1342). Ahmed,
however, preferred a quiet, peaceful life to the dangerous post
of sultan, and not until he had received the most solemn oaths of
allegiance did he proceed to his capital, where he arrived quite
unexpectedly, so that no festivities had been prepared. After some time,
he had all the Syrian emirs arrested by his Mam-luks, because they tried
to usurp his powers; he then appointed a regent, and himself returned to
Kerak, taking with him everything he had found in the sultan's palace,
and there he remained in spite of the entreaties of the faithful emirs,
and lived simply for his own pleasure.

The natural consequence of all this was Ahmed's deposition in June,
1342. His brother Ismail, a good-hearted youth of seventeen years, sent
troops to Kerak to demand an oath of allegiance from Ahmed, but
they could effect nothing, as the fortress was well fortified and
provisioned, and, moreover, many of the emirs, both in Syria and Egypt,
were still in league with Ahmed. Not until fresh troops had been sent,
and Ahmed himself betrayed, did they succeed in taking the fortress;
and Ahmed was put to death in 1344. Ahmed's death made such a deep
impression upon the weak sultan that he fell into a fit of depression
which gradually increased until he died in August of the following year.

[Illustration: 055.jpg FRIEZE