mluks. Although he was beloved by the people and priests on account
of his piety, he could not secure the succession of his son Osman, in
favour of whom he abdicated fourteen days before his death (February,
1453). Osman remained only a month and a half on the throne; he made
himself odious to the emirs who did not belong to his Mamluks. The
Mamluks of his predecessors conspired against him, and at their head
stood his own Atabeg, the Emir Inal, a former Mamluk of Berkuk.
Osman was warned, but he only mocked those who recommended him to
watchfulness, since he believed his position to be unassailable. He
had forgotten that his father was a usurper, who, although himself a
perjurer, hoped to bind others by means of oaths. His eyes were not
opened until he had lost all means of defence. He managed to hold out
for seven days, after which the citadel was captured by the rebels, and
he was forced to abdicate on the 19th of March. Inal became, even more
than his predecessors had been, a slave to those Mamluks to whom he owed
his kingdom. They committed the greatest atrocities and threatened
the sultan himself when he tried to hold them in check. They plundered
corpses on their way to the grave, and attacked the mosques during the
hours of service in order to rob the pilgrims.

They were so hated and feared that, when many of them were carried off
by the plague, their deaths were recorded by a contemporary historian as
a benefit to all classes of society.

In the hour of his death (26th February, 1461), Inal appointed his son
Ahmed as his successor, but the latter was no more able to maintain
himself on the throne than his predecessors had been, in spite of his
numerous good qualities. He was forced to submit in the strife with his
emirs, and on the 28th of June, 1461, after a reign of four months and
three days, he was dethroned, and the Emir Khosh Kadem, a former slave
of the Sultan Sheikh, of Greek descent, was proclaimed in his stead.
Khosh Kadem reigned for seven years with equity and benignity, and under
one of his immediate successors, El-Ashraf Kait Bey, a struggle was
begun with the Ottoman Turks. On the death of Muhammed II., dissensions
had arisen between Bayazid II. and Jem. Jem, being defeated by Bayazid,
retired to Egypt, which led to the invasion and conquest of Syria,
hitherto held by the Sultan of Egypt. On surrendering Tarsus and Adana
to Bayazid, Kait Bey was suffered to end his days in peace in A.D. 1495.
A