EGYPT. 327 
and weft was attracted to this convenient ftation ; and the 
market could offer the produce of every clime and the 
interpreters of every tongue. But in thhs conflux of na¬ 
tions, every vice was propagated and praiStifed : of all the 
difciples of Jefus and Mahomet, the male and female in¬ 
habitants of Acre were efteemed the moft corrupt ; nor 
could the abufe of religion be correlated by the difcipline 
of law. The city had many fovereigns, and no govern¬ 
ment. The kings of Jerufa^em and Cyprus, of the liotife 
of Lufignan, the princes of Antioch, the counts of Tri¬ 
poli and Sidon, the great matters of the hofpital, the 
temple, and the Teutonic order, the republics of Venice, 
Genoa, and Pita, the pope’s legate, the kings of France 
and England, affumed an independent command ; feven- 
teen tribunals exercifed the power of life and death ; 
every criminal was protedted in the adjacent quarter; and 
the perpetual jealoufy of the nations often burtt forth in 
adts of violence and blood. Some adventurers, who dit- 
graced the entign of the crofs, compenfated their want of 
pay by the plunder of the Mahometan villages: nineteen 
Syrian merchants, who traded under the public faith, 
were defpoiled and hanged by tlVe Chriftians; and the 
denial of fatisfadlion enraged and juftified the arms of the 
fultan Kalil. He marched againft Acre, at the head of 
ftxty thoufand horfe and one hundred arid forty thoufand 
foot: his antique train of artillery was numerous and 
weighty ; the feparate timbers of a Angle engine were 
tranfported in one hundred waggons ; and the royal hifto- 
rian Abulfeda, who ferved with the troops of Hamah, 
was himfelf a (pefhitor of the holy war. Whatever might 
be the vices of the Franks, their courage was rekindled 
by enthufiafm and defpair; but they were torn by the 
difeord of feventeen chiefs, and overwhelmed on all Tides 
by the powers of the fultan. After a fiege of thirty-three 
days, the double wall was forced by the Modems; the 
principal tower yielded to their-engines ; the mamalukes 
made a /general affault; the city wasftormed on the 18 th 
of May, J291 ; and death or llavery was the lot of/ftxty 
thoufand Chriftians. The consent, or rather fortrefs, of 
the Templars refilled three days longer; but the great 
mailer was pierced with an arrow ; and, of five hundred 
knights, only ten were left alive, lefs happy than the 
victims of the (word, if they lived to buffer on a fcaffold 
in the unjuft and cruel profeription of the whole order. 
The king of Jerufalem, the patriarch, and the great maf¬ 
ter pf the hofpital, effected their retreat to the fhore : 
but the fea was rough ; the veffels were infufficient; and 
great numbers of the fugitives were drowned before they 
could reach the ifle of Cyprus, which confoled Lufignan 
for the lofs of Paleiline. By the command of the fultan, 
the churches and fortifications cf the Latin cities were 
demolifiied : a motive of avarice or fear ftill opened the 
holy fepulchre to fome devout and defencelefs pilgrims ; 
and a mournful and folitary (Hence has almoft,ever fince 
prevailed along the coaft which for fo many years re¬ 
bounded with the debate of arms! 
Thus fell the laft heroes of the Holy War; and Kalil 
returned in triumph to Cairo ; but his reign wasdifturbed 
by the frequent inroads of the Moguls, who ftill con¬ 
tended for the poffefiion of Syria. The arms of the ful¬ 
tan were finally victorious; and gave to Nazr Mahomet, 
his fucceffof, a long and peaceful reign, in which he dif- 
tinguifhed himfelf by the encouragement he gave to 
agriculture and the arts. -This prince died in 1341, after 
which the throne was filled by the (hort reigns of va¬ 
rious mamalukes, moft of whom fell by retaliated afl'af- 
fination. In 1348, a moft deftructive peltilence appeared 
in Egypt, brought originally from Syria; and which 
fpread over a great part of Europe. In 1365, Shaban 
Afcraff was the reigning fultan, who diftinguifhed him¬ 
felf by iffuing a decree, that the real defendants of Ma¬ 
homet only, fhould be allowed to wear the green turban. 
In his reign Peter de Lufignan, king ot Cyprus, is faid 
to have befieged Alexandria, which he was obliged to 
abandon for want of provilions; but this event appears to 
remain in confiderable obfeurity. Shaban was fucceeded 
by his fon Hadgi Salah, who was a minor, and the laft ot 
the Baharite dynafty, which gave place to the Circadian 
mamalukes, in the year 13S2. 
The origin of this race of (laves was briefly as follows : 
after the Baharite dynafty had feated itfelf upon the 
throne, the Tartar fultans were in the Habit of purchaf- 
ing vaft numbers of (laves, which they obtained princi¬ 
pally from Circaflia, where the people, though they pro- 
fefted Chriftianity, were, and ftill are, accuftomed to fell 
their children. Thefe Circadian (laves were educated for 
the army, in the feme way that the Tartar mamalukes 
had formerly been. As their numbers increased, they 
were difpofed of in fortreffes erected throughout the 
country, in order to keep a check upon the native 
Egyptians ; and becaufe in their language fuch a fort is 
called 1 borge, they acquired the name of Borgite mamalukes. 
In the era above-mentioned, they were become extremely 
numerous and powerful; and the young Hadgi Salah 
having been placed under the guardianlhip of Barkuk- 
Dahar, a borgite of confiderable eminence, who was 
made atabek or governor during the minority; he perfi- 
dioufly depofed his pupil, and calling in the aid ot the 
Circadian tribes, feized upon the (upreme authority be¬ 
fore any refinance could be made to his ambitious views. 
In him therefore commenced the dynafty of Borgite Ma¬ 
malukes, A. D. 1382. 
In the reign of Barkuk, Timur invaded Syria ff at the 
head of a numerous army of Moguls ; but the new Cir¬ 
cadian fultan-obtained two decifive victories over him, 
and obliged his (battered forces haftily to withdraw. I11 
1399, I'aradj, fon of Barkuk, fucceeded to the Egyptian 
throne ; but himfelf, and few of the fultans who follow¬ 
ed, reigned above a year, being either a (I affiliated or de¬ 
throned, until the year 1442, when Burfbai began to 
reign. It was this fultan who fent a fleet againft Cyprus, 
which took Lymiffos and Nicofia, and brought king 
John II. and mod of his nobility, captives to Cairo. 
Syria alfo remained a conftant appanage to Egypt. Burf¬ 
bai reigned fixteen years, and in 1461 was iucceeded by 
Abul-Fathe-Aclimed. This fultan laid an annual tribute 
upon the kingdom of Cyprus, and aflignetl the crown to 
James, natural fon.of John III. .Of tlie (ucceeding ful¬ 
tans we find nothing remarkable ; and the mamalnke 
ariftocracy began to render their ftation more and more 
precarious. Whoever afpired to be fultan, formed a 
part y ; and after having .murdered his rival, waited for a 
favourable opportunity to feize the reins of government. 
Whoever afl'aflinated the fultan was generally proclaimed 
in his place; and fometimes two Q£ three ..reigned at the 
fame time in Syria, Upper Egypt, and Cairo, who were 
continually at war, till the moft daring and enterprifing 
lud deftroyed the others. In 1501, Kanfu-Elghuri was 
railed to the throne; and in 1516, Selim II. emperor of 
the Turks, having declared war againft him, defeated and 
flew him near Aleppo, and feized upon all Syria. The 
mamalukes immediately raifed Toman Bey to the vacant 
throne, and made every preparation foroppofing the vic¬ 
torious arms of Selim. A moll obftinate and fanguinary 
battle was fought between the Ottoman txoops and the 
mamalukes, on the 24th of January, 1517, at Rodania 
near Cairo, in which Selim at length prevailed. After 
another obftinate conflict, Toman Bey was again defeated 
by Selim, taken prifoner, and hanged at one of the. gates 
of Cairo, on the 13th of April the lame year. Thus fell 
the dynafty of Borgite mamalukes; and Egypt, thus con¬ 
quered, became fubjeft to the Turks of Conftantinople. 
Selim, finding it impoflible to compel his new fubjects 
to fnbmit to a defpotic government, did not attempt to 
give them new laws, but delegated the chief power, un¬ 
der his own authority, to an apoftate bey, who, by bafely 
betraying Toman, his former mafter, had been the chief 
caufe of his defeat. In this manner Selim II. quitted 
the country, fix months after his firft entry into Cairo, 
leaving little order or regulation, and the mamalukes 
_a were 
