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{{Short description|Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r.1279–1290)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn
| title        = al-Malik al-Manṣūr
*''kassim amir al-mu'minin''
| image        = قبة ضريح السلطان المملوكي قلاوون.JPG
| caption      = For a time, [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] sultans after him received their coronation [[:commons:Category:Mausoleum of Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun|here]].
| succession   = [[List of Mamluk sultans|Sultan of Egypt]]
| reign        = November 1279 – 10 November 1290
| coronation   =
| full name    =
| native_lang1 = Royal name
| native_lang1_name1 = {{lang|ar| 	 الملك الْمَنْصُور سيف الدّين قَلَاوُونَ بن عبد الله الألفي العلائي الصَّالِحِي}}
| predecessor  = [[Solamish]]
| successor    = [[al-Ashraf Khalil]]
| spouse       = {{plainlist|
*Fatima Khatun
*Qutqutiya Khatun
*Sitt Ashlun Khatun}}
| spouse-type  = Consort
| issue        = {{unbulletedlist|As-Salih Ali|[[Al-Ashraf Khalil]]|[[An-Nasir Muhammad]]|Amir Ahmad|Ghaziya Khatun|Dar Mukhtar al-Jawhari|Dar Anbar al-Kamili|}}
| royal house  = [[Qalawunid dynasty]]
| dynasty      = [[Bahri Mamluks]]
| father       =
| mother       =
| birth_date   = {{Circa|1222}}
| birth_place  =
| death_date   = November 10, {{death year and age|1290|1222}}
| death_place  = [[Cairo]], [[Mamluk Egypt|Egypt]]
| date of burial =
| place of burial = [[Qalawun complex]]
| religion     = [[Sunni Islam]]
}}
'''{{transliteration|ar|Qalāwūn aṣ-Ṣāliḥī|italic=no}}''' ({{langx|ar|قلاوون الصالحي}}, {{circa|1222}} – November 10, 1290) was the seventh Turkic [[Bahri Mamluks|Bahri Mamluk]] sultan of [[Mamluk Egypt|Egypt]]; he ruled from 1279 to 1290. He was called '''{{transliteration|ar|al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn|italic=no}}''' ({{lang|ar|المنصور قلاوون}}, "Qalāwūn the Victorious").<ref>{{cite book |last=Rabbat |first=Nasser O. |title=The Citadel of Cairo |date=2021 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-49248-6 |page=136 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWxPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA136 |quote=When Qalāwūn assumed the throne in 1280, he took the regnal title {{transliteration|ar|al-manṣūr}} (the victorious).}}</ref> After having risen in power in the Mamluk court and elite circles, Qalawun eventually held the title of "the victorious king" and gained [[de facto]] authority over the sultanate. He is the founder of the [[Qalawunid dynasty]] that ruled Egypt for over a century.
The current sultan, [[Al-Said Barakah|Barakah]] was exiled and rumored to have been poisoned by Qalawun. He would then wage war against the Crusaders, capturing lands held by the [[County of Tripoli]], and later totally defeating them in 1289. [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], a major Crusader stronghold was besieged by Qalawun but would only be taken by his son [[al-Ashraf Khalil]] as the former died before the siege was won in 1291. His son Khalil succeeded him as sultan.
==Biography and rise to power==
Qalawun was a [[Kipchaks|Kipchak]] (a [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] people living between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea) from the Burj Oghli ({{Langx|ar|برج اغلي}}) tribe, the same tribe as the earlier Mamluk sultan [[Baybars]]. They were both probably sold into slavery during the [[Mongol campaigns in Central Asia|Mongol invasions of Kipchak territories]] in the 1220s and 1230s. When he was 14 years old, Qalawun was brought by slave merchants to Egypt, which was under [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] rule at the time.{{Sfn|Northrup|1998|p=|pp=65–66}} He was then purchased as a [[mamluk]] (slave soldier) sometime in the 1230s or 1240s, by a mamluk [[Emir|amir]] (commander) whom different historical sources name as either 'Ala al-Din Aqsunqur al-Kamili (a mamluk of [[Sultan al-Kamil]]) or 'Ala al-Din Aqsunqur al-Saqi al-'Adili (a mamluk of [[Al-Adil II|Sultan al-Adil]]).{{Sfn|Northrup|1998|p=66}} He was bought for the unusually high price of a thousand [[Dinar|dinars]], which earned him the nickname ''al-Alfī'' ("the Thousander").{{Sfn|Northrup|1998|p=66}}
Qalawun initially barely spoke [[Arabic]], but he rose in power and influence where he then became an [[emir]] under Sultan [[Baibars]],{{efn|Upon the death of [[Faris ad-Din Aktai]] in 1254, Bahri Mamluks (including Baibars and Qalawun) fled to [[an-Nasir Yusuf]] in Syria,{{sfn|Humphreys|1977|p=326}} then returned to Egypt during the reign of [[Qutuz]].}} whose son, [[al-Said Barakah]], was married to Qalawun's daughter. Baibars died in 1277 and was succeeded by Barakah. In early 1279, as Barakah and Qalawun invaded the [[Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia]], there was a revolt in Egypt that forced Barakah to abdicate upon his return home. He was succeeded by his brother [[Solamish]], but it was Qalawun, acting as [[atabeg]], who was the true holder of power. Because [[Solamish]] was only seven years old, Qalawun argued that Egypt needed an adult ruler, and Solamish was sent into exile in [[Constantinople]] in late 1279.<ref name="Dobrowolski2001">{{cite book|last=Dobrowolski|first=Jarosław|title=The Living Stones of Cairo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFIFAp0cERoC&pg=PA18|year=2001|publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press|isbn=978-977-424-632-6|page=18}}</ref><ref name="Crawford2003">{{cite book|last=Crawford|first=Paul|title=The 'Templar of Tyre': Part III of the 'Deeds of the Cypriots'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfNqgYlo9fMC|date=2003|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-1-84014-618-9|page=77}}</ref> As a result, Qalawun took the title ''al-Malik al-Manṣūr'' ("the victorious king").
The governor of [[Damascus]], [[Sunqur al-Ashqar]], did not agree with Qalawun's ascent to power and declared himself sultan. Sunqur's claim of leadership, however, was repelled in 1280, when Qalawun defeated him in battle.<ref name="Chamberlain2002">{{cite book|author=Michael Chamberlain|title=Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, 1190-1350|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mIe-azPhuo0C&pg=PP16|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52594-7|page=99}}</ref> In 1281, Qalawun and Sunqur reconciled as a matter of convenience when [[Abaqa Khan]], head of the [[Ilkhanate]], invaded Syria. Qalawun and Sunqur, working together, successfully repelled Abaqa's attack at the [[Second Battle of Homs]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
[[Al-Said Barakah|Barakah]], [[Solamish]], and their brother Khadir were exiled to [[al-Karak]], the former [[Kerak Castle|Crusader castle]]. Barakah died there in 1280 (it was rumored that Qalawun had him poisoned), and Khadir gained control of the castle, until 1286 when Qalawun took it over directly.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
In 1282 he founded [[Ribat of Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun|Ribat al-Mansuri]], a [[ribat]] (hospice) next to the {{transliteration|ar|[[Ḥaram ash-Sharīf]]}} in Jerusalem.<ref>Burgoyne, 1987, p. 131</ref> The nearby {{transliteration|ar|[[:commons:Category:Ribat of Kurt al-Mansuri|Ribāṭ Kurt al-Manṣūrī]]|italic=no}} was founded by Kurd al-Manṣūrī, a mamluk of Qalawun.<ref name=Burgoyne1973>{{cite journal |author=M. H. Burgoyne |title=The Continued Survey of the Ribāt Kurd/Madrasa Jawhariyya Complex in Ṭarīq Bāb Al-Ḥadīd, Jerusalem |journal=Levant |volume=5 |year=1973 |pages=12–35|doi=10.1179/lev.1973.5.1.12 }}</ref>
==Mamluk diplomacy==
[[File:Siege of Tripoli Painting (1289).jpg|thumb|The [[Fall of Tripoli (1289)|siege of Tripoli]] by the Mamluks of Qalawun in 1289.]]
As Baibars had done previously, Qalawun entered into land control treaties with the remaining [[Crusader states]], [[Military order (monastic society)|military orders]] and individual lords who wished to remain independent; he recognized [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] and [[Beirut]] as separate from the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], now centered on [[Acre, Israel|Acre]].<ref>Crawford, p. 61.</ref><ref name="Holt1995">{{cite book|last=Holt|first=Peter M.|author-link=Peter M. Holt|title=Early Mamluk Diplomacy, 1260-1290: Treaties of Baybars and Qalāwūn with Christian Rulers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2oeolaGUCEC|year=1995|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-10246-9|pages=106–17}}</ref> The treaties were always in Qalawun's favor, and his treaty with Tyre mandated that the city would not build new fortifications, would stay neutral in conflicts between the Mamluks and other Crusaders, and Qalawun would be allowed to collect half the city's taxes.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
In 1281 Qalawun also negotiated an alliance with [[Michael VIII Palaiologos]] of the [[Byzantine Empire]] to bolster resistance against [[Charles I of Naples]], who was threatening both the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} In 1290, he concluded trade alliances with the [[Republic of Genoa]] and the [[Kingdom of Sicily]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
==Wars against the Crusader states==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2024}}[[File:Cairo, madrasa del sultano qalaun, 04.JPG|thumb|The [[Qalawun complex]] (mausoleum-madrasa-maristan) on [[Muizz Street]], [[Bayn al-Qasrayn]], Egypt.]]
Undeterred by the terms of these newly formed peace treaties, Qalawun sacked the "impregnable" [[Knights Hospitaller|Hospitaller]] fortress of [[Margat]] in 1285, and established a Mamluk garrison there. He also captured and destroyed the castle of [[Maraclea]]. He captured [[Latakia]] in 1287 and [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]] on April 27, 1289, thus ending the Crusader [[County of Tripoli]]. The [[Fall of Tripoli (1289)|Fall of Tripoli]] in 1289 was spurred by the [[republic of Venice|Venetians]] and the [[Republic of Pisa|Pisa]]ns, who opposed rising Genoese influence in the area. In 1290, reinforcements of King Henry arrived in Acre and drunkenly slaughtered peaceable merchants and peasants, Christians and Muslims alike.
Qalawun sent an emissary to ask for an explanation and above all to demand that the murderers be handed over for punishment. The Frankish response was divided between those who sought to appease him and those who sought a new war. Having received neither an explanation nor the murderers themselves, Qalawun decided that the ten-year truce he had formed with [[Acre, Israel#Arab rule and the crusades|Acre]] in 1284 had been broken by the Franks. He subsequently besieged the city that same year. He died in Cairo on 10 November 1290, before taking the city, but Acre was captured the next year by his son and successor [[al-Ashraf Khalil]].
Despite Qalawun's distrust of his son, Khalil succeeded him following his death. Khalil continued his father's policy of replacing Turkish Mamluks with [[Circassians|Circassian]]s, which eventually led to conflict within the Mamluk ranks.  Khalil was assassinated by the Turks in 1293, but Qalawun's legacy continued when his younger son, [[an-Nasir Muhammad]], claimed power.
==Family==
Qalawun's first wife was Fatima Khatun, known as Umm Salih.<ref name="Williams 2008">{{cite book | last=Williams | first=C. | title=Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide | publisher=American University in Cairo Press | year=2008 | isbn=978-977-416-205-3 | page=143}}</ref> She was the daughter of Sayf ad-Din Karmun (Karamūm), a Mongol commander from the [[Golden Horde]] who had integrated the Mamluks.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vermeulen |first1=Urbain |last2=Smet |first2=Daniel De |title=Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras |date=1995 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-6831-683-4 |page=313 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grvIugwjRJQC&pg=PA313 |language=en}}</ref> They married in 1265–66. She was the mother of his eldest son, as-Salih Ali{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=116}} (died 2 September 1288{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=143}}) and Ghaziya Khatun.<ref name="Bauden">{{cite web|last1=Bauden|first1=Frédéric|title=The Qalawunids: A Pedigree|url=http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/qalawunids/qalawunid-pedigree.pdf|publisher=University of Chicago|access-date=10 December 2021}}</ref> She died in 1283–84, and was buried in her own mausoleum in [[City of the Dead (Cairo)|Southern Cemetery]], [[Cairo]].<ref name="Williams 2008"/>
After her death, he married her sister, the widow of Sayf ad-Din Kunduk.{{sfn|Northrup|1998|pages=116–17}} Another wife was Qutqutiya Khatun. She was the mother of his second son, Sultan [[al-Ashraf Khalil]].<ref name="Kennedy 2001">{{cite book | last=Kennedy | first=H.N. | title=The Historiography of Islamic Egypt: (c. 950 - 1800) | publisher=Brill | series=Sinica Leidensia | year=2001 | isbn=978-90-04-11794-5 | page=37}}</ref><ref name="Ben-Bassat 2017">{{cite book | last=Ben-Bassat | first=Y. | title=Developing Perspectives in Mamluk History: Essays in Honor of Amalia Levanoni | publisher=Brill | series=Islamic History and Civilization | year=2017 | isbn=978-90-04-34505-8 | page=29}}</ref>
Another wife was Sitt Ashlun Khatun (Ašlūn), the daughter of an [[Ilkhanate]] [[Mongol]] notable named Suktay bin Qarajin bin Jighan Nuwan (Šaktāy) who also had joined the Mamluks.<ref name="UV"/> They married in 1282. She was the mother of his third son, Sultan [[an-Nasir Muhammad]].{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=117}}<ref name="UV">{{cite book |last1=Vermeulen |first1=Urbain |last2=Smet |first2=Daniel De |title=Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras |date=1995 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-6831-683-4 |page=314 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grvIugwjRJQC&pg=PA314 |language=en}}</ref> An-Nasir Muhammad was raised and behaved in Mongol fashion until the age of 29, until he had a change of mood after an illness in 1315, which led him and his followers to "shave their heads [...] and give up their flowing locks".<ref name="UV"/>
Another wife was the daughter of Amir Shams ad-Din Sunqur al-Takriti al-Zahiri. They married in 1288–89. Qalawun, however, dissolved the marriage shortly thereafter.{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=143}} Another son was Amir Ahmad, who died during the reign of his brother al-Ashraf Khalil.{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=158}} Qalawun's daughter Ghaziya Khatun was betrothed to [[as-Said Barakah]] (son of Sultan [[Baibars]]) on 28 May 1276, with a dowry of five thousand dinars. The wedding took place on 8 June 1277.{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=75}} She died in August 1288,{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=142}} and was buried in the mausoleum of her mother.<ref name="Bauden"/> Another daughter was Dar Mukhatar al-Jawhari (Altumish). She was the wife of Mukhtar al-Jawhari.{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=158}} Another daughter was Dar Anbar al-Kamili. She was the wife of Anbar al-Kamili.{{sfn|Northrup|1998|page=158}}
==See also==
*[[Qalawun complex]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR_qAAAAMAAJ   |title=Mamluk Jerusalem |year=1987|author=Burgoyne, Michael Hamilton |publisher=British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem by the World of Islam Festival Trust |isbn=090503533X}}
* ''The Travels of Ibn Battuta'' translated by [[H.A.R. Gibb]]
*{{citation |last=Humphreys |first=R. Stephen |title=From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JfXl5kvabhoC |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=1977 |place=Albany, New York |isbn=0-87395-263-4 }}
*{{cite book |first=Linda |last=Northrup |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DivRsJGJaKwC |title=From Slave to Sultan: The Career of Al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn and the Consolidation of Mamluk Rule in Egypt and Syria (678-689 A.H./1279-1290 A.D.) |location=Stuttgart |year=1998 |isbn=3-515-06861-9}}
==External links==
*The American University in Cairo - [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001955/http://www.aucegypt.edu/walking_tours/cairo/walk1/qalawun/qalawun.html Complex of Qalawun]
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{{s-hou|[[Bahri Mamluks]]||{{Circa|1222}}||10 November 1290|[[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk Sultanate]]}}
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{{succession box|title=[[List of Mamluk sultans|Sultan of Egypt and Syria]]|before=[[Solamish]]|after=[[al-Ashraf Khalil]]|years=November 1279 &ndash; 10 November 1290}}
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{{Mamluk Sultans of Egypt}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Qalawun, Al Mansur}}
[[Category:1220s births]]
[[Category:1290 deaths]]
[[Category:Bahri sultans]]
[[Category:13th-century Mamluk sultans]]
[[Category:Regents of Egypt]]
[[Category:13th-century regents]]
[[Category:Qalawunid dynasty]]