residence. After a prosperous rule over Egypt and Syria of above
twenty years he died, and his numerous family fell into dissension. At
last his brother Adlil, gaining the ascendency, achieved a splendid
reign not only at home, but also in the East, from Georgia to Aden. He
died of grief at the taking of Damietta by the crusaders, and his
grandson Eyyub succeeded to the throne.

It was now that the Charizmian hordes fell upon Syria, and, with
horrible atrocities, sacked the holy city. Forming an alliance with
these barbarians, the Sultan sent the mameluke general Beibars to join
them against his uncle, the Syrian prince Ismail, between whom and the
crusaders an unholy union had prevailed. Near Joppa the combined army
of Franks and Moslems met at the hands of Beibars and the eastern
hordes, with a bloody overthrow; and thus all Syria again fell under
Egypt. To establish his power both at home and abroad, the Sultan
bought vast numbers of Turkish mamelukes; and it was he who first
established them as Baharites on the Nile. His son Turan was the last
Eyyubite sultan.

In his reign Louis IX of France invaded Egypt, and, advancing upon
Cairo, was defeated and taken prisoner. Turan allowed him to go free;
and for this act of kindness, as well as for attempts to curb their
outlawry, he was pursued and slain by the Baharite mamelukes, who
thereupon seized the government.

The leading mamelukes chose one of themselves, the emir Eibek, to be
head of the administration. He contented himself at first to govern in
the name of Eyyub's widow, who, indeed, had been in complicity with
the assassins of her stepson Turan. The Caliph of Bagdad, however,
objected to a female reigning even in name, and so Eibek married the