widow; and still further to conciliate the Eyyubites of Syria and
Kerak, elevated to the title of sultan a child of the Eyyubite stock.

This concession notwithstanding, Nasir the Eyyubite, ruler of
Damascus, advanced on Egypt, but, deserted by his Turkish slaves, was
beaten back by Eibek, who returned in triumph to the capital. He soon
found it, however, impossible to hold the turbulent mamelukes in hand,
for, with the victorious general Aktai at their head, they scorned
discipline and defied authority. Eibek, therefore, compassed the death
of Aktai, on which the Baharite emirs all rose in rebellion. They were
defeated. Many were slain and cast into prison; the rest fled to
Nasir, and eventually to Kerak. Among the latter were Beibars and
Kilawun, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.

Eibek was now undisputed Sultan, recognized as such by all the powers
around. And so he bethought him of taking a princess of Mosul for
another wife; on which the Sultana, already estranged, caused him to
be put to death; and she too, in the storm that followed, was
assassinated by the slave girls of still another wife.

Eibek's minor son was now raised by the emirs to the titular
sultanate; and Kotuz, a distinguished mameluke of Charizmian birth,
persuaded to assume the uninviting post of vicegerent. The Eyyubite
Prince of Kerak, in whose service many of the Baharite mamelukes still
remained, attempting, with their help, to seize Egypt, was twice
repulsed by Kotuz, and thus obliged to disband the Baharites, who
returned to their Egyptian allegiance.

Their return was fortunate, a time of trial being at hand. For it was
now that Holagu with his Mongol hordes, having overthrown Bagdad and