state of affairs begun to improve when court intrigues sprang
up afresh, and only ended with the deposition of the sultan in August,
1351. He was recalled after three years, during which his brother had
reigned, and he was subsequently deposed and put to death in March,
1361. Finally the descendants of Nasir, instead of his sons, began to
rule. First came Muhammed Ibn Haji, who, as soon as he began to show
signs of independence, was declared to be of unsound mind by his chief
emir, Ilbogha; then Shaban, the son of Husain (May, 1363), who was
strangled in March, 1377; and finally Husain's eight-year-old son Ali.
After repeated contests, Berkuk and Berekeh, two Circassian slaves,
placed themselves at the head of the government. Berkuk, however, wished
to be absolute, and soon put his co-regent out of the way (1389). He
contented himself at first with being simply regent, and, even when Ali
died, he declared his six-year-old brother Haji, sultan. The following
year, when he discovered a conspiracy of the Mamluks against him, and
when many of the older emirs were dead, he declared that it was for the
good of the state that no longer a child, but a man capable of directing
internal affairs and leading an army against the enemy, should take over
the government. The assembly, whom he had bribed beforehand, supported
him, and he was appointed sultan in November, 1382.

The external history of Egypt during this time is but scanty. She
suffered several defeats at the hands of the Turcomans in the north of
Syria, lost her supremacy in Mecca through the influence of the princes
of South Arabia, and both Alexandria and several other coast towns were
attacked and plundered by European fleets. This last event occurred
in Shaban's reign in 1365. Peter of Lusignan, King of Cyprus, had, in
league with the Genoese, the Venetians, and Knights of Rhodes, placed
himself at the head of a new Crusade, and since his expedition was a
secret even in Europe,--for he was thought to be advancing against the
Turks,--it was easy for him to take the Egyptians by surprise, and all
the more so because the Governor of Alexandria happened to be absent at
the time. The militia tried in vain to prevent their landing, and the
small garrison held out for but a short time, so that the prosperous and
wealthy town was completely sacked and many prisoners were taken before
the troops arrived from Cairo.

[Illustration: 059.jpg INSIDE THE MOSQUE OF HASSAN]

The