Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun (Arabic: الملك الناصر ناصر الدين محمد بن قلاوون), commonly known as an-Nasir Muhammad (Arabic: الناصر محمد), or by his kunya: Abu al-Ma'ali (أبو المعالي) or as Ibn Qalawun (1285–1341) was the ninth Mamluk sultan of the Bahri dynasty who ruled Egypt between 1293–1294, 1299–1309, and 1310 until his death in 1341. During his first reign, he was overthrown by Kitbugha and al-Shuja‘i, and during his second reign by Baybars II and Sayf al-Din Salar. During his third reign, he had Baybars executed to suppress further insurgency.
An-Nasir appointed loyal non-Mamluks to senior military positions and removed officers whose loyalty he doubted. He annulled taxes and surcharges imposed on commoners for the benefit of the emirs and officials. He appointed Emir Ibn al-Waziri as the head of the Court of Justice to fight corruption.
An-Nasir Muhammad was the third son of Sultan Qalawun and the brother of Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil. He was born in Cairo at Qal'at al-Jabal (Citadel of the Mountain). His father Qalawun was of Turkic origin from a Kipchak tribe, and his mother Ašlūn was the daughter of a Mongol notable named Šaktāy. Qalawun received the news of an-Nasir's birth during his siege of Margat on the coast of the Levant. 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".
An-Nasir Muhammad married a Turkic woman Khawand Toghay, who started as his slave but was freed by him. She gave birth to Prince Anuk.
His reign can be divided mainly into three phases, as he was deposed once and abdicated once during his reign.
After the assassination of al-Ashraf Khalil in December 1293, he was installed, aged 8 years, as sultan with Zayn-ad-Din Kitbugha as the regent and vice-sultan and Emir ‘Alam al-Din Sanjar al-Shuja‘i al-Mansuri (عَلَمُ الدِّينِ سَنْجَرُ الشُّجَاعِيُّ المَنْصُورِيُّ, romanised: ʿAlam ad-Dīn Sanǧar aš-Šuǧāʿī al-Manṣūrī) as vizier. As an-Nasir Muhammad was only 9 years old, he was a sultan in name only. Kitbugha and Sanjar al-Shuja‘i were the actual rulers of Egypt. The two emirs, Kitbugha, who was of Mongol origin, and al-Shuja‘i, who was of Turkic origin, were rivals and did not get on with each other. Al-Shuja‘i, with the support of the Burji Mamluks, planned to arrest Kitbugha and assassinate his emirs but Kitbugha laid siege to the Citadel and the conflict ended with the murder of al-Shuja‘i and the removal of the Burjis from the Citadel.When Emir Hussam ad-Din Lajin, who had fled after the murder of al-Ashraf Khalil, returned to Cairo, the Burji Mamluks, who were known as the al-Mamalik al-Ashrafiyah Khalil (Mamluks of al-Ashraf Khalil) and who were removed from the citadel by Kitbugha, rebelled and went on a rampage in Cairo because Lajin had not been arrested and punished for his involvement in the murder of their benefactor Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil. The Ashrafiyah were defeated and many of them were killed and executed. Lajin convinced Kitbugha to depose an-Nasir Muhammad and install himself as sultan after warning that the Ashrafiyah and an-Nasir would seek revenge for the murder of Khalil in which Kitbugha had been involved. Kitbugha deposed an-Nasir and installed himself sultan with Lajin as his vice-sultan. An-Nasir, who was by now 10 years old, was removed with his mother to another section in the palace where they stayed until they were sent to al-Karak thus ending the first reign of an-Nasir.
In 1296 Kitbugha was deposed by his vice-Sultan Lajin and he fled to Syria and died in 1297 while holding the post of the governor of Hama. Lajin ruled as a sultan until he was murdered with his vice-sultan Mangu-Temur in 1299 by a group of Emirs led by Saif al-Din Kirji. After the murder of Lajin and his vice-Sultan, the Emirs, including Baibars al-Jashnakir (Baibars II), assembled and decided to call an-Nasir Muhammad from Karak and re-install him as Sultan with Emir Taghji as Vice-Sultan. However, the recall of an-Nasir was delayed for some time as Emir Kirji, who murdered Lajin, and the Ashrafiyah Emirs insisted that Taghji should become the sultan and Kirji be the vice-sultan. At last, an-Nasir was recalled and he arrived with his mother in Cairo amid widespread celebration by its population. An-Nasir, who was by now 14 years old, was re-installed with Sayf al-Din Salar, who was an Oirat Mongol as vice-Sultan and Baibars al-Jashnakir who was a Circassian as Ostadar. An-Nasir was, again, a nominal Sultan, with the actual rulers being Salar and Baibars.
The Burji Mamluks became more powerful during the second reign of an-Nasir. They imposed taxes on people who needed their services or their protection. This official bribery was called "Himayah". The rivals of the Burjis, who were led by Baibars al-Jashnakir, were the Salihiyya and the Mansuriyya Emirs led by Salar and al-Ashrafiyy led by Emir Barlghi.
Early in the second reign of an-Nasir, a Bedouin rebellion in Upper Egypt was crushed and the army "slew mercilessly every Bedouin in the land and carried off their women captive". The army was led by the Emirs Salar and Baibars.
The Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar
News reached Cairo that Ghazan of the Ilkhanate was preparing to attack the Levant with a big army and about 30 Crusade ships arrived in Beirut. The emirs decided to send forces from Egypt to Syria. While the crusader ships were destroyed by a storm before the crusaders could get ashore, Ghazan, after arriving in Baghdad had to change his plan after one of his commanders named Solamish Ben Afal fled to Egypt and asked for help to fight him.
In 1299 an-Nasir led the Egyptian Army to Syria to take on the army of Ghazan. While the Sultan was on his way to Syria, some Oirats conspired with a mamluk of the Sultan to kill Baibars al-Jashnakir and Salar in order to bring Kitbugha who was in Hama back to power. The sultan's mamluk attacked Baibars and tried to kill him but he was himself killed. The Oirats attacked the Dihliz of the Sultan but they were stopped in a way that made Salar and Baibars think the Sultan was involved in the conspiracy. The Oirats were arrested and punished and the mamluks who were involved were sent to the castle of Al-Karak.
The army of an-Nasir (about 20,000 soldiers) clashed with Ghazan's army (about 12,000 soldiers) in a battle that became known as the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar. An-Nasir's army was defeated with relatively low casualties (200 to 1000 men) after inflicting major casualties on Ghazan's army (about 2500 casualties). An-Nasir's forces retreated to Homs followed by the army of Ghazan. An-Nasir left for Egypt and Ghazan took Homs. Much of the population of Damascus fled towards Egypt. The leaders of Damascus appealed to Ghazan not to kill the remaining population of the city. Ghazan arrived at the outskirts of Damascus and his soldiers looted the city. Damascus, with the exception of its citadel, submitted to the Mongol commander Qubjuq and Ghazan's name was mentioned during the Friday prayer at the main mosque of Damascus as: al-Sultan al-Azam Sultan al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Muzaffar al-Dunya wa al-Din Mahmud Ghazan ("The Greatest Sultan, the Sultan of Islam and of Muslims, the victorious in life and in faith, Mahmud Ghazan). The Mongols kept looting Syrian villages, towns and Damascus itself.
In Egypt, the defeated soldiers of an-Nasir kept arriving in disorder. The deposed Sultan Kitbugha, who was in Syria, also fled to Egypt. Cairo became overcrowded as many Syrian refugees fled there. An-Nasir and the Emirs began to prepare for a new march to the Levant. Money, horses and arms were collected from all over Egypt. An attempt to reuse an old fatwa which was issued during the reign of Sultan Qutuz which obliged each Egyptian to pay one dinar to support the army failed. Therefore, it was decided that the Egyptian people should pay voluntarily and not by force of law. But suddenly the news arrived in Cairo that Ghazan had left the Levant after he had installed two of his commanders as his deputies there. An-Nasir sent letters to Ghazan's deputies asking them to submit to him and they agreed. Kitbugha was granted the post of the governor of Hama and Salar and Baibars travelled with an army to the Levant to liquidate the remaining forces of Ghazan. The Druze who attacked and looted an-Nasir's soldiers during their retreat to Egypt were attacked at their strongholds and they were forced to give back the weapons and the properties which they had taken from the retreating soldiers. The submitted deputies arrived in Egypt and were received by an-Nasir. The name of Sultan an-Nasir was mentioned again at the Syrian mosques. He was again the sovereign of the Levant.