Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh

Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh (المؤيد سيف الدين أبو النصر شيخ المحمودي; c. 1369 – 13 January 1421) was a Mamluk sultan of Egypt from 6 November 1412 to 13 January 1421.

Early career
At the age of twelve, Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh was purchased as a slave by Sultan Barquq. Having entered the service of the Sultan, he went through all the ranks. In 1400, he was appointed governor of Tripoli by Sultan An-Nasir Faraj during the Tamerlane's invasion of Syria. While the other emirs took refuge during the sack of Aleppo, he dared to attack and was imprisoned before he managed to escape.

Following Tamerlane's departure, he was appointed as governor of Damascus. In 1404, he allied himself with Yazbak, in which both seriously threatened An-Nasir Faraj's rule in Syria but they were ultimately defeated. A year later, a new sedition deposed the sultan, who had to flee and was replaced by his brother Izz al-Din Abd al-Aziz. Yazbak's party triumphed and Al-Mu'ayyad became lieutenant general of the sultanate. He returned to the government of Damascus after the re-establishment of An-Nasir Faraj. He even seemed to be a faithful servant by assisting the latter in suppressing the revolt of Djakam, emir of Aleppo, who proclaimed himself sultan. However, An-Nasir Faraj recklessly arrested Al-Mu'ayyad who escaped and recaptured Damascus from Nauroz, his designated successor, to whom he ceded the governance of Tripoli. In 1409, Nasir Faraj returned to Damascus, where Al-Mu'ayyad protested his loyalty to the sultan.

In 1410, he along with other emirs took control of Cairo where they attempted to establish An-Nasir Faraj's son as sultan. As Sultan approached, Al-Mu'ayyad retreated to Suez. An-Nasir Faraj pardoned him once again and gave him the government of Aleppo. In 1412, a new rebellion forced the sultan to return to Damascus, but this time the sultan, abandoned by his troops, was beaten and had to surrender to the insurgents. On 23 May 1412, An-Nasir Faraj was arrested and killed in the Citadel of Damascus. Later on, Al-Mu'ayyad returned to Cairo and conspired to make the Abbasid caliph Abu’l-Faḍl Abbas Al-Musta'in Bi'llah unpopular, before he managed to dismiss him after seven months of reign and was proclaimed sultan.

Reign
The situation that Al-Mu'ayyad found in Cairo was chaotic, the plague was wreaking havoc on the population, famine reigned and the currency was devalued. Al-Mu'ayyad had to take corrective measures. The monetary situation was fixed, Bedouin incursions were repressed, and the agricultural production resumed with the price of cereals fell.

Nauroz, emir of Damascus, refused to recognize Al-Mu'ayyad as new sultan, and proclaimed holy war under the pretext of the destitution of the caliph. In July 1414, Nauroz was defeated, arrested and put to death after being besieged in Damascus.

After restoring order, Al-Mu'ayyad prepared to wage war in Anatolia. Tarsus had just been taken from the Ramadanids by Mehmed of Dulkadir. In 1415, Al-Muayyad returned Tarsus to the Ramadanid emir Shihāb al-Dīn Ahmad. In 1418, danger came from the Turkmen Qara Qoyunlu, where Tarsus was recaptured. Al-Mu'ayyad sent his son Ibrahim to regain what was lost, in which he managed to take Kayseri, Konya and Karaman.

In the meantime, the Cypriots attempted a landing at Damour in 1413. Al-Mu'ayyad responded by organizing a landing on the island, which prompted King Janus to sign a peace agreement, despite continuing Catalan pirates' raids on the coasts of Egypt and Syria.

Al-Mu'ayyad died on 13 January 1421 and was succeeded by his young son, Al-Muzaffar Ahmad.

Family
Shaykh's first wife was Khawand Khadija, whom he married before his accession to the throne. Another wife was Khawand Zaynab, the daughter of Sultan Barquq. She died in February–March 1423, and was buried in the mausoleum of her father. Another wife was Khawand Sa'adat. She was the daughter of Sirgitmish, and was the mother of his son Sultan Al-Muzaffar Ahmad. After Shaykh's death, she married Sultan Sayf ad-Din Tatar. She died in 1430. One of his concubines was Qutlubay, a Circassian. She was the mother of his son Sidi Ibrahim. After Shaykh's death she married Amir Inal al-Jakami. Ibrahim married Satita, daughter of Sultan An-Nasir Faraj. His only daughter was Khawand Asiya. She died in 1486.

Architectural patronage
Al-Mu'ayyad was one of the major patrons of Mamluk architecture in his era, commissioning or restoring a number of buildings around Cairo. Between 1415 and 1420, he built a large mosque and funerary complex, the Mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad. It is located adjacent to Bab Zuweila, above which he built the mosque's two minarets. A large hammam associated with the complex was also built nearby, partially preserved today. Upon his death, al-Mu'ayyad was buried in the mausoleum attached to the mosque.

Another of his construction projects still partially preserved today is the Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad in Darb al-Ahmar, a hospital (maristan) built between 1418 and 1420. His other contributions included a mosque on Roda Island, a khanqah in Giza, a palace called al-Khamas Wujuh along the Khalij (canal) on the northern edge of Cairo, and a palace along the Nile in present-day Imbaba, but none of these are still extant. He also restored the hippodrome (training ground) near the Nile River which had been previously built by al-Nasir Muhammad and since abandoned.