Qaitbay's death in 1496 was followed by a violent interregnum. This coincided with other developments in the region and beyond, including the discovery of gold in the New World, and Portugal's penetration into the Indian Ocean, placing it on collision course with Mamluk Egypt. And with the onset of the Italian Wars, Spain's interest in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean began to decline, with the focus shifting towards strengthening its positions in the western Mediterranean to be able to challenge the French presence in Italy. The civil war in Egypt concluded with the ascent to power of Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri, who now ruled over a weakened state that was under constant threat of invasion by its militarily superior Ottoman rival. By this time, the Catholic Monarchs had used a Muslim uprising in the Alpujarras as an argument against the treaty that guaranteed the Moors' right to freedom of worship. The Mamluk Sultanate, while desiring to maintain friendly ties with the Spanish, also wished to prevent the Ottoman Empire from taking over its status as a center of Islam, since Cairo was the ceremonial seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Catholic Monarchs have been receiving information that the Sultan was threatening retaliatory measures against Christian communities and pilgrims in the Levant. Ferdinand tended to play down such threats, even when one such threat by the Mamluk Sultan was referred to him by the Pope. But they started taking the matter much more seriously following the 1501 suppression of the Alpujarras rebellion, after which the news of forced conversions of Muslims and Granadan appeals for help had spread to the rest of the Islamic world. This may be due to the influence that Egyptian-based Granadans had in the Sultan's court, notably Ibn al-Azraq, who was received by Qaitbay some years earlier, and probably even Jewish refugees.