Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri ( ) was the second - to - last of the Mamluk Sultans . One of the last of the Burji dynasty , he reigned from 1501 to 1516 . On the disappearance of Sultan Al - Adil Sayf ad - Din Tuman bay I , it was not till after some days that the choice of the Emirs and Mamluks fell upon Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri . As a Circassian slave , he had served Sultan Al - Ashraf Sayf al - Din Qaitbay , was over forty before he was raised to independence as Emir of ten , and then , was rapidly promoted to command of Tarsus , Aleppo and Malatia , he became Emir of a thousand , of the Court , and chief Vizier . At first he declined the throne , but being pressed by the Emirs , who swore faithful service , he at last consented . He was now 60 years of age ; but , still firm and vigorous , soon showed the Emirs that he was not to be overruled by any of them . Consolidation of power . The reign began as usual with the removal of all Tuman bay ' s adherents . As dangerous to the throne , they were laid hold of , imprisoned or exiled and their property escheated ; while the opposite party were restored to freedom and raised again to power and office . Tuman bay I from his hiding - place was found to be plotting against the new Sultan ; after some weeks , betrayed by his friends , he was murdered by the Mamluk s of an Emir whom he had put to death ; and so Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri was saved from that danger without arousing the hostilities of his predecessor ' s party . On the other hand , the remains of Sultan Al - Ashraf Janbulat were brought from Alexandria where Tuman bay I had caused him to be executed , and royally interred at Cairo . Present danger thus averted , Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri turned to the revenue administration . To replenish the empty treasury , exorbitant demands were levied on every kind of property to the extent of from seven to ten months ' income ; even religious and charitable endowments not escaping . This was exacted with such severity , not only from Jews and Christians , but from every class , as to create outbreaks in the city . There is not much of importance to tell of the earlier years of this reign . The outrages of the royal Mamluks must have become intolerable , for twice while Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri took fresh oaths of loyalty from his Emirs , he also on his own part swore upon Quran , that he would no more suffer his Mamluks to do them harm . We read also of some suspected treason , which led to punishments of more than ordinary barbarism . Till near the close of the Sultanate , much was not done in fighting . The Bedouins attacked Kerak and Jerusalem , but were repulsed by the Syrian Emir s . Rebellion and rival factions at Mecca and Yanbu also rendered measures necessary for chastising the Sharifs and restoring order . On 15 June 1512 , Al - Ghawri received an envoy of the King of Georgia with 20 horses , who was dressed in gold and his cap was adorned with ermine . He came to Al - Ghawri to ask for reopening of the Church of Holy Sepulchre which was closed down for Christians for two years . Portuguese - Mamluk War . The chief concern was the fitting - out a fleet which should protect the Eastern seas from Portuguese attack . For it was at this time that Vasco da Gama , having in 1497 found his way round the Cape and obtained pilots from the coast of Zanzibar , pushed his way across the Indian Ocean to the shores of Malabar and Kozhikode , attacked the fleets that carried freight and Muslim pilgrims from India to the Red Sea , and struck terror into the potentates all around . The Rulers of Gujarat and Yemen turned for help to Egypt . Sultan Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri accordingly fitted out a fleet of 50 vessels under his Admiral , Hussein the Kurd . Jeddah by forced labor was soon fortified under Barakat II bin Muhammad better known as Barakat Efendi as a harbor of refuge from the Portuguese ; now Arabia and the Red Sea were protected . But the fleets in the Indian Ocean were at the mercy of the enemy . Various engagements took place ; in one of these , an Egyptian ship belonging to Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri , and in the following year a fleet of seventeen vessels from Arabian harbors - were after a hard struggle taken by the Portuguese , the cargo seized , the pilgrims and crew slain , and the vessels burned . The Sultan was affronted and angry at the attacks upon the Red Sea , the loss of tolls and - traffic , the indignities to which Mecca and its Port were subjected , and above all at the fate of his own ship , and he vowed vengeance upon Portugal . But first , through the Prior of Zion , he threatened the Pope that if he did not check Ferdinand and Manuel I of Portugal in their depredations on the Indian Seas , he would destroy all Christian holy places , and treat Christians as they were treating the followers of Islam . Foiled in this demand , a naval enterprise was set on foot and carried out with various successes . In Battle of Chaul in 1508 , Lourenço de Almeida was defeated and lost his life ; but in the following year this defeat was avenged by a terrible defeat of the Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Diu in which the Port city of Diu was wrested from the Gujarat Sultanate of India by Francisco de Almeida . Some years after , Afonso de Albuquerque tried to take Aden , while the Egyptian troops suffered disaster in Yemen . Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri now fitted out a new fleet to punish the enemy and protect the Indian trade ; but before its results were known , Egypt had lost her sovereignty , and the Red Sea with Mecca and all its Arabian interests had passed into Ottoman hands . Ottoman - Safavid intrusions . Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II was still engaged in Europe when there suddenly in 1501 appeared a new ground of hostility with Egypt . It arose out of the relations of the two kingdoms with the Safavid dynasty in Persia . Shah Ismail I of Persia was a Shia Muslim who had embarked on a war with the Sunni Ottoman Sultanate over the Caucasus and religious differences . Many Sufi sects had been arrested or exiled by Sultan Bayezid II as dangerous to his rule ; and Shah Ismail I ' s request , that instead they should be allowed free transit into Europe across the Bosporus , was rejected . Upon this , Shah Ismail I sent an Embassy to the Venetians via Syria inviting them to join his arms and recover the territory taken from them by the Porte . Sultan Bayezid II , angry with the Mamluk Sultan Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri , complained bitterly that this Embassy had been suffered to pass through Syria . To appease him , Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri placed in confinement the Venetian merchants then in Syria and Egypt . And although , fearing reprisals from Venice , he after a year released them , yet the relations between Egypt and the Porte remained peaceful for a time . On the succession , however , of Selim I to the throne of Ottoman Sultanate , things took a very different turn . Not only had the attitude of Shah Ismail I become more threatening , but Sultan Selim I himself was more of the warrior than his Father . Selim I set out against him , and the Battle of Chaldiran was fought near Tabriz on August 23 , 1514 . The fanaticism of the Sufis , which led even to their women joining in the combat , failed against the cavalry and artillery of the Turks , and Ismail after a disastrous defeat fled and escaped . Selim I , his provisions failing , returned westward and spent the winter at Amasia . In the spring taking the field again , he attacked the bey of Dulkadirids who as Egypt ' s vassal had stood aloof , and sent his head with tidings of the victory to Mamluk Sultan Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri . Selim I later overran Diyarbakır and Iraq , taking Roha , Nisibin , Mosul and other cities . Secure now against Shah Ismail I , a larger project dawned upon Selim I ; it was the conquest of Egypt , and the fact that the invasion must be made from Syria . With no anxieties toward the North , he could now safely make the advance , and so in the spring of 1516 CE he drew together for this end a great and well - appointed army ; and with the view of deceiving Egypt , represented his object to be the further pursuit of Shah Ismail I . Fall of the Mamluk Sultanate . Leaving Al - Ashraf Tuman bay II the Vizier , in charge , Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri marched against the Ottoman Turks . He was defeated by Selim I at the Battle of Marj Dabiq , north of Aleppo , on August 24 , 1516 ; the betrayal of two Mamluk leaders Janberdi Al - Ghazali and Khayr Baig led to the Mamluk defeat and to the death of the Sultan Qansuh . This marked the end of Mamluk control of the Middle East that eventually passed to the Ottomans . Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri himself fell upon the field and his head was carried to the Conqueror . Accounts however vary to how he met his end . It is said that Khayr Baig spread report of his death to precipitate the Egyptian flight . According to some the Sultan was found alive on the field , and his head cut off and buried to prevent its falling into the enemy ' s hands . The Ottoman account is that he was beheaded by a Turk whom Sultan Selim I would have put to death , but afterwards pardoned . Al - Ashraf Qansuh al - Ghawri had reigned a little more than 15 years . Of his private life and domestic administration we know but little , for as we reach the later years of the Mamluk Sultanate , details become too scanty for a judgment . He could , as we have seen , be cruel and extortionate , but so far as our information goes , there is less to say against him than against most of the previous Sultans .