Tuman bay II

Al-Ashraf Tuman bay
Sultan of Egypt
Portrait of Tuman bay II by Paolo Giovio
Reign	1516–1517
Coronation	1516, Cairo
Predecessor	Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri
Successor	Khayer Pasha (As Ottoman Wālis of Egypt)
Born	ca. 1476
Died	April 15, 1517 (aged 40–41) Cairo, Ottoman Empire
Dynasty	Burji
Religion	Sunni Islam

Al-Ashraf Tuman bay better known as Tuman bay II succeeded as Sultan of Egypt during the final period of Mamluk rule in Egypt prior to its conquest by the Ottoman Empire. He ascended the sultanic throne after the defeat of his predecessor Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri by Ottoman Sultan Selim I at the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516 CE.

As a Circassian, like his predecessors having been in early youth a domestic slave of the palace, he gradually rose to be emir of a hundred, and then prime minister, an office he held until the departure of Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, who left him in charge of Cairo. The Caliph Muhammad Al-Mutawakkil III having remained behind with Selim I after defeat of Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, Tuman bay II was now inaugurated as sultan, but without pomp or ceremony, the royal insignia having been lost in battle. It was a dark and thankless dignity to which, now at the age of 40, he was called; Syria gone, the troops in disorder, the emirs distracted, the Mamluks a mercenary horde. Yet he ruled well for the time he held the throne, and was popular throughout the land. In course of time, the fugitive chiefs, with Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali, arrived from Damascus; but another month elapsed before an army could be organized.

Meanwhile, Tripoli, Safed and other Syrian strongholds, besides Damascus, had fallen into Ottoman hands. It was thus the beginning of December before the force now raised at Cairo, delayed and diminished by the insatiable demands and waywardness of the Mamluks, set out under Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali in the forlorn hope of saving Gaza; but before it reached its destination, Gaza had already fallen, and the army was beaten back. During Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali’s absence an Embassy arrived with a dispatch from Selim I who, boasting of his victories, and the adhesion of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, Judges and other leaders who had joined him, demanded of the Sultan that his supremacy should be acknowledged both in the Coinage and the public Prayers He said;