Barsbay
Sultan of Egypt (1369-1438)
Al-Ashraf Sayf ad-Dīn Barsbāy (Arabic: الأشرف سيف الدين برسباي) was the ninth Burji Mamluk sultan of Egypt from AD 1422 to 1438. He was Circassian by birth and a former slave of the first Burji Sultan, Barquq.
Early career
A former slave of the inaugural Burjite sultan, Barquq, Barsbay hailed from Circassian descent. On May 2, 1418, he was designated as the governor of Tripoli. He later assumed the role of tutor to Muhammad, the son of Sultan Tatar, who was just ten years old upon ascending to the throne. Afterward, conflict broke out among three groups of emirs, one supporting the Sultan's Mamluks, while emirs Barsbay and Taribay opposed him. Barsbay and Taribay swiftly gained control, with Barsbay becoming regent and Taribay the military commander-in-chief.
Despite quelling a revolt by the Viceroy of Aleppo and imprisoning several emirs, tension between Barsbay and Taribay escalated, resulting in Barsbay's victory. Taribay was captured and imprisoned in Alexandria, allowing Barsbay to pursue the throne. With backing from the Viceroy of Damascus and other emirs, Barsbay deposed Sultan Muhammad just two days later, on April 1, 1422.
“Barsbay” enters the record as sultan of Egypt (1369-1438). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Barsbay, Sultan and Egypt can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q557812. VIAF identifies the subject as 79210982. The Library of Congress control number is nr91045080. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1422, 1438 and 1418.
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This entry incorporates text from “Barsbay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.