Barquq, the first sultan of the Circassian Mamluk Burji dynasty, has succeeded in replacing almost all governors and senior officials with members of his own household.

Barquq dies in June 1399 and is buried in Cairo's Northern Cemetery.

He is succeeded by his thirteen-son Faraj, who is to become known as al-Nasir Faraj.

Timur marches on Syria after restoring his control over Azerbaijan; Aleppo is stormed and sacked, the Mamluk army defeated, and ...

...Damascus is besieged.

The Mamluk sultan dispatches a deputation from Cairo, including Ibn Khaldun, who negotiates with him, but after their withdrawal he puts the city to sack.

The Umayyad Mosque is burnt and men and women are taken into slavery.

In a fatal blow to Damascene prosperity, huge number of the city's artisans are to be taken to Timur's capital at Samarkand.

These are the luckier citizens: many are slaughtered and their heads piled up in a field outside the northeast corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the name burj al-ruus, originally "the tower of heads".

The Mamluks release both Qara Yusuf and Sultan Ahmad Jelair when Timur dies in 1405.

The death of Timur and the weakness of Iran in the ensuing century will pit the Mamluks against the rising power of the Ottoman Turks for the control of western Asia.

The rise of the Circassian Mamluk dynasty has contributed to what will be a gradual economic deterioration and a decrease in security in Palestine.

The last onslaught of the Mongols, which makes the name of Timur a synonym of destruction and plunder, takes place during the reign of the dynasty's second sultan, Nasir Faraj.

Although Palestine is spared the pillage of his hordes, it cannot escape its disastrous repercussions as the Mamluks move through in a vain attempt to defend Damascus against the invader.