Tuman Bay, having been in early youth…

Tuman Bay, having been in early youth a domestic slave of the palace, like his fellow Circassian predecessors, had gradually risen to be emir of a hundred, and then prime minister, an office he had held until the departure of Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, who had 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 has now been inaugurated as sultan, but without pomp or ceremony, the royal insignia having been lost in battle.

It is a dark and thankless dignity to which he has been called at the age of forty—Syria gone, the troops in disorder, the emirs distracted, the Mamluks a mercenary horde—yet he rules well, and is popular throughout the land.

The fugitive chiefs, with Emir Janberdi Al-Ghazali, arrive in due course from Damascus, but another month elapses before an army can be organized.