Circassians from the North Caucasus region had become the majority in the Mamluk ranks by the late fourteenth century.

A revolt had broken out in 1377 in Syria and spread to Egypt, and the government had been taken over by the Circassians Barakah and Barquq; the last Bahri Sultan Al-Salih Hajji had been dethroned in 1382,  thus ending the Bahri dynasty, and Barquq had been proclaimed sultan.

Barquq had been expelled in 1389 but in 1390 recaptures Cairo.

Permanently in power, he founds what came to be called the Burji dynasty.

Europe is meanwhile terrorized and Ottoman rule south of the Danube is assured; Bayezid's prestige in the Islamic world is so enhanced that he is given the title of sultan by the shadow 'Abbasid caliph of Cairo, despite the opposition of the caliph's Mamluk masters, who want to retain the title only for themselves.