Mamluk sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri had spent the winter of 1515 and the spring of 1516 in preparations for an army with which he proposed marching to the disturbed confines of Asia Minor, and thus being ready for all contingencies.
When just about to start, an Embassy arrived from Selim I promising, still in friendly terms, to appoint, as he had been asked, an Egyptian vassal to the Dulkadirids, and reopen the frontier to the traffic of goods and slaves.
On May 18, 1516, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri had started from Cairo with a numerous force (reportedly twenty thousand knights), well appointed in all respects save artillery.
Leaving Al-Ashraf Tuman bay II at the helm of government in Cairo, the sultan had marched in great pomp with music, singing and festivity.
There followed fifteen “emirs of a thousand”, besides many of less degree, plus five thousand of his own Mamluks, with the militia.
His forces had been supplemented along his route by Syrian and Bedouin contingents, so that the Mamluk forces does not lack numerical strength.
The high officers of state, Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, sheikhs and courtiers, with muezzins, physicians and musicians, follows in the sultan’s train.
On the way he had received also Selim I's nephew Ahmed, son of the late pretender to the Ottoman throne, and had carried him along with courtly honors in the hope of drawing over his sympathizers from the Ottoman force.
Advancing slowly, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri enters Damascus on June 9, with carpets spread in his pathway, while European merchants scatter gold among the crowd.
After a few days' stay, …
