' Al-Ashraf Khalil' (
Arabic: ' الأشرف خليل ')(''epithet'': 'al-Malik al-Ashraf Salah al-Din Khalil Ben Qalawun')(Arabic: الملك الاشرف صلاح الدين خليل بن قلاوون)) (died
1293) was the
Mamluk sultan of
Egypt from
1290 until his
assassination in December,
1293. He is most famous for conquering the last of the
Crusader states in
Palestine.
Khalil was the son of
Qalawun, and was named co-sultan with his father when his older brother as-Salih Ali died in
1288. Qalawun did not trust Khalil and at first refused to acknowledge him. Qalawun conquered the
County of Tripoli in
1289, and in
1290 marched on
Acre, the capital of the remnant of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. He died in November and was succeeded by Khalil, who continued the attack in
1291, assembling the forces of Egypt and
Syria at
Hisn al-Akrad in May,
1291.
Acre was captured on
June 17,
1291 after a bloody
siege; those who were unable to flee were executed, and the city was entirely destroyed. By August Khalil had captured
Tyre,
Sidon,
Haifa, and
Beirut, and he returned to
Cairo. This was a great victory; the process of conquering the
crusader kingdom, begun by
Saladin in
1187, was finally complete. Khalil was called a new
Alexander.
In
1292 he invaded the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and captured
Hromgla, the seat of the
Patriarch of Armenia; this kingdom also slowly began to collapse. On the other hand, Khalil had good relations with the
Kingdom of Cyprus, the
Kingdom of Aragon, and the
Kingdom of Sicily, who had commercial and military treaties with him.
Khalil continued his father's policy of replacing
Turkish Mamluks with
Circassians, which eventually led to conflict within the Mamluk ranks. He appointed the
Arab Ibn al-Salus as vizier, a position that had previously declined in the 13th century, further insulting the Mamluks. Khalil was assassinated by his Turkish regent Baydara in December,
1293. Baydara claimed the sultanate but was quickly assassinated by the Circassians. Khalil was succeeded by his young brother
al-Nasr Muhammad, who was overthrown by Katbugha, a former supporter of Baydara who deserted to the Circassians.