Better than the Mongols - A Mamluk D&T AAR

The Mamluks were originally slave soldiers, soldiers who rose to the throne of sultans, rulers of Egypt and the Nile. Some were strong and some were bad, sitting on the throne was Malik al-Hasan Burji, he had come to power two years previously on his 37th birthday but had not taken interest in any politics regarding his lands. The lands of the Mamluk sultanate was very divided amongst several regional warlords who paid tribute to the Sultan and provided him with soldiers in times of war, a highly tribal land some would say, but the government body was not that of the hordes in the east but rather that of the rulers in Anatolia and Northern Africa. Though money mattered more than Merits, al-Hasan was presented to three brothers, who had bought their way into the regime’s body. The Bay brothers, Inâl, Tûlmân and Ahmad Bay, they soon became the closest advisors to the Sultan due to their explicit way of manipulating the sultans weak mind.

The Bay brothers were very devout Muslims, almost on the border of Fanatical, through persuasion and blackmailing, they managed to get the sultan to pass an act that made it illegal to perform any religion other than that of Mohammed and god. To prevent people from escaping from the act, another act was passed that made it impossible for the citizens of the Sultanate to move their home from one place to another, effectively imprisoning them on their home turf. This unpopular act was followed by revolts across the country which was crushed very brutally, costing at most the lives of 25.000 people.

The Bay brothers who now virtually ruled the Sultanate decided to stop people from fleeing their country and enacted the most drastic measures yet, ever sea faring vessel, from galleys to rafts would be burned, scrapped and buried. This left the Sultanate with no protection against the sea and soon Pirates from the neighboring tribes of Hedjaz begun the first pirate raids on Mamluk soil. With the Sultan so powerless the warlord in Hammah, Faraj Sayfuddin, rose up and tried to size the throne, but was later defeated in battle and later brutally executed on the orders of the Bay brothers.


In May 1356 al-Hasan got an heir, Shaik al-Mahmudi Burji; much hope would be put on him in the future. After nearly a year of peace following the birth of the heir to the Sultanate, the warlords in the provinces grew restless and sought to remove the sultan from his throne, on the banks of the upper Nile and below the Anatolian mountains in the north two warlords rose up determined to remove Malik from the throne. The warlord in the south, a relative to Faraj Sayfuddin was quelled within a month after the rebellion occurred; the southern provinces weren’t that wealth or populated to sustain a lengthy rebellion.

The warlord to the north, Sa’di Baibars, had taken the name after the Sultan who claimed to have defeated the Mongols more than a century ago. He made work for his name, the Royal army sent after him was utterly annihilated in an ambush, effectively destroying half of the Mamluk army. But suddenly without any warning, the rebel warlord disappeared along with his army, his family and his personal fortune. Rumors held that he went to the east to enlist into the army of the Mongol Timur, but his faith is forever clouded in mystery.


In late 1357 an unknown warlord rose up in rebellion in acre, the warlord though had no control over the city proper, which was still loyal to the Sultanate, thus he was forced to lay a siege to the city. The Sultan, under the influence of the Bay brothers did not move an inch to help his people. By early February the following year the situation became dangerous as supporters of this unknown warlord rose up and lay siege to the important city of Damascus, second capital of the Sultanate, 21.000 strong al-Hasan displayed a rare show of strength and sent the army to quell the siege of Acre.

The army however was soundly defeated and the word spread, the warlords name became public knowledge, Yalbay Bey. Though different spelling of the last name, al-Hasan became furious and claimed that he had found ties between Yalbay the warlord and the Bay brothers in his court. There was no trial, the Bay brothers were taken from their beds in the middle of the night by the Sultans bodyguards and beheaded in the throne room in front of al-Hasan. Later, real ties would be found between the Bay brothers and Yalbay Bey, showing that the many rebellions during this period was because of the Bay brothers.

In early 1358, after the execution of the Bay brothers, the situation in Egypt and the Levant continued to deteriorate and worse, although Yalbay Bey had been defeated outside the walls of Acre, the man himself had not been taken prisoner and he had fled to his forces outside Damascus with the remainder of his army, according to sources numbering over 22.000 fighting soldiers. Although al-Hasan did strengthen the Mamluk army with Mercenaries, who were enlisted instead of levies from the warlords as these were not to be trusted, the total strength was still lower than the armies of Yalbay. As to add damage, protest from the various warlords and nobles within al-Hasan’s very own government rose and threatened the whole situation, making the government and al-Hasan unable to act.


In Early May, news reached Cairo that Damascus had fallen and that Yalbay had proclaimed himself the successor of Salah al-din, commonly known as Saladin. As he did this, the real weakness of al-Hasan was proved and his indecisiveness tore at the government. The new warlord in Acre and the warlord in Sidon rose up and gave their strength to the usurper, now threatening the governmental control of the Holy lands. Though many bad events during March-May of 1358, the Mamluk army managed to gain decisive victories over the warlords of Acre and Sidon, even though this made them retreat to the protection of Damascus.

The same month, June, an envoy form the Hafsid sultanate arrived in Cairo, asking for the Sultans help against the kingdom of England and its protectorate Wales. It was thought very peculiar that this war had been started by the Hafsid sultan, maybe it was a display of strength or just an act of folly. The civil war in the Levant continued to go its course, Yalbay had laid siege to Acre with almost all his army, numbering 28.000 soldiers, twice as many as the army of the sultan. The Mamluks decided to retake Damascus and managed to catch reinforcements meant for Yalbay, of guard in the vicinity of Damascus and crushed them before laying siege to the city itself.


However in early 1359, in the middle of February the fort of Acre finally fell to Yalbay. Al-Hasan became weary of his powerful opponent and decided to end the siege of Damascus and take his warriors back to Cairo, leaving Yalbay free to do as he wished in the Levant. With the threat looming from the Levant, Nubians in the south decided it was time to throw out the oppressors; al-Hasan displayed an act of weakness when he bought the loyalty of the Nubians with the gold from the royal treasury.


In Early October a Welsh force of 5.000 men landed in Alexandria, laying siege to the great city. To this al-Hasan was forced to act and he sent away his army as Yalbay was still occupied outside Acre. The victory over the Welshmen who were greatly unprepared was a huge bonus for al-Hasan who’s standing in the lands and the government had deteriorated. But the hammer blow to al-Hasan remaining prestige came in December of 1359 when a 18.000 strong army arrived from the Hafsids to the Levant and defeated Yalbay in open battle on the Golan heights. But Yalbay wasn’t defeated entirely; he retreated south to Hawran and rallied his remaining supporters, occupied the city on 6 April and refilled his armies up to their former strength.

The Nobles however, and the warlords saw weakness rise yet again from al-Hasan and demanded more autonomy in their provincial rule. Al-Hasan of course refused, angering more warlords and noblemen, putting some on the same path as Yalbay. Surprisingly the Hafsids managed to retake Damascus and Acre from Yalbay during the months June-November of 1360, Yalbay however decided to go south and take on Al Karak. The war in the Levant would continue for yet some time.

Paraipan said:

Mamluk AAR, nice. Subscribed.

If I remember correctly you can form Egypt in D&T. Do you plan on doing that ?

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If the game events runs that way, yes i would do that, but it as my own rules it would require a ruler with atleast 6/6/6 in stats to form Egypt.

Rifal said:

Mamlukes are always fun to play. Ive done it 3 times but never finished. Will be following this with great anticipation.

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Thanks! although i should warn everyone who is reading, i am not great with making fancy maps.

Malik al-Hasan Burji

Part III – Steggering Situation​

The latter half of the second half of 1361 was a dark time for the sultanate, even for the sultan, Al-Hasan Burji. Al-Hasan was a weak sultan, the proof was his inadaptability to the current situation in the Levant where the pretender rebel and self-proclaimed successor of Saladin, Yalbay Bey roamed. The armies of the Hafsid sultanate in the west, the only ally of the Mamluks, had been hunting the pretender for some months. They did not wish to see such a capable man on the throne in Cairo as they were far too weak to hold off an assault led by a powerful sultan in Cairo. In October Yalbay occupied the Negev desert, while he had lost all his possessions besides his latest, Al Karak which was under siege by the Hafsids.


Suddenly the unthinkable happened, Al Karak fell to the Hafsids, but the Hafsids disappeared afterwards only to be found marching outside Alexandria back towards their own lands in later April 1362. Yet another disaster struck the sultanate, the weak sultan was persuaded that the land technology advancements that had been made was heretical and thus, he ordered for ever last bit of it burned, losing it all forever. In September Yalbay captured the coastal city and harbor Gaza, effectively cutting of the land way between Cairo and the Levant while the English blocked any ports so the sea could not be used.

The sultanate entered a period of relative stability, even thought Negev and Gaza was under the complete control of Yalbay and now he was besieging Jerusalem. This continued for more than a year until 28 November 1363 when 13.000 English crusaders landed in the far flung deserts of the Libyan region. Al-Hasan ordered the 14.000 strong royal army to march to the region and give battle with the English; the defeat was crushing, over 6.000 Mamluk warriors died compared to 700 English. Al-Hasan did yet again prove that his leadership was weak.


It didn’t not take long to show the effects of the defeat, the army was demoralized and the pretender Yalbay sent half his army south, into El Arish to conquer the Sinai peninsula. In March he finished his Conquest of Jerusalem and celebrated his victory with a Friday pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a great insult to the sultan al-Hasan. Though to redeem himself in the eyes of the provincial warlords of the sultanate, al-Hasan banned the sale of titles, no one could any longer buy his way into the government, only birth mattered now. Though this was not lasting, Yalbay’s armies conquered the northern parts of the Sinai peninsula in early July 1364, deepening the barricade between Cairo and the Levant.

The second attempt to kick the English out failed miserably and al-Hasan, in fury decided to execute his general without mercy they were buried alive in the desert. The army was then ordered back to Cairo and ordered to defend the sultan with their lives, Yalbay had laid siege to the city of Ziqaziq, no far from Cairo, and everyone feared that he would soon launch an attack on the capital. The city finally fell in early January 1365. The month after the English were driven out into the sea by the Mamluk army, who was busy cleansing the Libyan region of infidels. Al-Hasan decided to take action of his own and took personal command of the army, first time in the field, he marched on the Welsh laying siege to Alexandria, removing them with sheer numbers.


The threat Yalbay posed was no longer there, at least not immediate as he had begun marching back to Jerusalem, stating that the sultan was too weak to come after him and meet him in the field personally, he was right about that, al-Hasan retreated to his personal space, with his concubines and wives, he decided not to worry about the state of the nation.

scholar said:

Is it just me or has Death and Taxes became extraordinarily popular recently?

Anyways those English are just being plain silly.

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Death and Taxes is extremely popular, at least to what i've seen, and yes, the english are very silly but they are Englishmen

flyguy117: Thanks!



The middle of 1366 saw yet a decline in the Mamluk army as the discipline and soldiers had fallen prey to softness, the Mamluk army wasn’t treated as such a quality based army anymore. Al-Hasan were wise enough to do something of this and ordered some army reforms to be made, officers were now allowed to treat the soldiers even worse to get them into combat fitting shape, and they did. In the meantime Yalbay’s forces decided to occupy Hawran again, consolidating his power even more.

This is when Al-Hasan made his worst blunder ever, one of the warlords in the south who watched over the border in the upper Nile sent a message that a rebellion were planned to support Yalbay’s armies in the northeast. Al-Hasan ordered his entire army down to the south and put out the rebellion, but there was no rebellion and the men were ordered back to Cairo, which they, to their surprise, found besieged by the armies of Yalbay and they refrained from attacking him, leaving the capital to its fate.


Al-Hasan was in Cairo in his palace when the city was besieged, now the true effects of his weak leadership was shown. The warlords in the south had conspired against him with Yalbay and now he stood virtually defenseless against the armies of Yalbay. Meanwhile some ministers in the court were plotting against Al-Hasan as they hope Yalbay would prove a better sultan, they imposed a series of army reforms, or decrees that banned all recent advance as heretical and thus forbidden.

The siege of Cairo lasted for two years, and was not lifted until 1368, when suddenly the whole rebellion vanished without a trace. The only explanation that was uncovered was that Yalbay had died and the rebellion with him, but there were no evidence found for this and rumors were that he had either went east to central Asia or south into the horn of Africa. Either way the Mamluk sultan did not care but instead he resumed his careless life in his palace with his wives and concubines while the state of the nation degenerated even further in the hands of the warlords.


The next phase in the history of the sultan begun on 29 June 1368 when the Hafsid sultan asked the sultan of the Mamluk kingdom to join him in his ambition to conquer the Ziyyanids and then onwards to morocco, al-Hasan accepted. Though he missed one part of the message, the Jalayirid sultanate in Mesopotamia had decided to intervene and joined the war. The Mamluks were once again in a war that threatened the foundations of their empire, due to the weakness of the Mamluk sultan.

The army was ordered north to Beirut, to wait there and wait for any Jalayirid forces crossing the border into the Syrian desert. By 7 October al-Hasan won a battle against the Jalayirid Sultan outside Hammah and drove him out of southern Syria, pursuing him to Al Jawf inside Jalayirid area, Al-Hasan won his greatest victory ever when he annihilated the Jalayirid Sultan’s army. Al-Hasan now took his army north into northern Syria to remove the last Jalayirid army in the Mamluk realms, but al-Hasan lost the battle and fled like a stung pig.


In Late December, the armies of the Hedjaz tribes invaded Al Karak in the south near the dead sea. As the armies of the Jalayirid sultanate had gathered in northern Syria and now outnumbered al-Hasan he decided to go south against an easy victory and wait with killing off the Jalayirids till he had won more prestige. In March 1369 al-Hasan lifted the siege of Al Karak and defeated the tribal armies of Hedjaz, driving them back into their own territory, only to learn that northern Syria was completely under Jalayirid rule, the two front war proclaimed bad for al-Hasan.

lukew said:

This AAR looks great so far and I've added it to the AAR section on the D&T thread. By the way, which version of D&T are you using, since in the 4.0 you can form Egypt.

PS In my Egypt game I had massive Persian neighbours, so make sure to keep a close eye on the Persians!

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Thank you for your kind words I used to use 4.0 alpha but i have now upgraded to 4.0 that came out yesterday.

Rifal said:

Wipe out Hedjaz ASAP and then focus on the Northern Front. A two front war will only sap your treasury and get you bogged down in meaningless marches back and forth.

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Well, that kinda was the idea...You know, bad sultan

Tanzhang (譚張) said:

I love the Bad ruler = mistakes concept. It adds another layer of realism to the AAR.

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Thanks! It's really appreciated that you left a comment

Malik al-Hasan Burji

Part V – War, Crusade and Allah​

With a war against enemies to the north and south, did what any coward, strategist or intelligent man would’ve done, he went south and attacked his weakest enemy the tribes of Hedjaz. The whole of Hedjaz was under siege by the end of May 1369, with only 6,000 remaining men he marched north to halt the Jalayirid invasion, who had taken control of almost whole of northern Syria. Al-Hasan arrived in Jerusalem in early October and was surprised to find 6,000 more additional reinforcements from various warlords who were seeing the centralized Jalayirids as a threat to their autonomy and independence. After a series of unsuccessful battle the mercenaries hired by Hasan broke ranks and deserted the now very depleted Royal army.


As the Jalayirids entered Hedjaz, cutting off al-Hasan from his forces there, the remaining enemies laid siege to Acre, having conquered the northern part of the Levant, threatening Jerusalem itself. The Mamluks tried to relieve the siege of Hawran in mid-June 1370 but ended up in serious defeat after encountering the main Jalayirid army, twice the size of the Mamluk army after the mercenary desertion, and was finally crushed outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was now, when in the most dire needs of the land that the Teutonic knights saw their chance to reclaim the holy land, and with the pope’s blessing declared a crusade against the Mamluks.


By early 1371 the state was truly desperate. Almost whole of the Levant, Egypt and the Sinai peninsula were occupied with the rest under siege, as the sultan was powerless he could do nothing but accept the conditions of the Jalayirids, everything north of Acre and Hawran was ceded to the Jalayirids, the northern part of the Levant was now under Jalayirid rule, a huge loss for al-Hasan, especially since his ancestors had defended the lands against the Mongols, now their ancestors had come back and occupied.


Next up to al-Hasan was the coalition of tiny forces banded together led by Karaman, they now set their sights on the weakened Mamluks. In the midst of June 1371 they had occupied Acre, were besieging Judea, Diamientia and Cairo. The warlords rallied yet again behind al-Hasan to protect their way of life and provided al-Hasan with 8,000 soldiers with which he deposed the army outside Cairo off, the enemies outside Diamientia soon followed. However the battle of Jerusalem was a great loss but al-Hasan recovered and fought a long, tiresome camping in the remaining of the Mamlukian Levant until June of 1372 when he had to rush back to Cairo as a crusader army had laid siege to Giza.


Al-Hasan launched an all-out attack on the Teutons outside Giza but was utterly beaten back, losing half his army. Soon 4.000 reinforcements from the Levant arrived and raised Al-Hasan’s army from 6,000 men to 10,000. Al-Hasan launched another attack and this was successful, forcing the crusaders to retreat from Giza into the Libyan Desert where they perished due to the heat. By May 1373 the Mamlukian realm were cleansed of enemies, a naval blockade by the crusaders were to last the eleven years between 1373-1382. In April 1382 a Great general appeared and was recruited to the office of commander-in-chief. On August 1st 1382, Malik al-Hasan Burji drew his last breath and sank into sleep in his bedroom in Cairo…