An-Nasir Faraj
Al-Nasir Faraj or Nasir-ad-Din Faraj also Faraj ibn Barquq was born in 1386 and succeeded his father Sayf-ad-Din Barquq as the second Sultan of the Burji dynasty of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt in July 1399 with the title Al-Nasir. He was only thirteen years old when he became Sultan on the sudden death of his father. His reign was marked by anarchy, pandemonium and chaos with invasions of Tamerlane, incessant rebellions in Cairo, endless conflicts with the Emirs of Syria, along with plague and famine which reduced the population of the kingdom to one-third.
In September 1405, Faraj was afraid from the surrounding conspiracies, so he escaped his rule and was replaced briefly by his brother Izz ad-Din Abd al-Aziz, then he regained his position in November the same year.
During the end of his reign he became a tyrannical ruler which eventually led him into his seventh and final conflict with the Syrian Emirs at Baalbek. Defeated in battle he fled to the citadel of Damascus. Unable to escape, he surrendered and on May 23, 1412 he was stabbed to death in his prison cell by a hired assassin. The Emirs placed on the throne as a temporary measure Caliph Al-Musta'in Billah. Faraj was buried in the same mausoleum as his father Barquq, part of the religious and funerary complex he had built in Cairo's Northern Cemetery.
