Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri

Elected Sultan of Egypt in 1501 at the age of sixty, Qansuh al-Ghuri was an educated patron of poetry, Arabic prose, and monumental architecture. Confronting Portuguese naval incursions into the Red Sea, he dispatched an Egyptian war fleet to the Indian Ocean to defend trade routes.

In Cairo, he constructed the stunning Al-Ghuri architectural complex, including the Khanqah, Mausoleum, and Caravanserai (Wekalet al-Ghuri), renowned worldwide for its four-tier stone minaret and geometric inlays. In 1516, he led his royal cavalry to northern Syria, dying in battle at age seventy-five defending the Mamluk realm.