Sha'ban's mother was Khawand Baraka (d. 1372), a former jarya[3] slave woman who married al-Amjad Husayn.

[4] Sha'ban had four brothers, Anuk (d. 1390/91), Ibrahim, Ahmad and Janibak (d. 1428), and three sisters, Zahra (d. 1370), Shaqra (d. 1401) and Sara (d.

[2] In late May 1363, the Mamluk magnates, in effect the senior emirs, led by Emir Yalbugha al-Umari, deposed Sultan al-Mansur Muhammad on charges of illicit behavior and installed al-Ashraf Sha'ban, then ten years old, as his replacement.

[6] After Yalbugha was captured and killed by his mamluks, al-Ashraf Sha'ban made a number of them emirs, but most were left without employment or a patron.

[6] At that point, al-Ashraf Sha'ban had only 200 of his own mamluks, the relatively low number being attributed to his lack of real power during Yalbugha's regency.

[12] The commoners were able to turn the tide in favor of al-Ashraf Sha'ban's partisans, and the latter's emirs and Royal Mamluks returned to the battle,[12] defeated the rebels and arrested Asandamur.

This destroyed the Armenian kingdom and extended the boundaries of the Mamluk empire up to the Taurus Mountains in southern Anatolia.

[19] In return for a promised promotion from Aynabak, Emir Jarkas as-Sayfi strangled and killed al-Ashraf Sha'ban in 1377.