Al-Malik Az-Zahir Sayf ad-Din Barquq (Arabic: الملك الظاهر سيف الدين برقوق; born c. 1336) was the first Sultan of the Circassian Mamluk Burji dynasty of Egypt ruling from 1382 to 1389 and 1390 to 1399.
[1] Barquq was of Circassian origin,[2][1] and was acquired as a slave, presumably after a battle, and sold to a bathhouse in Crimea.
[3] During the reign of Sultan al-Mansur Ali, when Barquq held considerable influence in the Mamluk state, he brought his father to Egypt in March 1381.
Many of the rulers were minors at the time of their accession, and would act as puppets for one or another competing Mamluk faction.
Barquq was a member of the faction behind the throne, serving in various powerful capacities in the court of the boy sultans.
[7] Barquq ended the public holiday in Egypt celebrating the Coptic New Year Nayrouz.
Early on, the 1386 Zahiri Revolt threatened to overthrow Barquq, though the conspiracy was discovered before any agitators could mobilize.
Fighting developed among the Mamluk factions in Cairo, and Barquq's supporters overcame the rebels.
[5] During Barquq's second reign he succeeded in replacing almost all governors and senior officials with members of his own household.
[10] Another wife was Tandu Khatun, the daughter of Shaykh Uways Jalayir, ruler of the Jalayirid Sultanate.
She was Turkish and gave birth to Barquq's second son, Izz ad-Din Abd al-Aziz.
[20] One of his daughters, Khawand Sara, born of a concubine,[21] married Nawruz al-Hafizi, the amir kabir on 1 September 1401,[22] and later Muqbil ar-Rumi.
[21] Another daughter, Khawand Bairam[21] married Amir Inal Bay ibn Qijmas on 15 September 1401,[22] then Baighut, and then Asanbugha Zarkadash.
[21] Another daughter, Khawand Zaynab, born of a Greek concubine, married Sultan Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh.
Excavations in the late 1800s and early 1900s in modern-day northwestern Somalia unearthed, among other things, coins identified as having been derived from Barquq.