Muhanna ibn Isa

As the chieftain of the Al Fadl, a clan of the Tayy tribe, which dominated the Syrian Desert, Muhanna wielded considerable influence among the Bedouin.

He defected to the latter in the early years of Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad's reign (1310–1341), ushering in a policy of playing off the Mamluks and the Mongols to further his own interests.

Through mediation by the Ayyubid prince, al-Afdal Muhammad, Muhanna reconciled with an-Nasir in 1330 and remained loyal to the Mamluks until his death five years later.

[5] In 1293, after celebrating the wedding of his granddaughter,[5] Muhanna and his sons and brothers met al-Ashraf Khalil at the wells of Furqlus, near Homs, where the sultan had been on a hunting expedition.

[10] The defection and subsequent reconciliation with an-Nasir marked the first episode in Muhanna's policy of extracting maximum gain from both the Mamluks and the Ilkhanids.

[8] An-Nasir sought to keep the Al Fadl loyal to him and prevent their defection to the Ilkhanate, as well as ensure they would not disrupt peaceful travel on the roads.

To accomplish this, an-Nasir adopted an unprecedented policy among Mamluk sultans by distributing large iqtaʿat and grants to the Bedouin, namely the Al Fadl.

[12] Muhanna criticized an-Nasir for the lavish distribution of iqtaʿat to his tribesmen out of belief that such excesses would ruin the character of the Bedouin and ultimately weaken the Muslim armies.

[10] On an-Nasir's order, the Mamluk army in Syria drove the Al Fadl from their home district of Salamiyah and pursued them eastward up to the Euphrates fortress towns of al-Rahba and Anah.

[7] The agreement stipulated that the Al Fadl would receive 250,000 silver dirhams and the iqtaʿat of Adhri'at and Bosra in return for joining the Mamluk army as auxiliaries in an upcoming campaign against Ilkhanid-held Sinjar; an-Nasir gave them the iqtaʿat and money, but when the Mamluk army arrived, Muhanna's forces stopped it at 'Urd near Palmyra and refused it passage through Al Fadl territory.