The caravan was carrying Tulunbay, the daughter of the Golden Horde's emperor at the time, Özbeg Khan,[2] who was heading to Egypt to marry Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad.

[5] Qawsun had joined Tulunbay's retinue as a traveling merchant, and once he arrived in Egypt, he moved to the Mamluk Sultanate's capital, Cairo, to sell his leather wares.

Responsibility for Qawsun's military training was handed to an-Nasir Muhammad's favorite emir at the time, Baktamur as-Saqi.

[3] Qawsun often boasted of his circumstances, stating I was bought by the sultan and became one of those closest to him; he made me amir, awarded me commander of one thousand and gave me the hand of his daughter, while others went from the traders directly to the military schools.

[1] Qawsun was one of the 17 senior Mamluk commanders who accompanied an-Nasir Muhammad on the Hajj of 1332, at around the same time when Baktamur's assassination took place.

[1] They reconciled after other senior Mamluk emirs, including Sanjar al-Jawli and Baybars al-Ahmadi, pleaded with an-Nasir Muhammad to appoint a successor to prevent a conflagration in the aftermath of his death.

[14] While Bashtak suggested that Ahmad should succeed his father, Qawsun lobbied for the accession of an-Nasir Muhammad's other son Abu Bakr.

[14] Afterward, Qawsun arranged for Kujuk, an infant son of an-Nasir Muhammad, to replace Abu Bakr as sultan.

In this arrangement, Qawsun served as na'ib as-saltana (viceroy) of Egypt, theoretically the second most powerful post in the sultanate, and as Kujuk's guardian.

With his formal position, a mamluk power base, apparent army support, and personal sources of wealth independent of the government-related iqta system, Qawsun became the effective leader of the sultanate.

[18] However, Qawsun's elimination of Abu Bakr, and his imprisonment of Bashtak and several of an-Nasir Muhammad's sons raised the ire of some mamluk factions.

[19] The staunchest early opponent of Qawsun to emerge was Tashtamur as-Saqi (known as Hummus Ahdar), the Mamluk na'ib (governor, pl.

[20] Meanwhile, Qawsun attempted to place an-Nasir Muhammad's son Ahmad, who was based in the Syrian desert fortress of al-Karak, in custody like his other brothers.

[21] While Qutlubugha had been an early supporter of Qawsun, after twenty days of besieging al-Karak and being harried by local Bedouin tribesmen, he defected to Ahmad, whom he subsequently recognized as sultan.

[22] Qawsun permitted Altunbugha to suppress Ahmad's supporters, and the latter launched an offensive against Aleppo in November 1341, prompting Tashtamur's flight to the Seljuqs of Anatolia.

[24] This was followed by a mass defection of his officers, including the Bedouin chief of the Al Fadl tribe, Sulayman ibn Muhanna, to Qutlubugha.

[23] Altunbugha managed to escape to Cairo via Gaza, but his inability to crush the mutiny in Syria significantly contributed to Qawsun's eventual downfall.