Sayf al-Din Salar
As a boy he was taken captive at the Battle of Elbistan in 1277 and became a mamluk (slave soldier) of the emir al-Salih Ali and eleven years later by the latter's father Sultan Qalawun.
Despite tensions and incidents between their respective factions, Salar and Baybars avoided direct conflict throughout their power-sharing arrangement.
[4] He was a skilled horseman and had achieved the rank of amir ashara (commander of ten mamluks) in the same year he was transferred to Qalawun.
Nonetheless, Salar participated in Lajin's assassination and the subsequent installation of Qalawun's young son al-Nasir Muhammad as sultan in 1299.
[6] The Oirats had collaborated with disaffected members of the Royal Mamluks and attempted to assassinate Salar at Tell al-Ajjul near Gaza.
[8] He held the official role of na'ib al-saltana (viceroy) and was one of the two most powerful leaders of the sultanate alongside Baybars al-Jashnakir.
[8] Salar and Baybars largely avoided conflict with each other, aware of the potentially fatal repercussions for either should factional strife occur.
[2] In 1304 they consummated the marriage and in the following year, Salar brought his mother and two brothers, Juba and Dawud, to Egypt,[2] along with around 200 other Oirats.
[13] Salar soon after promoted his relatives and associates, awarding emirates to his brothers, his son-in-law Musa, and his friend Sanjar al-Jawli.
[11] In 1303 Salar and Baybars led a large scale military campaign against the Bedouin tribes of Upper Egypt for their persistent defiance of Mamluk authority.
[15] In late 1307 or early 1308, al-Nasir Muhammad and his Royal Mamluks attempted to assassinate Salar and Baybars in their homes.
As Salar felt vulnerable in Cairo, capital of the Sutlanate, he requested and received from al-Nasir Muhammad a reassignment to the Shawbak fortress in the desert of Transjordan.
[19] After al-Nasir Muhammad executed Baybars al-Jashnakir in April, he arrested twenty of Salar's close associates, including three of his brothers Samuk, Juba and Dawud.
[21] Salar restored the mihrab (prayer niche) of the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo and changed the decoration of its spandrels following damage from an earthquake in 1303.
