{
 "id": "ep5r45yzjs",
 "slug": "bashtak",
 "title": "Bashtak",
 "updated": "2026-10-25",
 "topic_path": [
  {
   "id": "society",
   "label": "Society and history",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society"
  },
  {
   "id": "society.history",
   "label": "History and archaeology",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history"
  },
  {
   "id": "society.history.other",
   "label": "Other history",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other"
  },
  {
   "id": "society.history.other.middle-east",
   "label": "Middle East and North Africa",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other.middle-east"
  },
  {
   "id": "society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk",
   "label": "Mamluk sultanate (1250 to 1517)",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk"
  },
  {
   "id": "society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk.amirs-and-military-figures",
   "label": "Amirs and military figures",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk.amirs-and-military-figures"
  }
 ],
 "geo": [
  {
   "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk",
   "label": "Middle East and North Africa · 1000 to 1799: Mamluk sultanate (1250 to 1517)",
   "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk",
   "path": [
    {
     "id": "geo.mena",
     "label": "Middle East and North Africa",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena"
    },
    {
     "id": "geo.mena.t1000",
     "label": "Middle East and North Africa · 1000 to 1799",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000"
    },
    {
     "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society",
     "label": "Society and history",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society"
    },
    {
     "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history",
     "label": "History and archaeology",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history"
    },
    {
     "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other",
     "label": "Other history",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other"
    },
    {
     "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east",
     "label": "Middle East and North Africa",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east"
    },
    {
     "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk",
     "label": "Mamluk sultanate (1250 to 1517)",
     "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "excerpt": "Bashtak (بشتك), full name Amir Sayf al-Din Bashtak al-Nasiri, was a Mamluk amir of Egypt who served Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and built a palace in Cairo.",
 "snippet": "Bashtak (بشتك), full name Amir Sayf al-Din Bashtak al-Nasiri, was a Mamluk amir of Egypt who served Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and built a palace in Cairo.",
 "node": "society.history.other.middle-east.mamluk.amirs-and-military-figures",
 "markdown": "# Bashtak\n\nBashtak (بشتك), full name Amir Sayf al-Din Bashtak al-Nasiri, was a Mamluk amir of Egypt who served Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun in the early fourteenth century.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> Bought as a slave for six thousand dirhams, he rose through the court office of jamdar, married into the sultan's family, and left a palace in Cairo that still stands.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.cairo.gov.eg/en/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments%3BISL%3Beg%3BMon01%3B13%3Ben)</sup>\n\n| Fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Identity | Amir Sayf al-Din Bashtak al-Nasiri, a Nasiri mamluk of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> |\n| Purchase | Bought by the sultan for six thousand dirhams from the lands of Uzbek ibn Toghtay, khan of the Tatars<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup> |\n| Offices | jamdar (Master of the Robes)<sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://cairo.gov.eg/ar/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](http://www.egyptianmuseums.net/html/beshtak_palace.html)</sup> |\n| Rank | Iqta of about fourteen tablkhana yielding, according to al-Safadi, over 200,000 Egyptian dinars<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> |\n| Buildings | Mosque on Birkat al-Fil (AH 737) and palace on al-Mu'izz Street (AH 740 / 1339)<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments%3BISL%3Beg%3BMon01%3B13%3Ben)</sup> |\n| Death | Killed in Alexandria in AH 742 (1341–1342)<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup> |\n\n## Origins and family\n\nBashtak came to Egypt as a slave from the Tatar lands. The biographical dictionary of al-Safadi records that he was brought from the territories of Uzbek ibn Toghtay, khan of the Tatars, and that Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad bought him for six thousand dirhams and handed him to Amir Qawsun to be raised.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> The Cairo governorate's heritage page adds that the sultan instructed the slave trader to buy a mamluk resembling Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, the Tatar khan.<sup>[4](https://cairo.gov.eg/ar/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup> He rose in the sultan's service, and the sultan grew fond of him and showered him with gifts.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup>\n\nHis marriage is described differently by different sources. Al-Safadi states that when Amir Baktamur al-Saqi died, the sultan granted Bashtak Baktamur's iqta, his stables, and his widow Umm Amir Ahmad, and that Bashtak bought Baktamur's slave-girl Khubi for six thousand dinars.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> Both accounts agree that the marriage bound him closely to the sultan's house; they differ on whether his wife was the sultan's daughter or a woman of the sultan's household given to him with Baktamur's estate.\n\n## Career\n\nBashtak's rise followed the court ladder of al-Nasir Muhammad's third reign (AH 709–41 / AD 1309–40).<sup>[6](https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments%3BISL%3Beg%3BMon01%3B13%3Ben)</sup> He held the post of [katib al-sirr](https://www.edgepedia.org/katib-al-sirr), the sultan's secret secretary, which won him the respect of al-Nasir and led to the marriage alliance, and the post of jamdar, the officer in charge of the sultan's wardrobe, whose lozenge-shaped rank badge appears on his buildings in Cairo.<sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://cairo.gov.eg/ar/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup>\n\nHis income matched his rank. Al-Safadi records that his iqta reached about fourteen tablkhana and yielded more than two hundred thousand Egyptian dinars.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> In AH 737 (1336–1337) he built a mosque of great beauty on the Elephant Pool (Birkat al-Fil) in Cairo, with a khanqah, a Sufi lodge, facing its gate overlooking the canal; al-Maqrizi dates the mosque's completion to Shaban AH 736.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup> In AH 739 (1338–1339) he performed the hajj, for which the sultan equipped him with two hundred thousand dirhams, one hundred riding beasts, forty bakhti camels, and sixty other camels; in Mecca he distributed a thousand dinars to each amir of a thousand.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup>\n\nIn the same years he built the palace that carries his name on al-Mu'izz Street, on the site of the Fatimid Eastern Palace. The Museum With No Frontiers database dates it to AH 740 / AD 1339, while Archnet and the Cairo portal give a building period of 1334–1339.<sup>[6](https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments%3BISL%3Beg%3BMon01%3B13%3Ben)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://www.archnet.org/sites/2373)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.cairo.gov.eg/en/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup> Its stone walls, decorated wooden ceilings, polychrome marble fountain, and screened women's quarters overlooking the men's reception hall mark the rank of a favorite son-in-law of the sultan.<sup>[6](https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments%3BISL%3Beg%3BMon01%3B13%3Ben)</sup>\n\n## Political influence\n\nBashtak belonged to the Nasiri mamluks, the sultan's own corps, and his career shows how favor at court converted into land, office, and marriage. Al-Safadi's account of his grants, an iqta of tablkhana, the estate of a dead amir with his wife and stables, and a hajj outfit worth two hundred thousand dirhams, illustrates the scale of patronage al-Nasir Muhammad distributed to his close circle.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> Modern studies of the third reign describe its elite as a mix of mamluks of different khushdashiyyat, wafidiyah refugees from the Mongol Ilkhanate and Seljukid Anatolia, and awlad al-nas, the sons of mamluks; Amalia Levanoni argues that al-Nasir Muhammad lost his authority over his personal mamluks, so the Nasiriyah cannot be treated as a more loyal faction than any other.<sup>[8](https://doi.org/10.6082/cpqbn-gpj64)</sup>\n\nHis influence did not survive the sultan. Rivalry with Amir Qawsun al-Saqi, the same amir in whose household Bashtak had been raised, ended with Bashtak's arrest and killing in AH 742.<sup>[4](https://cairo.gov.eg/ar/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup>\n\n## Death\n\nThe sources agree on the year and the city but not on the day. Al-Safadi states that Bashtak was seized, sent to Alexandria, held there, and killed on 5 Rabi' I AH 742, at the start of the first sultanate of al-Ashraf Kujuk.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup> An account drawing on al-Maqrizi gives the death as 8 Muharram AH 742, also in Alexandria, after [Qawsun](https://www.edgepedia.org/qawsun) had him arrested and imprisoned.<sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup> The Cairo governorate page confirms the arrest and killing in prison in AH 742 without a precise day.<sup>[4](https://cairo.gov.eg/ar/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup>\n\n## Historians' assessment\n\nHeritage and architectural sources rank Bashtak among the powerful amirs of his time, a son-in-law of the sultan whose blazon was set into the masonry of his palace.<sup>[9](https://egyptarch.net/historicalcairo/islamicmonements/bashtakhouse/bashtak.htm)</sup> A contemporary detail preserved in the Egyptian tradition is that he did not speak Arabic in public except through a translator, although he knew the language, a reminder that the Mamluk elite of his generation was largely Turkish-speaking.<sup>[2](https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a)</sup> He is also recorded as an amir in Egypt by [Ibn Battuta](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-battuta), whose work was composed before 1354.<sup>[10](https://medievalmideast.org/person/20198.html)</sup>\n\n## Legacy\n\nBashtak's buildings outlasted him. The palace on al-Mu'izz Street, built over part of the Fatimid Eastern Palace, survives as an Islamic museum and a documented example of fourteenth-century domestic architecture in Cairo.<sup>[7](https://www.archnet.org/sites/2373)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.cairo.gov.eg/en/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/)</sup> The Bashtak Mosque on Birkat al-Fil was described by al-Safadi as built in great beauty.<sup>[1](https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. al-Safadi, al-Muqfi al-Kabir, entry on Bashtak al-Nasiri, https://shamela.ws/book/145334/786\n2. EgyptFwd, \"Mosques with a history: Prince Bashtak was built by a Mamluk who was bought by Al-Nasir Bin Qalawun for 6000 dirhams\", https://egyptfwd.org/Article/6/3301/Mosques-with-a-history-Prince-Bashtak-was-built-by-a\n3. Cairo Portal (English), \"Amir Bashtak Palace\", https://www.cairo.gov.eg/en/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/\n4. Cairo Governorate, \"Qasr al-Amir Bashtak\" (Arabic), https://cairo.gov.eg/ar/culture/cultural-destinations/cairo-palaces/amir-bashtak-palace/\n5. \"Beshtak Palace\", http://www.egyptianmuseums.net/html/beshtak_palace.html\n6. Museum With No Frontiers, \"Amir Bashtak Palace,\" Discover Islamic Art, https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments%3BISL%3Beg%3BMon01%3B13%3Ben\n7. Archnet, \"Qasr al-Amir Bashtak, Cairo, Egypt\", https://www.archnet.org/sites/2373\n8. \"The Mansuriyah Legacy: The Mansuri Amirs, Their Mamluks, and Their Descendants during al-Nasir Muhammad's Third Reign and After,\" Mamluk Studies, https://doi.org/10.6082/cpqbn-gpj64\n9. EgyptArch, \"Qasr Bashtak\", https://egyptarch.net/historicalcairo/islamicmonements/bashtakhouse/bashtak.htm\n10. Mamluk Prosopography, medievalmideast.org, \"Bashtak, amir in Egypt\", https://medievalmideast.org/person/20198.html\n11. Catalyst, \"Bashtak Palace on Al-Muizz Street\", https://catalyst-mp.com/bashtak-palace-on-al-muizz-street-the-jewel-of-civil-architecture\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Other history › Middle East and North Africa › Mamluk sultanate (1250 to 1517) › Amirs and military figures*\n\n*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
 "same_as": [],
 "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak",
 "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak.md",
 "license": {
  "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0",
  "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license",
  "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.",
  "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0"
 },
 "credit": "\"Bashtak\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.",
 "credit_md": "\"[Bashtak](https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak](https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).",
 "credit_html": "\"<a href=\"https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak\">Bashtak</a>\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), <a href=\"https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak\">https://www.edgepedia.org/bashtak</a>. <a href=\"https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\">Edgepedia Community License 1.0</a>.",
 "speakable": "Bashtak, full name Amir Sayf al-Din Bashtak al-Nasiri, was a Mamluk amir of Egypt who served Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and built a palace in Cairo."
}