An-Nàssir Hàssan

Al-Nasir Badr ad-Din Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun (1334/35–17 March 1361), better known as al-Nasir Hasan, was the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, he was of Turkic origin. the seventh son of al-Nasir Muhammad to hold office, reigning twice in 1347–1351 and 1354–1361. During his first reign, which he began at age 12, senior Mamluk emirs formerly belonging to al-Nasir Muhammad, dominated his administration, while al-Nasir Hasan played a ceremonial role. He was toppled in 1351 when he attempted to assert executive authority to the chagrin of the senior emirs. He was reinstated three years later during a coup against his brother Sultan al-Salih Salih by emirs Shaykhu and Sirghitmish.

During his second reign, al-Nasir Hasan maneuvered against the leading emirs, gradually purging them and their supporters from the administration through imprisonment, forced exile and execution. He replaced many mamluks (manumitted slave soldiers) with awlad al-nas (descendants of mamluks), who he found to be more reliable, competent and amiable with the public. Al-Nasir Hasan was killed by one of his own mamluks, Yalbugha al-Umari, who headed a faction opposed to al-Nasir Hasan's elevation of the awlad al-nas. Throughout his second reign, al-Nasir Hasan commenced the Sultan Hasan Mosque-Madrasa complex in Cairo, as well as other architectural works, namely religious structures, in Cairo, Jerusalem, Gaza and Damascus.

Early life and family Al-Nasir Hasan's birth name was 'Qamari' (also spelled 'Qumari' ) in Cairo in 1334/35; he changed his given name to 'Hasan' upon his accession to the sultanate in 1347. According to historian Ulrich Haarmann, his revocation of his Turkic name and replacement with the Arabic 'Hasan' was meant to dissociate himself from the predominantly Turkic mamluks, a symbolic act in line with his policy of minimizing the role of mamluks in the state and relying instead on the descendants of mamluks, known as awlad al-nas. With her and possibly other wives or concubines, al-Nasir Hasan had eleven sons and six daughters. His sons were Ahmad (d. 1386), Qasim (d. 1358), Ibrahim (d. 1381), Ali, Iskandar, Sha'ban (d. 1421), Isma'il (d. 1397), Yahya (d. 1384), Musa, Yusuf and Muhammad. in a confrontation with Circassian mamluks in December 1347, al-Nasir Hasan acceded to the sultanate as 'al-Malik al-Nasir Hasan' at the age of 12, having been installed in power by senior Mamluk emirs. Al-Nasir Hasan's role was ceremonial, with actual power being wielded by the following four Mamluk emirs: na'ib al-saltana (viceroy) Baybugha al-Qasimi, ustadar (chief of staff) and Baybugha's brother, Manjak al-Yusufi (com), and the emirs Shaykhu al-Nasiri and Taz al-Nasiri (com). Among those who reached the rank of amir mi'a were two of al-Nasir Hasan's sons.

Al-Nasir Hasan's stated purpose behind elevating the awlad al-nas was his strong trust in their reliability and his belief that they were less prone to rebellion than mamluks. Other reasons he integrated the awlad al-nas into the sultanate's administrative hierarchy were the generally better treatment of Mamluk subjects by awlad al-nas and their better comprehension of administrative regulations. However, historian Ulrich Haarmann asserts that a'-Nasir Hasan's demise "in no way impeded the further strengthening of the position of the awlad al-nas in the military and the administration", but only under the Bahri regime, which ended in the last years of the 14th century.

According to historian Carl F. Petry, al-Nasir Hasan and Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban were "perhaps the exception" among al-Nasir Muhammad's largely powerless descendants who acceded to the throne because they wielded real power, and al-Nasir Hasan in particular was the only descendant of al-Nasir Muhammad to have "had a significant impact on events" in the sultanate. The Mamluk historian al-Maqrizi lauded him as "one of the best kings of the Turks". al-Nasir Hasan was responsible for the construction of a massive mosque-madrasa complex bearing his name, known today as the Sultan Hasan Mosque and Madrasa, in Rumaila, Cairo. Construction of the complex began in 1357 and was worked on daily at the expense of 20,000 silver dirhams a day for the following three years. Likewise, Mamluk historians Ibn Taghribirdi and Ibn Shahin describe the complex as having no equal in the world, while Ibn Habib described it as superior in greatness to the Pyramids of Giza.

Starting in 1360, al-Nasir Hasan commenced other architectural projects in the sultanate, including the Qa'a al-Baysariyya tower at the Cairo Citadel, described by al-Maqrizi as a structure unique in Mamluk architecture. The Qa'a al-Baysariyya was a high, domed tower decorated with bejeweled gold bands.