Al-Mutawakkil III () (died 1543) was the seventeenth

Abbasid caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came t ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

for the

Mamluk Sultanate The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...

from 1508 to 1516, and again in 1517.

Life

He was the last caliph of the later Egyptian-based Caliphate. Since the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the execution of Caliph

Al-Musta'sim Abu Ahmad Abdallah ibn al-Mustansir Billah (; 1213 – 20 February 1258), better known by his regnal name al-Musta'sim Billah ( ar, المستعصم بالله, al-Mustaʿṣim billāh, label=none) was the 37th and last caliph of the Abbasid dynas ...

in 1258, these Cairene Caliphs had resided in Cairo as nominal rulers used to legitimize the actual rule of the Mamluk sultans. Al-Mutawakkil III was deposed briefly in 1516 by his predecessor

Al-Mustamsik Al-Mustamsik (), (died 1521) was the sixteenth Abbasid caliph of Cairo under the tutelage of the Mamluk Sultanate. He served as caliph twice, his first term from 1497 to 1508 and his second term from 1516 to 1517, when he abdicated the position to ...

, but was restored to the office the following year. In 1517, Ottoman Sultan

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite last ...

had managed to defeat the Mamluk Sultanate, and made Egypt part of the Ottoman Empire. Al-Mutawakkil III was captured together with his family and transported to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. According to traditional history, at this time he formally surrendered the title of caliph as well as its outward emblems—the sword and mantle of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

—to Ottoman sultan Selim I. This story does not appear in the literature until the 1780s and was advanced to bolster the claims of caliphal jurisdiction over Muslims outside of the empire, as asserted in the 1774

Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ( tr, Küçük Kaynarca Antlaşması; russian: Кючук-Кайнарджийский мир), formerly often written Kuchuk-Kainarji, was a peace treaty signed on 21 July 1774, in Küçük Kaynarca (today Kayna ...

References

Bibliography

* * * 1543 deaths 16th-century caliphs 16th-century monarchs in Africa Cairo-era Abbasid caliphs Year of birth unknown {{MEast-royal-stub