Mamluk raid on Cyprus (1368)

In response to the crusade, the Mamulk atābak Yalbugha al-Umari ordered the construction of a fleet at Cairo. Ibn Qāḍī Shuhba dates this to November–December 1365, but al-Maqrizi, who is probably more reliable, places it in January–February 1366, at the same time as a fleet was ordered in Beirut.^[1]

Procurement in Cairo was to be the responsibility of the vizier Mājid ibn al-Qazwīna, while construction was overseen by Ṭaybughā and Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Mufassar. According to al-Maqrizi, the craftsmen and sailors were imported from the Maghreb or recruited from among the Turcomans of Upper Egypt. According to al-Nuwayri, the fleet cast off on 28 November 1366. According to al-Maqrizi, there were 100 ships, each under the command of an emir. The Prise d'Alexandrie, however, puts the number of ships at 200.^[1]

In May 1366, the Ottomans offered to send 100 ships in a joint attack on Cyprus, but the Mamluks could not commit, since their fleet was still under construction.^[1] In March 1368, the privateer brothers Peter and John Grimante, sailing from Famagusta raided Alexandria and Damietta, seizing several ships.^[1][2] In Alexandria, they faced strong resistance from the captain of the arsenal, Ibrahim al-Tazi, who was from the Maghreb.^[1]

Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban immediately summoned al-Tazi to Cairo and offered him command of the fleet, moored at Boulaq, for a raid against Cyprus. Al-Tazi opted to take only a single ship from Cairo together with one other ship from Alexandria.^[1] He set sail from the port of Alexandria with 500 of his crew for an armed reconnaissance of the Cypriot coast.^[1][3] According to al-Nuwayri, he sent back a boat full of booty on 30 March. He captured one or two boats before being forced to retreat by Genoese galleys in Cypriot service. He returned to Alexandria in mid-April or early May.^[1] The sources are not entirely consistent,^[1] but the raid lasted about 23 days.^[3] It netted 35 Cypriot prisoners.^[4][5]