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Jakmak's rule was mild compared with that of Bursbai, and we hear less of extraordinary taxes, extortions, executions, and violence of the Mamluks. Osman remained only a month and a half on the throne; he made himself odious to the emirs who did not belong to his Mamluks.
As soon as the rebels in the interior had been dealt with, Yusuf, as a good Muhammedan, wished to attack the Christians, and chose the island of Rhodes as the scene of the Holy War, hoping to obtain this island as easily as Bursbai had obtained the island of Cyprus. But the Order of St.
Sheikh appointed his son Ahmed, one year old, as his successor, and named the emirs who were to act as regents until he became of age. He, too, appointed a young son as his successor and named the regents, but Bursbai also soon grasped the supreme power and ascended the throne in 1422. He had of course many insurrections to quell, but was not obliged to leave Egypt.
In appointing his son Yusuf to the consulship, Bursbai counted on the devotedness of his Mamluks, and the Emir Jakmak, whom he appointed as his chief adviser, and, in fact, Yusuf's coronation, in June, 1438, met with no resistance.
Bursbai despised no means by which he might enrich himself; he appropriated the greater part of the inheritance of the Jews and Christians; he even taxed poor pilgrims, in spite of the fact that he was a pious Moslem, prayed much, fasted, and read the Koran. He turned Mecca into a money-market.
As soon as peace was restored in Syria, Bursbai turned his attention to the European pirates, who had long been harassing the coasts of Syria and Egypt. They were partly Cypriots and partly Catalonians and Genoese, who started from Cyprus and landed their booty on this island. Bursbai resolved first to conquer this island.
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