Ottomans Conquer Cairo

January 22, 1517

Selim I's troops stormed Cairo after a brutal street battle, hanged the last Mamluk sultan Tuman Bay from the Zuweila Gate, and absorbed Egypt into the Ottoman Empire. The caliphal mantle, according to later legend, was transferred to Selim. Istanbul was now the capital of Sunni Islam. The conquest gave the Ottomans guardianship of Mecca and Medina, adding Islam's most sacred sites to the sultan's titles.