Janbirdi al-Ghazali

Janbardi ibn Abd Allah al-Circassian, known as al-Ghazali, one of the great amirs of the Circassian state who crossed over to the Ottoman state. In the reign of Qansuh al-Ghuri he was governor (kafil) of Hama and then of Damascus. He turned against his master and promised Sultan Selim the governorship of Damascus ¹.

Although he had betrayed al-Ghuri, when he fled from the sultan's left wing at the battle of Marj Dabiq, he went back to Egypt and joined Tuman Bay and helped him against Sultan Selim. Then, when Selim conquered Egypt, Janbardi kept to his pledge and Selim appointed him governor of Syria. In Damascus he restored the witnesses to their posts in the way they had been under the Circassian state, spread justice in the city and its districts, abolished the tolls that had been imposed there, and forbade the gatekeepers to take anything from those who entered. He drew his sword against any soldier of the Ottoman army who harmed a woman or a boy. He wrote to Sultan Selim about this and told him that Damascus was not used to anything of that kind ¹.