Forty military coups - at least - in addition to the failed attempts.. More than twenty sultans whose lives ended in assassination or execution, or their death was marred by suspicion of assassination.. Plots and counter-plots between the princes and each other, or between them and the sultans.. This is a small part of the outcome of the unrest in The Mamluk era, which extended between the years 1250 AD and 1517 AD, in which the law of transferring power was the rule of “rule is for those who conquer,” historically attributed to Sultan Al-Adil Al-Ayyubi..