Pope Athanasius III of Alexandria, 76th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He was known as Athanasius ibn Kalil (البابا أثناسيوس الثالث ابن كليل). His episcopate lasted for eleven years, one month and 18 days from Sunday 9 October 1250 (12 Babah/Paopi 967 AM) to 27 November 1261 AD (The first of Kiahk/Koiahk 978 AM). The See of St Mark remained vacant for one month and 5 days after his death and he was succeeded by Pope John VII of Alexandria. He was buried in Saint Mercurius Church in Coptic Cairo (كنيسة مرقوريوس أبو سيفين). In his time, the Papal Residence was at the Church of The Holy Virgin Mary & St Damiana known as The Hanging Church (الكنيسة المعلقة) in Coptic Cairo. Contemporary rulers of Egypt during his episcopate The episcopate of Pope Athanasius III of Alexandria started at the time when the Ayyubid Dynasty (الأيوبيون) (1171 -1250 AD) lost power to their slave troops (Mamluks) in Egypt (1250 AD) and elsewhere (1260 AD). The Bahriyya Mamluks (al-Mamalik al-Bahariyya - المماليك البحرية) was a Mamluk dynasty of mostly Turkic origin that ruled the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate from 1250 to 1382. They were succeeded by a second Mamluk dynasty, the Burji dynasty (1382-1517 AD). Their name "Bahriyya" means 'of the river', referring to the location of their original settlement on Al-Rodah Island in the Nile (Nahr al-Nil) in Medieval Cairo at the castle of Al-Rodah which was built by the Ayyubid Sultan as-Salih Ayyub(الملك الصالح نجم الدين ايوب) (reign 1240 – 22 November 1249) Pope Athanasius III of Alexandria became the patriarch at the time of the reign of Al-Ashraf Musa, Sultan of Egypt (الأشرف موسى) who was the last, albeit titular, Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt (ruled July 1250 – 1254 AD). Al-Ashraf Musa was the puppet of the strong Mamluk ruler Izz ad-Din Aybak. Thus, the episcopate of Pope Athanasius III of Alexandria coincided with the following rulers: Al-Ashraf Musa, Sultan of Egypt(الأشرف موسى), Izz al-Din Aybak (عز الدين أيبك), Al-Mansur Ali ( نور الدين على بن أيبك), Qutuz (قطز), and Baibars (بيبرس). Below is a tabulation of the periods of reign of various rules of Egypt at the time. 2 May 1250–July 1250 AD: Shajar al-Durr (شجر الدر, "Tree of Pearls") whose Royal Name was al-Malika `Aṣmat ad-Dīn Umm-Khalīl Shajar ad-Durr (الملكة عصمة الدين أم خليل شجر الدر) (nicknamed: أم خليل, Umm Khalil;