The cadastral survey of Egypt compiled by Sharaf al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Shākir Ibn al-Jīʿān (d. 885 A.H./1480 C.E.), al-Tuḥfa al-saniyya bi-asmāʾ al-bilād al-miṣriyya, is a unique resource that offers two valuable snapshots of land tenure in 778 A.H./1377 C.E. and in 880–81 A.H./1475–77 C.E. It provides information on the status of descendants of the mamluks, the development of al-dīwān al-mufrad (the sultan’s special bureau) and al-dhakhīra (the sultan’s treasures), rural depopulation over time, and record keeping in land administration, among other things. Nonetheless, al-Tuḥfa al-saniyya has not yet been fully examined in terms of the Egyptian land tenure context in 1475–77. Scholars have provided a general picture of the privatization of land, particularly the waqfization of land (increase in endowment land) during the 9th/15th century. As a result, the military elite relied less on the iqṭāʿs, the revenues of which were decreasing. However, the questions of how and to what extent land tenure in Egypt changed between the late 14th and the late 15th centuries remain unexplored. Primarily based on the oldest surviving manuscript of al-Tuḥfa al-saniyya, in addition to contemporary Arabic chronicles and biographical dictionaries, this paper investigates the Egyptian land tenure in 1475–77, as compared to the situation in 1377. Additionally, it sheds light on the relations between Sultan Qāytbāy (872–901 A.H./1468–96 C.E.) and his amirs. Thus, this study provides a better understanding of land administration and the economic and political history of Mamluk Egypt.