Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)

For other uses of the word Mamluk (Turks), see Mamluk. For the sultanate in Delhi, see Mamluk Sultanate (Delhi)

Mamluk Sultanate سلطنة المماليك Sulṭanat al-Mamālīk
←   ← 1250–1517 →   →
Mamluk Flag according to the Catalan Atlas.
Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (green), c. 1279.
Capital	Cairo
Language(s)	Arabic, Kipchak Turkic[1], Persian
Religion	Sunni Islam
Government	Oligarchy
Sultan
- 1250-1257	Izz al-Din Aybak
- 1516-1517	Tuman bay II
History
- Turanshah's death	1250
- Battle of Ridaniya	1517
Today part of	Egypt  Israel  Jordan  Lebanon  Libya  Saudi Arabia  Palestine  Sudan  Syria  Turkey

History of Egypt
This article is part of a series
Prehistory
Ancient Egypt
Early Dynastic Period
Old Kingdom
First Intermediate Period
Middle Kingdom
Second Intermediate Period
New Kingdom
Third Intermediate Period
Late Period
Classical Antiquity
Achaemenid Egypt
Ptolemaic Egypt
Roman & Byzantine Egypt
Medieval Egypt
Fatimid Egypt
Ayyubid Egypt
Mamluk Egypt
Ottoman Egypt
French occupation
Egypt under Muhammad Ali
Modern Egypt
Khedivate of Egypt
Sultanate of Egypt
Kingdom of Egypt
Republic
Egypt Portal v · d · e

The Mamluk Sultanate was a regime composed of mamluks who ruled Egypt from the mid-13th century to the early 16th century. By the time of the fall of the Ayyubids, most Mamluks were Arabs and Kipchak Turks/Cumans.^[2] While Mamluks were purchased, their status was above ordinary slaves, who were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks. Mamluks were considered to be "true lords", with social status above freeborn Egyptian Muslims.

History

Rise to power

Main article: Bahri dynasty

Main article: Dawla al-Turkiyya

Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of the late Ayyubid military. Each sultan and high-ranking amir had his private corps, and the sultan as-Salih Ayyub (r. 1240-1249) had especially relied on this means to maintaining power. His mamluks, numbering between 800 and 1,000 horsemen, were called the Bahris, after the Arabic word bahr (بحر), meaning sea or large river, because their barracks were located on the island of Rawda in the Nile. They were mostly drawn from among the Kipchak Turks/Cumans who controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea.^[3]

In 1249 Louis IX of France led a crusade on an invasion of Egypt, capturing Damietta and then proceeding slowly southward. As they advanced, as-Salih Ayyub died and was succeeded by his son al-Muazzam Turanshah, but before Turanshah could arrive at the front, the Bahri mamluks defeated the crusaders at the Battle of Al Mansurah and captured Louis, effectively ending the crusade. Turanshah proceeded to place his own entourage and especially his own mamluks, called Mu`azzamis, in positions of authority to the detriment of Bahri interests. Four weeks after Louis' capture, on 2 May 1250, a group of Bahris assassinated Turanshah.^[4]

Wars with Mongols and Crusaders

Main article: Mongol invasions of Syria

Following the death of Turanshah a ten-year period of political instability in Egypt and Syria ensued as various factions competed for control. In 1254, when a rival faction under the leadership of Qutuz became powerful, most of the Bahris fled Cairo and took service with Ayyubid amirs in Syria. Meanwhile, the Mongols under the command of Hulagu invaded the Middle East in force. They sacked Baghdad in 1258 and proceeded westward, capturing Aleppo and Damascus. Qutuz and the Bahris agreed to put aside their differences to face the common threat. They met a contingent of Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut and defeated them. With the Mongol threat temporarily over, rivalries among the mamluks revived, and Baibars, a leading Bahri, assassinated Qutuz and claimed the sultanate.

History of the Arab League member states
Arab Caliphate  Rashidun 632-661 Umayyads 661-750 Abbasids 750-1258 Fatimids 909–1171
Mashriq Dynasties  AD Tulunids 868-905 Hamdanid dynasty 890-1004 Ikhshidid dynasty 935-969 Uqaylid Dynasty 990-1096 Zengid dynasty 1127-1250 Ayyubid dynasty 1171-1246 Bahri Mamluks 1250-1382 Burji Mamluks 1382–1517
Maghrib Dynasties  Muhallabids 771-793 Rustamid dynasty 776-909 Idrisid dynasty 788-985 Aghlabids 800-909 Almoravid dynasty 1073-1147 Almohad dynasty 1147-1269 Hafsid dynasty 1229-1574 Marinid dynasty 1258-1420 Wattasid dynasty 1420-1547 Saadi dynasty 1554-1659 Alaouite dynasty 1660-present

Change in regime

Main article: Burji dynasty

In 1377 a revolt broke out in Syria which spread to Egypt, and the government was taken over by the Circassians Barakah and Barquq; In 1382 the last Bahri Sultan Al-Salih Hajji was dethroned, thus ending the Bahri dynasty, and Barquq was proclaimed sultan. Barquq was expelled in 1389 but recaptured Cairo in 1390. Permanently in power he founded what came to be called the Burji dynasty.^[5]

Ottomans and the end of the Mamluk Sultanate

Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II was engaged in Europe when a new ground of hostility with Egypt appeared in 1501.^{[weasel words]} It arose out of the relations with the Safavid dynasty in Persia. Shah Ismail I sent an embassy to the Venetians via Syria inviting them to join his arms and recover the territory taken from them by the "Porte" (Ottomans). Mameluk Egyptian sultan Al-Ghawri was charged by Selim at giving the envoys of the Safavid Ismail passage through Syria on their way to Venice and harboring refugees. To appease him, Al-Ghawri placed in confinement the Venetian merchants then in Syria and Egypt, but after a year released them.

After the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, Selim I attacked the Dulkadirids, an Egypt's vassal had stood aloof, and sent his head to Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri. Secure now against Shah Ismail I, on 1516 CE he drew together a great army aiming at conquering Egypt, but to deceive it he represented his object to be the further pursuit of Shah Ismail I. In 1515 began the war which led to the later incorporation of Egypt and its dependencies in the Ottoman Empire, with Mamluk cavalry proving no match for the Ottoman artillery and the janissaries. On August 24, 1515, at the Battle of Marj Dabiq Sultan al-Ghawri was killed. Syria passed into Turkish possession, who were welcomed in many places as deliverance from the Mamluks.

The Mamluk Sultanate survived until 1517, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman sultan Selim I captured Cairo on January 20, the center of power transferred then to Constantinople. Although not in the same form as under the Sultanate, the Ottoman Empire retained the Mamluks as an Egyptian ruling class and the Mamluks and the Burji family succeeded in regaining much of their influence, but remained vassals of the Ottomans.

Mamluks independence from the Ottomans

Main article: History of Ottoman Egypt

In 1768, Sultan Ali Bey Al-Kabir declared independence from the Ottomans. However, the Ottomans crushed the movement and retained their position after his defeat. By this time new slave recruits were introduced from Georgia in the Caucasus.

Napoleon defeated Mamluk troops in the Battle of the Pyramids when he attacked Egypt in 1798 and drove them to Upper Egypt. The Mamluks still used their cavalry charge tactics, changed only by the addition of muskets.

After the departure of French troops in 1801 Mamluks continued their struggle for independence, this time against the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain. In 1803, Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Beg and Usman Beg wrote a letter to the Russian consul-general and asked him to act as a mediator with the Sultan to allow them to negotiate for a cease-fire, and a return to their homeland Georgia.^{[citation needed]} The Russian ambassador in Istanbul categorically refused to mediate because the Russian government was afraid of allowing Mamluks to return to Georgia, where a strong national liberation movement was on the rise which might have been encouraged by a Mamluk return.

In 1805, the population of Cairo rebelled. This was an excellent opportunity for the Mamluks to seize power, but internal tension and betrayal prevented them from exploiting this opportunity. In 1806, the Mamluks defeated the Turkish forces several times, and in June the rival parties concluded a peace treaty by which Muhammad Ali, who had been appointed as governor of Egypt on 26 March 1806, was to be removed and the state authority in Egypt returned to the Mamluks. However, they were again unable to capitalize on the opportunity due to conflicts between the clans; Muhammad Ali kept his authority.

Painting of a Mamluk, 1779.

End of Mamluk power in Egypt

Muhammad Ali knew that eventually he would have to deal with the Mamluks if he ever wanted to control Egypt. They were still the feudal owners of Egypt and their land was still the source of wealth and power. The constant strain on sustaining the military manpower necessary to defend the Mamluks's system from the Europeans and the Mongols would eventually weaken them to the point of collapse.^[6]

On March 1, 1811, Muhammad Ali invited all of the leading Mamluks to his palace to celebrate the declaration of war against the Wahhabis in Arabia. Between 600 and 700 Mamluks paraded in Cairo. Near the Al-Azab gates, in a narrow road down from Mukatam Hill, Muhammad Ali's forces ambushed and killed almost all in what came to be known as the Massacre of the Citadel. According to period reports, only one Mamluk, whose name is given variously as Amim (also Amyn), or Heshjukur (a Besleney), survived when he forced his horse to leap from the walls of the citadel, killing it in the fall.^[7]

During the following week, hundreds of Mamluks were killed throughout Egypt; in the citadel of Cairo alone more than 1,000 were killed. Throughout Egypt an estimated 3,000 Mamluks and their relatives were killed.

Despite these attempts by Muhammad Ali to defeat the Mamluks in Egypt, a party of them escaped and fled south into what is now Sudan. In 1811, these Mamluks established a state at Dunqulah in the Sennar as a base for their slave trading. In 1820, the sultan of Sennar informed Muhammad Ali that he was unable to comply with a demand to expel the Mamluks. In response, the pasha sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan, clear it of Mamluks, and reclaim it for Egypt. The pasha's forces received the submission of the kashif, dispersed the Dunqulah Mamluks, conquered Kordofan, and accepted Sennar's surrender from the last Funj sultan, Badi VII.

The Mamluk households

The mamluks were organized into households under the leadership of an ustad. Mamluks had intense loyalty to their ustad and to their comrades in the regiment. The loyalty of a mamluk to his comrades was called khushdashiya (Arabic: خشداشية‎)

Mamluks' sons did not enter the ranks of the mamluks, and tended to blend in with the wider society. The ranks of the Mamluks were always replenished by importing fresh slaves from abroad.

Art and architecture

A guilded and enamelled Mamluk glass bucket from mid-14th century

As part of their chosen role as defenders of Islamic orthodoxy, the Mamluks sponsored numerous religious buildings, including mosques, madrasas and khanqahs. Though some construction took place in the provinces, the vast bulk of these projects took place in the capital.^[8] Many Mamluk buildings in Cairo survive until today, particularly in the district of Old Cairo. As representatives of Islamic ideology, it was also the responsibility of the Mamluk dynasty to spread the holy word of Islam to its surrounding areas. One such way of doing this was by commissioning pages of the Quran and sharing it with the local population. This leaf contains portions of Surat (Chapter) Al’Ala(The most high) and was for use in a local mosque in Cairo. The leaf dates back to 1300 AD during the mamluk sultanate and its age clearly shows based on the tears that appear at the top of the leaf. Surat Al'Ala discusses the wonders that Allah has created and the rewards for those who believe the message of Islam, as well as the punishment for those who reject Islam. It is likely that the illuminator of the leaf was Abu Bakr aka Sandal, who was centered in the artistic hub of Islam at the time; Cairo, Egypt. The Qur’an verses are written in black ink and in the Naskh writing style, which was the easiest for the common man to read, opposed to other scripts that required individuals to be familiar with calligraphic styles.

See also

• Mamluk
• State of Turkey
• Dawla al-Turkiyya
• Furusiyya
• History of Arab Egypt
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

Notes

1. ^ Kennedy, Hugh N. The Historiography of Islamic Egypt (C. 950-1800). Brill Academic Publishers, 2001. [1]
2. ^ Isichei, Elizabeth (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press. pp. 192. 
3. ^ David Ayalon, "Bahriyya", in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
4. ^ Robert Irwin, The Middle East in the Middle Ages, 19-21
5. ^ Al-Maqrizi, pp.140-142/vol.5
6. ^ Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European Hegemony The World System A.D. 1250-1350. New York: Oxford UP, USA, 1991. PP. 213
7. ^ For the use of the name Amim, see Giovanni Finati, Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Giovanni Finati native of Ferrara, 1830; for Heshjukur, Mustafa Mahir, Marks of the Caucasian Tribes and Some Stories and Notable Events Related to Their Leaders, Boulaq, Cairo, 1892
8. ^ "Mamluks" in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

References

Sources

• Abu al-Fida, The Concise History of Humanity
• Al-Maqrizi, Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk, Dar al-kotob, 1997.
• Idem in English: Bohn, Henry G., The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades, AMS Press, 1969.
• Al-Maqrizi, al-Mawaiz wa al-'i'tibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-'athar, Matabat aladab, Cairo 1996, ISBN 977-241-175X
• Idem in French: Bouriant, Urbain, Description topographique et historique de l'Egypte, Paris 1895.
• Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-Zahirah Fi Milook Misr wa al-Qahirah, al-Hay'ah al-Misreyah 1968
• Idem in English: History of Egypt, by Yusef. William Popper, translator Abu L-Mahasin ibn Taghri Birdi, University of California Press 1954.

Studies

• Ayalon, David: The Mamluk Military Society. London, 1979.
• Shayyal, Jamal, Prof. of Islamic history, Tarikh Misr al-Islamiyah (History of Islamic Egypt), dar al-Maref, Cairo 1266, ISBN 977-02-5975-6