Between 1348 and 1412 CE, a ’great crisis’ struck Mamluk Egypt and Syria under the Bahri Dynasty sultan, precipitating the rise of the Burji (Circassian) Dynasty from 1382 CE. Instead of the traditional chronological division of the Mamluk Sultanate into two dynasties, we have therefore included a crisis period encapsulating the end of the Bahri and beginning of the Burji periods.
[1]
Indeed, the crisis period persisted until the assassination of Sultan Faraj in Damascus in 1412 CE. In addition to the plague of 1348 CE, which for many Egyptians brought a period of spectacular prosperity to an end, other natural disasters in this period included an abnormally high Nile flood in 1354, famine in 1375, the return of the plague between 1379 and 1381, a low Nile flood and grain shortage in 1394 and again in 1403 CE, followed by yet another famine between 1403 and 1404 CE. In the midst of these environmental crises, and perhaps sparked by them, the region also experienced civil war in 1389 CE,
[2]
effectively ending the period of Turkish rule in Egypt.
Population and political organization
Since the children of mamluks could by law never become mamluks,
[3]
the Mamluk Sultanate was in every generation ruled by a foreign ’slave-elite’ that had to be constantly replaced by new ’slave’ recruits imported, educated, promoted, and manumitted specifically for the role. Manumission was essential because under Islamic law no slave could be sovereign. The sultan performed a ritual manumission at his inaugural ceremony but the legal manumission would usually have occurred when he was about 18 years old, following the mamluk training.
[4]
In the Bahri period the Mamluks were of Turkish origin (like those recruited by the last Ayyubid sultan), but later sultans recruited mostly Circassians from the Caucasus.
[5]
Mamluk recruits were employed in the central government, the military and as governors in the provinces. While promotion to the highest echelons of the government and military was ’granted according to precise rules’, succession to the highest position - the Sultanate itself - was often a chaotic contest in which ’seniority, merit, cabal, intrigue, or violence’ all jostled for prominence.
[6]
Nevertheless, the deck was stacked such that from 1290 to 1382 CE, the sultanate was inherited by 17 different descendants of Sultan Qalawun.
[7]
The Mamluk sultan ruled from Cairo and during his absence from the capital, Egypt was governed by his viceroy, the na’ib al-saltana.
[8]
The bureaucracy did not tightly control the countryside. Rather, influence was projected informally through ’iqta holdings (allotments of land along with the right to their tax revenue) - first used in Egypt during the preceding Ayyubid Dynasty period. These were assigned as a way to remunerate the slave soldiers of the centrally organized professional military,
[9]
as well as more formally through the na’ib, governor of a mamlaka administrative district.
[10]
The Mamluk elite controlled the appointment of ’judges, legal administrators, professors, Sufi shaykhs, prayer leaders, and other Muslim officials. They paid the salaries of religious personnel, endowed their schools, and thus brought the religious establishment into a state bureaucracy’.
[11]
In Cairo, Islamic law was kept by three traditional magistracies called qadi (pl. qudah), whose courts had a wide remit over civil law. A law-enforcement official called the chief of the sergeant of the watch oversaw wulah (sg. wali) policemen who kept watch at night and also fought fires.
[12]
Revenue and Public Services
The Bahri Dynasty was highly effective at drawing revenue. In the 14th century CE, the annual revenue was 9.5 million dinars, which was ’higher than at almost any other time since the Arab conquest’.
[13]
This paid for the Al-Barid postal system initiated by Baybars (1260‒1277 CE), which was extremely expensive to set up. Horses were used for first time on routes such as Cairo to Qus in Upper Egypt; and Cairo to Alexandria, Damietta and Syria.
[14]
The Syrian region of the Mamluk Sultanate was run by a chief governor, who had governors below him.
[10]
Imperial communications via Palestine were reportedly so efficient that ’Baybars boasted that he could play polo in Cairo and Damascus in the same week, while an even more rapid carrier-pigeon post was maintained between the two cities’.
[15]
The Black Death reached Alexandria in Egypt, probably from the Crimea, in the autumn of 1347 CE before slowly spreading throughout northern Egypt in 1348 and peaking in the autumn and winter of that year.
[16]
As a result of the epidemic, the Egyptian population, previously between 4.2 and 8 million, ’may have declined by about one-quarter to one-third’ by the mid- to late 14th century.
[17]
The total population of the sultanate fell from perhaps 6-7 million to 4.8 million during this period.
[18]
The troubled times did little to prevent the Mamluk ruling class from carrying out extravagant construction projects, for which they mostly used corvée labour.
[4]
Between 1341 and 1412 CE, 49 mosques were built in the southern zone of Cairo.
[19]
One of them was the ’gigantic’ Sultan Hasan Mosque (built 1356‒1361 CE), which cost an astonishing 20 million dirhams and has been called ’one of the most remarkable monuments of the Islamic world’.
[20]
Sultan Sha’ban Mosque, built in 1375 but destroyed in 1411, may have been comparable.
[21]
The Mamluk-period mosques added to a city already studded with public baths,
[22]
caravanserais,
[22]
libraries,
[23]
madrasas
[4]
and hospitals.
[24]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 116-17) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 116-17, 138-46) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[3]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 16) Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore. 2001. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4]: (Hrbek 1977, 39-67) Ivan Hrbek. 1977. ’Egypt, Nubia and the Eastern Deserts’, in The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 3: From c. 1050 to c. 1600, edited by Roland Oliver, 10-97. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[5]: (Raymond 2000, 112) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[6]: (Raymond 2000, 113-14) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[7]: (Raymond 2000, 114) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[8]: (Raymond 2000, 152) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[9]: (Lapidus 2012, 250) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[10]: (Drory 2004, 169) Joseph Drory. 2004. ’Some Remarks Concerning Safed and the Organization of the Region in the Mamluk period’, in The Mamluks in Egyptian and Syrian Politics and Society, edited by Michael Winter and Amalia Levanoni, 163-90. Leiden: Brill.
[11]: (Lapidus 2012, 249) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[12]: (Raymond 2000, 153) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[13]: (Raymond 2000, 116) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[14]: (Silverstein 2007, 173) A. J. Silverstein. 2007. Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[15]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 17) Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore. 2001. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[16]: (Dols 1977, 154-55) M. W. Dols. 1977. The Black Death In The Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
[17]: (Dols 1977, 218) M. W. Dols. 1977. The Black Death In The Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
[18]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978, 227) Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones. 1978. Atlas of World Population History. London: Allen Lane.
[19]: (Raymond 2000, 145) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[20]: (Raymond 2000, 141) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[21]: (Raymond 2000, 144) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[22]: (Hrbek 1977, 65) Ivan Hrbek. 1977. ’Egypt, Nubia and the Eastern Deserts’, in The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 3: From c. 1050 to c. 1600, edited by Roland Oliver, 10-97. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[23]: (Lapidus 2012, 248) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[24]: (Raymond 2000, 52) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
| 36 R |
| Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate II |
| Cairo |
| none |
| Islam |
| Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III |
| 11,000,000 km2 |
| continuity |
| Succeeding: Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III (eg_mamluk_sultanate_3) [continuity] | |
| Preceding: Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate I (eg_mamluk_sultanate_1) [continuity] |
| unitary state |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred absent |
| unknown |
| inferred absent |
| unknown |
| absent |
| present |
| present |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| present |
| present |
| inferred absent |
| inferred present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| inferred absent |
| Year Range | Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate II (eg_mamluk_sultanate_2) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1348 CE 1411 CE) | Upper Egypt |
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
Turkish Dynasty. [1] Dawlat al-Atrak and/or Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. In contemporary sources "Dawlat al-Atrak": Empire of the Turks. [2] State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya. Dawla_al-Turkiyya ... could not be machine read. State of Turkey or Dawla_al-Turkiyya EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawla_al-Turkiyya "The second dynasty took the dynastic name of Circassian Mamluks (also Burji Mamluks, from the word for castle) (1382-1517)." [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
"The traditional division of the Mamluk period into a Bahri/Turkish dynasty (1250-1382) and a Burji/Circassian one (1382-1517) is an inheritance from medieval chroniclers, but it corresponds to no fundamental changes in the organization of the Mamluk state or in Egypt’s fortunes. A chronological division responsive to the vagaries of history seems preferable: first, a period of expansion and prosperity, encompassing particularly the reign of Nasir Muhammad, which may be said to end conveniently (if somewhat arbitrarily) in 1348. Next comes a period of crisis starting with the great plague epidemic of 1348, encompassing Tamerlane’s expedition, which brought ruin to Syria and decline to Egypt, and ending with the crisis of 1403 and the disastrous reign of Faraj. There follows a period of relative recovery, with a return to normality and periods of brilliance, even as the factors of decline (demographic stagnation in particular) continued to exercise their effects..."
[1]
The Great Crisis
[2]
Plague of 1348 CE
Abnormally high Nile flood of 1354 CE
Plague of 1374-1375 CE
Famine of 1375 CE
Plague of 1379-1381 CE
civil war 1389 CE
Low Nile flood and grain shortage of 1394 CE
Tamerlane’s invasion of Syria 1400 CE
Low Nile flood 1403 CE followed by famine 1403-1404 CE
[3]
"disastrous" reign of Faraj Sultan 1399-1412 CE
civil war
assassination of Faraj Sultan in Damascus in 1412 CE "marked the end of the crisis."
Black Death reached Egypt autumn of 1357 CE "then slowly spread throughout Lower Egypt from the beginning of Muharram 749/April 1348. The epidemic reached its peak during the months of Sha’ban, Ramadan, and Shawwal 749/October 1348 to Janurary 1349, and ceased in the middle of Dhu l-Qa’dah/the beginning of February. The first Egyptian city to be struck by plague was Alexandria, and we might expect this if we assume that the pandemic was transmitted by the important trade from the Crimea."
[4]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 116-117)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 138-141)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 146)
[4]: (Dols 1977, 154-155)
People. Cairo.
Older estimates for Cairo
[1]
Marcel Clerget: 600,000: 1350 CE
Janet Abu-Lughod: 500,000 maximum
360,000: 1400 CE
[2]
Fourteenth century Cairo - Raymond
[3]
"The data available to us (location of mosques) suggests that the built-up area in 1348 was more extensive than can be supposed from Maqrizi’s information, but less extensive than is indicated by the Description de l’Egypte. As to Cairo’s population, it probably did not exceed 200,000. Paris had a population of only 80,000 in 1328 (in a built-up area of 437 hectares), and London a population of 60,000 in 1377 (on 288 hectares). Of the cities in the West at this period, only Constantinople could claim a greater population."
Demographic decline from 1348 CE (plague).
[4]
"Michael Dols concludes that the total number of deaths came to one-third or two-fifths of the population of the city, a proposition that seems plausible given what we know about mortality from the Black Death in other localities (Europe, for example) and from other epidemics in other periods. We may therefore estimate that a reasonable figure would be 100,000 dead."
[5]
Fifteenth century Cairo - Raymond
[6]
"total built-up area of no more than 450 hectares. If we estimate the population density at 400 residents per hectare - a plausible average for classical Arab cities - we obtain a total population in the neighborhood of 150,000 residents, a distinctly lower estimate than the (Admittedly hypothetical) estimate we reached for the city in the middle of the fourteenth century."
Suggested estimates: 200,000-250,000 CE in 1300 CE; 150,000-200,000 in 1400 CE; 140,000-180,000 in 1500 CE.
[7]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 136)
[2]: (Modelski 2003, 183)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 136-137)
[4]: (Raymond 2000, 116)
[5]: (Raymond 2000, 139-140)
[6]: (Raymond 2000, 152)
[7]: (Korotayev Andrey. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. May 2020.)
People.
4,800,000: 1400 CE. Egypt (2.8m), Levant (0.5m) and Syria (1.5m).
[1]
Demographic decline from 1348 CE (plague).
[2]
Egypt: 4 million prior to the Black Death in the middle of the 14th Century.
[3]
As a result of the Black Death "an Egyptian population of between 4.2 and 8 million may have declined by about one-quarter to one-third."
[4]
Suggested estimates: 5-6 million in 1300 CE, 3.5 million in 1400 CE; 3.2 million in 1500 CE
[5]
[1]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978, 227)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 116)
[3]: (Dols 1977, 149)
[4]: (Dols 1977, 218)
[5]: (Korotayev Andrey. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. May 2020.)
[1]
[2]
Pollack mentions cities, small towns, villages, and farming hamlets that are turned into villages once they become too populous.
[3]
1. Cairo, capital.
2. Provincial capitals (e.g. Damascus)
3Dependent cities (e.g. Mecca and Medina)
4. Large townships.
5. Small towns.
6. Villages
7. Hamlets and Tribes.
[1]: Luz, N. 2014. The Mamluk City in the Middle East: History, Culture, and the Urban Landscape. Cambridge University Press
[2]: Rabbat, N. 2010. Mamluk History through Architecture: Monuments, Culture and Politics in Medieval Egypt and Syria. Bloomsbury Publishing, 20
[3]: (39-40) Pollak, N. The General Organization of the Mamluk State. In, Hatwig, G. (ed) 2012. Muslims, Mongols and Crusaders. Routledge Press.
1. Sultan
2. Commander of Army
3. Naib al-Saltana (Viceroys of Egypt, Damascus etc.)
4. Emirs of a thousand
5. Emirs of a hundred
6. Emirs of forty
7. Emirs of ten
8. Junior officer
9. Individual soldier
_ Nicolle (1996)_
Sultan
Commander of Army
Mamluk I: Naib al-Saltana (Viceroys of Egypt, Damascus etc.)
Mamluk II: Atabak al-asakir (Father of the Leader of Soldiers)
Mamluk III: Other titles with largely non-military status functions
Mamluk IV: Regular Mamluks
Mamluk V: Junior officer.
Rajjala I: Janib unit infantry leader
Rajjala II: Tulb unit infantry leader
Rajjala III: Jarida unit infantry leader
Mamluk army "essentially the same" as Ayyubid.
Professional haqa with an elite of slave-recruited Mamluks, called Royal Mamluks. Under Ayyubids, infantry was organized within the Rajjala. There was a military unit called a janib. The tulb was a smaller unit. A jarida was a small unit. A sariya was used in ambushes.
[1]
_ Oliver (1977) describes the army structure this way _
Royal Mamluks
Of the Former Sultan
Of the Reigning Sultan
Of the Bodyguard and Pages
Of the Amirs
Mamluks of the Amirs
Of 100
Of 40
Of 10
Sons of Amirs and local population: Halqa. Initially knights of non-slave origin but eventually disappeared as military became a force of purely slave origin soldiers.
[2]
_ Army structure according to Raymond
[3]
_
Sultan’s Mamluks (elite corps)
The troops of the emirs
emirs ranked in a hierarchy rank determined how many men under thememirs of a thousand
[4]
emirs of a hundred
emirs of forty
emirs of ten
The halqa
[1]: (Nicolle 1996, 135-181)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 39-67)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 113)
[4]: (Raymond 2000, 187)
1. Sultan (Cairo)
During his absence Egypt/Cairo was governed by a viceroy (na’ib al-saltana)
[1]
_ Central government line _
[2]
2a. Central administration"Army officers came from the Mamluk ranks. High government officials were also recruited from their number."
[3]
"In a traditional society that lacked the concept of public or municipal agencies, as individuals, the members of this ruling class assumed responsibility for what we would consider public concerns."
[4]
_ Cairo line _
2cairo Magistracies. "The administration of Cairo and its inhabitants was in the hands of three traditional magistracies. The judges (qudah; sing. qadi) had a very broad jurisdiction that covered matters of civil law, and many urban problems were addressed in their courts.3cairo Chief of the Sergeants of the watch. Top police prefect.4cairo "The police prefects (wulah; sing. wali) saw to public order and security. They were particularly responsible for making the rounds at night and therefore also of fighting fires."
[5]
Overseer of the market (muhtasib)
[6]
"The quarter served as an important basis of communal association and as an essential administrative unit."
[7]
_ Egyptian line _
2egypt "diwan (government bureau) of Salar"
[8]
3egypt Na’ib, governor of a mamlaka, an administrative district
[9]
4egypt Governor of a small town
5egypt. Village head.
_ Syrian line _
2syria Syrian chief governor
[10]
Viceroy?
3syria Na’ib, governor of a mamlaka, an administrative district
[9]
e.g. the bureaucracy niyaba of Safed contained:4. katib al-sirr/katib al-insha (chief secretary who wrote governor’s letters, read mail)
[11]
5. muwaqqi (who ratified the governor’s letters)
[11]
6. katib al-dast
[11]
7. katib al-darj (minor correspondent)
[11]
nazir (overseer who was responsible for financial management, expenditure, salaries)
[12]
kashif (inspector of bridges, agricultural lands and irrigation canals)
[13]
muhtasib (market inspector)
[13]
nazir diwan al-jaysh (superintendant of fiefs)
[13]
nazir al-mal (financial controller)
[13]
4. governor also had a dawadar (personal assistant) often sent to the villages to represent the governor and an ustadar (private caretaker)
[14]
4syria wali al-wulat of a niyaba
[8]
"The wali was a police officer in charge of keeping law and order in town. His rank: Amir of Ten. One should not confuse him with wali al-wulat, who was higher in authority and rank, being an Amir of Forty, and who was responsible for the minor sub-sections (wilaya) of the entire region (niyaba).
[8]
often the wali al-wulat also doubled as the shadd or mushidd al-dawawin "whose duty it was to check and observe the collection of the Sultans’ dues and taxes from state estates."
[8]
5syria Wali, officer of a small town"The wali was a police officer in charge of keeping law and order in town. His rank: Amir of Ten. One should not confuse him with wali al-wulat, who was higher in authority and rank, being an Amir of Forty, and who was responsible for the minor sub-sections (wilaya) of the entire region (niyaba).
[8]
6syria Village head.
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 152)
[2]: (Nicolle 1996, 135-181)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 113)
[4]: (Dols 1977, 152)
[5]: (Raymond 2000, 153)
[6]: (Raymond 2000, 154)
[7]: (Dols 1977, 153)
[8]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 178)
[9]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 169)
[10]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 176)
[11]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 180-181)
[12]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 180)
[13]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 181-182)
[14]: (Joseph Drory in Winter and Levanoni 2004, 172)
[1]
"For rank-and-file mamluks, military salaries were their main sources of income and it is clear that throughout the medieval period, military wages were almost always above those earned by skilled craftsmen."
[2]
"‘Iqta fiefs were allocated to those of senior or sometimes middle rank. These men were called muqtas. In the Mamluk Sultanate a muqta maintained a certain number of soldiers, his own mamluks and sometimes other lesser troops. He and his military household then owed military service to the sultan. The muqta also paid his troops’ expenses from the revenues of his ‘iqta. The men would then purchase what they required on campaign from the suq al-‘askar ‘soldiers’ market’. Each regular soldier was also paid, either by his muqta or by the sultan."
[2]
[1]: (Oliver 1977, 41)
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
Army funded by Mamluk elite through their iqta (estates). These iqta holders formed an aristocracy, and they usually lived in Cairo or Damascus (rather than on their estates).
[1]
"‘Iqta fiefs were allocated to those of senior or sometimes middle rank. These men were called muqtas. In the Mamluk Sultanate a muqta maintained a certain number of soldiers, his own mamluks and sometimes other lesser troops. He and his military household then owed military service to the sultan. The muqta also paid his troops’ expenses from the revenues of his ‘iqta. The men would then purchase what they required on campaign from the suq al-‘askar ‘soldiers’ market’. Each regular soldier was also paid, either by his muqta or by the sultan."
[2]
"Army officers came from the Mamluk ranks."
[3]
[1]: (Nicolle 1996,135-181)
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 113)
Government offices, customs offices, postal stations, offices of military administration.
Register of the army, in Cairo.
"Promotions were granted according to precise rules and could lead to the highest positions in the government, both military (atabak al-asakir, general-in-chief; amir silah, director of the arsenal; amir akhur, supreme commander of the army) and administrative (amir majlis, emir of the audience; dawawar, chancellor), as well as to the governorship of the provinces. ... To be acclaimed sultan was naturally the chief career objective of a capable and ambitious emir. One might reach it through seniority, merit, cabal, intrigue, or violence."
[1]
However, from 1290-1382 CE the top position of sultan was inherited by 17 descendants of Sultan Qalawun.
[2]
"Elite personnel of the regime, including the sultan, were slaves or former slaves. In principle, although there were important exceptions, no one could be a member of the military elite unless he was of foreign origin (usually Turkish or Circassian), purchased and raised as a slave, and trained to be a soldier and administrator. No native of Egypt or Syria could ever belong to this elite, nor, in principle, could the sons of slaves."
[3]
"The Mamluks’ descendants, the awlad al-nas ... were in theory prohibited from holding political or military office. The rule, however, was subject to exceptions..."
[4]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 113-114)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 114)
[3]: (Lapidus 2012, 247)
[4]: (Raymond 2000, 113)
"Although mamluks could marry, their children could never become mamluks. Thus, the foreign elite had constantly to be replenished by fresh recruits from the northern borderlands of Islam, educated in the discipline of a military household, and dependent for their manumission and their subsequent promotion upon their professional patrons and superiors."
[1]
Professional bureaucrats recruited from the ranks of enslaved people and free people (e.g. tax administrators were mostly free Copts).
[2]
[1]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 16) Oliver R and Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[2]: (Korotayev Andrey. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. May 2020.)
four major schools of law
"In 1263, Sultan Baybars (1260-77) appointed a chief qadi for each of the four major schools of law, a chief shaykh (master, teacher) for the Sufis, and a syndic for the corporation of descendants of the Prophet (naqib al-ashraf). Under the Mamluks the state appointed judges, legal administrators, professors, Sufi shaykhs, prayer leaders and other Muslim officials."
[1]
[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 249)
Chief judges.
[1]
"In 1263, Sultan Baybars (1260-77) appointed a chief qadi for each of the four major schools of law, a chief shaykh (master, teacher) for the Sufis, and a syndic for the corporation of descendants of the Prophet (naqib al-ashraf). Under the Mamluks the state appointed judges, legal administrators, professors, Sufi shaykhs, prayer leaders and other Muslim officials."
[2]
Judges.
[3]
[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 248)
[2]: (Lapidus 2012, 249)
[3]: (Dols 1977, 153)
"In a traditional society that lacked the concept of public or municipal agencies, as individuals, the members of this ruling class assumed responsibility for what we would consider public concerns. The mamluks were patrons of art, schools, and mosques; builders of roads, bridges, and markets; and overseers of "public works," morality, and charity." [1] "The markets were open structures on either side of a street at a crossroads, in most cases simply a series of shops. Generally grouped according to occupation, they were most often spontaneous developments, although some were built by powerful personages. ... The caravanserais, on the other and, were monumental structures." [2] "Several commercial structures were built, among them the caravanserai that, taking the name of its builder, Emir Jaharkas al-Khalili al-Yalbughawi, was to become the most famous center of commerce in Cairo, and the present-day symbol of its old suqs, the Khan al-Khalili (before 1389)." [3]
[1]: (Dols 1977, 152)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 158)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 142)
"For its water supply Cairo depended on the carriage of water from the Nile and its distribution to the streets and houses, a service paid for by the user: "One encounters many strong, handsome pack camels, used solely to carry water from the Nile. which is then sold throughout the city," noted Frescobaldi in 1384." [1] "The remarkable aqueduct that brought water from the Nile to the Citadel of Cairo was built in steps, each originally marked by a saqiya water-mill. It was re-activated in the first half of the 14th century to bring water to a Mamluk palace complex at the southern end of the citadel." [2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 154)
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
"For its water supply Cairo depended on the carriage of water from the Nile and its distribution to the streets and houses, a service paid for by the user: "One encounters many strong, handsome pack camels, used solely to carry water from the Nile. which is then sold throughout the city," noted Frescobaldi in 1384." [1] "The remarkable aqueduct that brought water from the Nile to the Citadel of Cairo was built in steps, each originally marked by a saqiya water-mill. It was re-activated in the first half of the 14th century to bring water to a Mamluk palace complex at the southern end of the citadel." [2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 154)
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
"In a traditional society that lacked the concept of public or municipal agencies, as individuals, the members of this ruling class assumed responsibility for what we would consider public concerns. The mamluks were patrons of art, schools, and mosques; builders of roads, bridges, and markets; and overseers of "public works," morality, and charity." [1]
[1]: (Dols 1977, 152)
Seven bridges constructed over al-Nasiri canal between 1325 and 1376 CE. [1] "In a traditional society that lacked the concept of public or municipal agencies, as individuals, the members of this ruling class assumed responsibility for what we would consider public concerns. The mamluks were patrons of art, schools, and mosques; builders of roads, bridges, and markets; and overseers of "public works," morality, and charity." [2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 125)
[2]: (Dols 1977, 152)
Experimental weapons research, such as advanced pyrotechnics and a "rocket-powered torpedo". [1] Hospital established by Sultan Qalaun (1279-1290 CE) "included not only wards with a regular medical staff, lecture rooms, and laboratories but also an adjoining library of medical, theological, and legal books." [2]
[1]: (Nicolle 1996, 159-181)
[2]: (Dols 1977, 177)
Silver coinage. [1] dirhams. [2] dinars. [3] Fluctuation in economy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries which impacted the rise and fall of wages. Unskilled labourers made on average 3 dinars per month [4] [5] Plague and other factors in the 15th century caused fluctuation and decrease in wages for unskilled workers, some receiving 3 dinars each month and 33.3 dinars per year, some waqf workers as low as 7 gold dinars per year. [6]
[1]: (Levanoni 1995, 133)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 116)
[4]: Scheidel, W. 2010. Real Wages in Early Economies: Evidence for Living Standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 53(3), 425-462.
[5]: Meloy, J. 2001. Copper Money in Late Mamluk Cairo: Chaos or Control? Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 44(3), 293-321
[6]: (42) Borsch, Stuart. 2014. "Subsisting or Succumbing? Falling Wages in the Era of Plague." Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg Working Papers 13 (May 2014): 1-46
Ditch. Camp was a circle of tents with a ditch and an advance guard. [1] "A concern for morale and a tradition of efficient administration lay behind the cleanliness and good order of mamluk military camps, especially during sieges such as that of Acre in 1291. Such encampments had baths with warm water and professional attendants, along with latrines for the officers and probably for ordinary mamluks." [2]
[1]: (Nicolle 1996, 135-181)
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
"Though the iron mines of Lebanon had been virtually exhausted, craftsmen still made high quality arms in Damascus. Those who produced real steel were closely supervised by the Mamluk authorities to stop cheating or a decline in standards." [1]
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
traction trebuchets preceded counter-weight trebuchet - were they still in use?
"A major development came around 1230 when knowledge of saltpetre reached the Middle East from Central Asia. A primitive form of gunpowder was soon in use, combining ten parts saltpetre, two of charcoal and one and a half of sulphur. ... Whether or not this primitive gunpowder was used as early as 1300 to propel a projectile, or (more probably) to spray a form of grapeshot from a fixed position, remains a hotly debated question." [1]
[1]: (Nicolle 1986, 40) Nicolle, D. 1986. Saladin and the Saracens. Osprey Publishing Ltd. Oxford.
Present in Mamluk Egypt e.g. Cairo (mentioned in the context of riding so pack use must be inferred) where foreign travellers were "particularly impressed by the omnipresence of donkeys. ... Abu Sa’id is quoted as remarking that he had never before seen so many donkeys in any city he had visited." [1]
[1]: (Shehada 2013, 19) Housni Alkhateeb Shehada. 2013. Mamluks and Animals. Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam. BRILL. Leiden.