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During the Burji period of the Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt was ruled by an elite ’slave’ military caste of Circassian origin. These rulers had replaced the earlier Bahri Dynasty, of Turkish origin, in 1382 CE during the preceding ’crisis phase’. With the assassination of Sultan Faraj in 1412 CE, Mamluk Egypt entered a ’relative recovery’ with ’periods of brilliance’, although problems such as demographic stagnation did not disappear.
[1]
The most renowned of the rulers were the Sultans Barsbay and Qaytbay, but they did little to prevent the deterioration of the Mamluk institutions and the economic collapse and disorder that preceded the Ottoman takeover.
[2]
We begin our Burji Mamluk period in 1412 and end it with the fall of the dynasty to Ottoman forces in 1517.
[3]
Population and political organization
Since the children of mamluks could by law never become mamluks,
[4]
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.
[5]
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.
[6]
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.
[7]
Nevertheless, the deck was stacked such that from 1290 to 1382 CE, the sultanate was inherited by 17 different descendants of Sultan Qalawun.
[8]
The Mamluk sultan ruled from Cairo and during his absence from the capital, Egypt was governed by his viceroy, the na’ib al-saltana.
[9]
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,
[10]
as well as more formally through the na’ib, governor of a mamlaka administrative district.
[11]
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’.
[12]
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.
[13]
Although struck by plague and famines during the crisis period, Cairo was never short of people: a lower-bound estimate of its resident population places it at about 150,000 people.
[9]
The population of the sultanate perhaps recovered slightly in this period, reaching about 6 million in 1500 CE.
[14]
Infrastructure and Public Services
Like previous Mamluk rulers, the Burji Sultans expended considerable resources on public works projects - both directly and indirectly via patronage. They built and restored schools, hostels, bathhouses and mosques, and, under Sultan Qayt Bey (reigned 1468‒1496) in particular, arts and architecture flourished.
[15]
The El Muayyad Mosque (1420 CE), the Mosque of Barsbay (1425 CE),
[16]
and the mausoleum complex of Sultan Qaitbay (1468‒1496 CE) all date from this period. Cairo also had a water supply system, paid for by its users, that conducted water from the Nile to the city’s streets and houses.
[17]
Waqf (religious foundations) were set up through initial endowments in property with the intention that they would become self-funding. Many public baths, caravanserais and shops were built by charitable and religious foundations,
[18]
often in combination with initial patronage from the sultan or other Mamluk aristocrats. Sultan Qaytbay built many urbu (multi-storey apartments) and used the revenues to fund a charitable foundation for the inhabitants of Medina.
[18]
However, despite the continued financing of elaborate construction projects, increasingly the government could not afford the upkeep of essential infrastructure such as canals, dams and irrigation systems.
[5]
These public works were matched by lavish private buildings for the sultan and his retainers. Sultan Ghuri notably built an ornate palace and garden, with soil and trees imported from Syria and an aqueduct to water it.
[19]
Mamluks treated themselves and foreign dignitaries to entertainment in hippodromes and to polo tournaments on the maydan (public square).
[6]
In the royal pavilion (maqad), ’incense burned and wine flowed, while musicians played and poets recited to a court society clad in silk and sprinkled with rosewater, the beards of its male luminaries perfumed with the musk of civet’.
[20]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 116-17) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 165) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[3]: (Winter 1992, xiii) Michael Winter. 1992. Egyptian Society under Ottoman Rule, 1517‒1798. London: Routledge.
[4]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 16) Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore. 2001. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[5]: (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.
[6]: (Raymond 2000, 112) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[7]: (Raymond 2000, 113-14) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[8]: (Raymond 2000, 114) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[9]: (Raymond 2000, 152) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[10]: (Lapidus 2012, 250) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11]: (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.
[12]: (Lapidus 2012, 249) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[13]: (Raymond 2000, 153) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[14]: (McEvedy and Jones, 1978, 138-47, 227) Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones. 1978. Atlas of World Population History. London: Allen Lane.
[15]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 21) Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore. 2001. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[16]: (Raymond 2000, 173-74) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[17]: (Raymond 2000, 154) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[18]: (Raymond 2000, 174) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[19]: (Raymond 2000, 180) André Raymond. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[20]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 21, 24) Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore. 2001. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
| 36 R |
| Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III |
| Cairo |
| Circassian Mamluks | |
| Burji Mamluks | |
| Mamluk Sultanate | |
| Bahri Dynasty | |
| State of Turkey | |
| Dawla al Turkiyya |
| none |
| Islam |
| Ottoman Empire II |
| 11,000,000 km2 |
| continuity |
| Preceding: Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate II (eg_mamluk_sultanate_2) [continuity] |
| unitary state |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Year Range | Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III (eg_mamluk_sultanate_3) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1412 CE 1516 CE) | Upper Egypt |
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)." [1]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
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)." [1]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
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)." [1]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
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)." [1]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
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)." [1]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
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)." [1]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
End of the Ottoman-Mamluk war (1485-1491 CE). Sultan Qaitbay (1468-1496 CE) commissioned a great amount of architecture and conducted 16 military campaigns.
For Cairo this period "is considered a period of decline, interrupted only by remissions during the reigns of Barsbay and Qaytbay."
[1]
Cairo experienced an "urban and economic revitalization" in its "ancient center in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries."
[2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 165)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 175)
End of the Ottoman-Mamluk war (1485-1491 CE). Sultan Qaitbay (1468-1496 CE) commissioned a great amount of architecture and conducted 16 military campaigns.
For Cairo this period "is considered a period of decline, interrupted only by remissions during the reigns of Barsbay and Qaytbay."
[1]
Cairo experienced an "urban and economic revitalization" in its "ancient center in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries."
[2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 165)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 175)
"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]
First Burji Sultan was Barquq from 1382 CE.
For Cairo this period "is considered a period of decline, interrupted only by remissions during thereigns of Barsbay and Qaytbay: the great Mamluk institutions experienced irreversible deterioration; the country faced external problems to the north that would bring about its fall, its demographic and economic bases collapsed, disorder and insecurity reigned."
[2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 116-117)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 165)
People. Originally coded as 150,000. Modified to a range to account for more possibilities. 150,000 corresponds to a mid-14th century estimate. AD
Fourteenth century Cairo - Raymond
[1]
"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).
[2]
"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."
[3]
Fifteenth century Cairo - Raymond
[4]
"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.
[5]
Cairo. 360,000: 1400 CE; 380,000: 1450 CE; 400,000: 1500 CE
[6]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 136-137)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 116)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 139-140)
[4]: (Raymond 2000, 152)
[5]: (Korotayev Andrey. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. May 2020.)
[6]: (Chase-Dunn Spreadsheet)
People.
6,000,000: 1500 CE. Egypt (4m), Levant (0.5m) and Syria (1.5m).
[1]
Suggested estimates: 5-6 million in 1300 CE, 3.5 million in 1400 CE; 3.2 million in 1500 CE
[2]
[1]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978)
[2]: (Korotayev Andrey. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. May 2020.)
[1]
1. Cairo, capital.
2. Provincial capitals (e.g. Damascus)
3. Dependent cities (e.g. Mecca and Medina)
4. Large townships.
5. Small towns.
[2]
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
1. Sultan
2. Ulama - religious scholars
[1]
3. Imams
???
Under Islamic law no slave could be sovereign. All Mamluk sultans performed a ritual demonstration of manumission at an inaugural ceremony. Manumission was performed at about 18 years old, following the Mamluk’s training.
[2]
"Under the Mamluks the state appointed 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. Never did the state attempt to define the content of religious teaching. Thus, the "Mamluks extended the Saljuq-Iranian pattern of organized religious life to Syria and Egypt."
[3]
[1]: (Dols 1977, 153)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 39-67)
[3]: (Lapidus 2012, 249)
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
_ 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]
"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."
[2]
"The Mamluks’ descendants, the awlad al-nas ... were in theory prohibited from holding political or military office. The rule, however, was subject to exceptions..."
[3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 113-114)
[2]: (Lapidus 2012, 247)
[3]: (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.)
Mamluk slaves trained and likely tested and advanced on merit but career depended on master achieving office. No centralized examination system for the government. needs to be checked
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]
"Under the Mamluks the state appointed judges, legal administrators, professors, Sufi shaykhs, prayer leaders, and other Muslim officials."
[2]
"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."
[3]
[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 248)
[2]: (Lapidus 2002, 294)
[3]: (Lapidus 2012, 249)
Markets "maintained right up until the end of Mamluk rule". [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] "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." [3] Mamluk urban development: "the Suwayqa al-Izzi ... would remain one of the busiest markets in Cairo right to the end of the eighteenth century." [4] Caravanserais were built in the early 15th century by charitable and religious foundations. [5] Sultan Ghuri built a "great caravanseri (wakala) in 1504 CE and rebuilt the Khan- al-Khalili. [6] One of Qatybay’s top officials, Emir Azback min Tutukh, governor of Syria and commander-in-chief (atabek) between 1476-1484 CE undertook a construction project intended to finance a religious foundation (waqf). Buildings included a commercial and financial complex and shops." [7]
[1]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 21) Oliver R and Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[2]: (Dols 1977, 152)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 158)
[4]: (Raymond 2000, 132)
[5]: (Raymond 2000, 174)
[6]: (Raymond 2000, 174-175)
[7]: (Raymond 2000, 182-183)
"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." Something similar was said in 1436 CE by Pero Tafur. [1] "Sabil public water source north of Cairo’s Citadel. Dating from the mid-14th century, it is decorated with the heraldic motif of its sponsor, the Mamluk Amir al-Kabir Sayf al-Din Shaykhu al-Nasiri." [2] "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." Something similar was said in 1436 CE by Pero Tafur. [1] "Sabil public water source north of Cairo’s Citadel. Dating from the mid-14th century, it is decorated with the heraldic motif of its sponsor, the Mamluk Amir al-Kabir Sayf al-Din Shaykhu al-Nasiri." [2] "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.
Roads "maintained right up until the end of Mamluk rule". [1] In 1322 CE Simon Simeonis described the streets of Cairo as "narrow, tortuous, dark, rich in recesses, full of dust and other refuse, and unpaved." [2] "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." [3]
[1]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 21) Oliver R and Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 154)
[3]: (Dols 1977, 152)
Bridges "maintained right up until the end of Mamluk rule". [1] Bridge over Abu’l Managga irrigation canal. [2] "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." [3]
[1]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 21) Oliver R and Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
[3]: (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)
Al-Maqrizi (1364-1442 CE), historian of Cairo [1] . Historical topography Cairo and Egypt, work on plagues, coins, Islam in Ethiopia. Ibn Iyas (1448-1525 CE): chronicler with some very detailed work. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 CE) last 20 years in Egypt. [2] Al Suyuti (1445-1505 CE) universal historian, author of over 500 books. [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 117)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 66)
[3]: (Oliver 1977, 67)
Silver coinage becoming copper coinage following the Circassian takeover. [1] dirhams. [2] 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 [3] [4] 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. [5]
[1]: (Levanoni 1995, 133)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 112)
[3]: 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.
[4]: 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
[5]: (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] 1517 CE the troops of Ottoman sultan Selim "stormed the fortified camp of al-Raydaniyya, outside Cairo." [3]
[1]: (Nicolle 1996, 135-181)
[2]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
[3]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 25) Oliver R and Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
"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." However many armourers lost as a result of Timur’s invasion and abduction of craftsmen, and although the industry was not finished the Mamluks subsequently made efforts to import European weapons, armour, and craftsmen. [1]
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
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.
Naval shipyards in Bulaq. Cyprus conquered 1426 CE. [1] Fleet built in response to Portuguese activity in the Indian Ocean. Sent to India in 1507 CE. [2] The Mamluks had marines, lead by a qaid, and a rais al milaha who captained military ship and commanded sailors. [3]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 185)
[2]: (Oliver 1977, 39-67)
[3]: (Nicolle 1996, 159-181)
’Mamluk attack on Yemen ‘Husayn, with the main body of vessels, set out for Aden while Salman caught up with the trading vessels which were laden with goods. He left them unharmed and simply exchanged his own sea captain for the Tahirid on the sultan’s ship. This was in order to ensure that they obtained the revenues from the sale of the goods and he also took the precaution of sending a letter to the sultan of Gujarat telling him that Yemen now belonged to them. The ship’s captain was instructed to return with provisions, wood and iron.’"’ Husayn al-Kurdf then began his siege of Aden, heavily bombarding the city from the ships.’ [1] ’
[1]: Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 131, Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/
| Luxury Precious Metal: | Present |
| Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
| Consumption by Elite: | Present |
‘‘‘ Gold, silver. “Following the economic crisis of the early fifteenth century, the use of precious metal diminished, but this seems to have been temporary. The golden saddles (sarj dhahab) were mostly made of gilded silver, as is revealed on one occasion when Sultan Abu Sa‘id Qansuh (r. 1498–1500) appeared dressed entirely in white, with all the trappings, including the saddle of his horse, in ‘white silver without gilding. Pure gold is also occasionally mentioned. The gold or silver would have been applied as sheets on the crescent-shaped front and back of the saddle, following an old Asian tradition that was also valid for Mongol saddles. In a period of crisis during the reign of al-Nasir Ahmad (r. 1342), copper was mixed into the precious metal.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 16]
| Luxury Manufactured Goods: | Present |
| Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
| Consumption by Elite: | Present |
“Alongside the epigraphic textiles of Dar al-Tiraz, the major emblematic gift items given by the sultans that constantly figure in historical accounts were luxurious arms and armour, and horses with lavish trappings, notably golden and bejewelled saddles upholstered with velvet and silk.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 15] “This sultan, who had a pronounced taste for ceremonial pomp, used to ride in processions, as he did on his return from a visit to Alexandria and on his departure to Aleppo to fight the Ottomans, accompanied by horsemen on saddles adorned with gold and crystal or studded with carnelian and other gemstones.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 16] “Golden saddles with brocade and velvet upholstery belonged to the sultan’s and the caliph’s attire, and to the insignia bestowed by the sultan on his emirs and prominent guests. Unlike the robes of honour, which only the sultan could bestow, the saddle was a gift that emirs frequently offered to the sultan. Mamluk chroniclers usually refer to a brocaded caparison (kanbush zarkash) accompanying the saddle, the two items forming a ceremonial set.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 16]
| Luxury Food: | Present |
| Place(s) of Provenance: | Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III |
| Consumption by Common People: | Inferred Present |
“Balsam oil was one of the precious Mamluk gifts, and its value was said to be equivalent to gold. Egyptian balsam was reputed to be of superior quality, unparalleled anywhere else, and the state held the monopoly of its production and trade. The balsam oil was obtained in small quantities by making an incision in a tree, or rather a shrub, grown in a walled heavily guarded garden at Matariyya/‘Ayn Shams (Heliopolis) on the northern outskirts of Cairo. It was harvested in a special ceremony attended by state employees and sometimes foreign dignitaries, who then brought it to the royal treasury, from where it was dispatched, only with special authorisation from the sultan, to various hospitals in Egypt and Syria” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 8]
| Luxury Fabrics: | Present |
| Place(s) of Provenance: | Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III |
| Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
| Consumption by Elite: | Present |
| Consumption by Common People: | Present |
“…ceremonial textiles from Alexandria had a special status in the composition of Mamluk diplomatic gifts, being mentioned alongside military objects and horse trappings as a major and a regular item in all gift packages.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 11] “The importance of wraps should not be underestimated. Documents and manuscripts are described as being wrapped in silk and silk brocaded textiles, and the wrap of the royal saddle made of gold and leather belonged to the insignia of royalty. Saddles offered as gifts were also presented in a special silk wrap” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 25] “The Alexandrian textiles are usually described as products of the 152Alexandrian royal manufacture the Dar al-Tiraz. Since the Fatimid period, Alexandria had been a major centre for textile production of silk, linen and cotton, and the seat of Dar al-Tiraz, where the ceremonial gowns with embroidered inscription bands were woven” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 11] “The tiraz industry that flourished under the Fatimids served not only the regal custom of bestowing robes of honour on dignitaries, but also seemed to serve the role of supplying the general market with inscribed textiles.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 11] “He emphasises the lavish robes and headgear of embroidered silk brocade from the exclusive royal production of Dar al-Tiraz of Alexandria, mentioning the amount of gold that was woven into them. On one occasion the gold embroidered in an ermine-lined robe weighed more than 100 mithqals” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 13] “Hierarchy was also to be signalled in the elaboration of the silver belts worn by the emirs, which increased in value according to rank.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 13] "The tiraz industry that flourished under the Fatimids served not only the regal custom of bestowing robes of honour on dignitaries, but also seemed to serve the role of supplying the general market with inscribed textiles." [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 11] “According to Maqrizi, fur became so widespread under the subsequent sultans that even ordinary soldiers and minor bureaucrats would wear garments with sable (sammur), lynx (washq), ermine (qaqum) and squirrel (sinjab). He adds: ‘one may say that there is not a single woman of the well-to-do class who does not wear sable and other furs, and nowadays people use fur on a very large scale’.[121] This had not been the case in the fourteenth century, when fur was far less affordable and ermine was worn only by the sultan and his wives. The new fashion introduced by Barquq, the first Circassian sultan and the one who henceforth shifted the recruitment of mamluks from the Crimea to the Caucasus, suggests that fur-adorned costume may have become associated with Circassian Mamluk identity.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 14]
| Luxury Drink/Alcohol: | Present |
| Place(s) of Provenance: | Aragon Kingdom ; Republic of Venice III ; Kingdom of Cyprus; Kingdom of Castile and Aragon |
| Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
| Consumption by Elite: | Present |
| Consumption by Common People: | Absent |
“Generally, different social groups drank different drinks. The particular preferences of the Mamluks notwithstanding, the city’s population enjoyed, above all, wine and beer, two basic kinds of alcohol drunk in the Mediterranean-Near Eastern world since remote antiquity. And, as in antiquity, but also as in Europe of the Middle Ages, the choice between them was a matter of social standing: grain beer, whose production was easier and cheaper, was generally the drink of the common people, while wine, more expensive due to its tricky fermentation and the demands of viticulture, was the beverage of the rich.” [Lewicka 2011, p. 485] The following suggests that most luxury alcohol (wine) was imported. Note that Crete was part of the Venetian Republic, that Cyprus also was sold to the latter in the late 15th century, that Sicily was part of the Kingdom of Aragon which eventually merged with that of Castile. “In any case, by the time the Mamluk rule was coming to an end, vineyards became exceptionally scarce in the country; so much so that, as the accounts of the foreigners who visited Egypt between the fifteenth and eighteen centuries suggest, the only available wine was exclusively an imported product, mostly from Crete and Cyprus, but also from Syracuse and Italy” [Lewicka 2011, p. 498] “While the common people could afford, apart from beer, only some poor wine, the well-to-do and the elites enjoyed very fine wines, either locally-made or imported, particularly in the case of foreign residents who were not too fond of the local varieties. … It is not improbable that the same technique was applied in the Middle Ages.” [Lewicka 2011, p. 495]
| Luxury Precious Stone: | Present |
| Place(s) of Provenance: | Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate III |
| Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
Emerald, other gemstones. “Emerald was a local speciality of Egypt, the production of which was a state monopoly.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 10] “In the fifteenth century gemstones were added to the saddle’s ornament.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 16] “Emerald was a local speciality of Egypt, the production of which was a state monopoly.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 10]
| Luxury Fine Ceramic Wares: | Present |
| Place(s) of Provenance: | Great Ming |
| Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
| Consumption by Elite: | Present |
“At the table of a Mamluk sultan of the fifteenth century, porcelain was present as a matter of course.” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 4] “On the wedding of Sultan al-Ghawri’s son, sugar was offered to the guests in 20 large bowls of Chinese porcelain” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 4] “The large quantity of Yüan and Ming porcelain found in Syria and the millions of shards excavated in Fustat in Cairo attest to a long tradition of Egyptian consumption of Chinese porcelain” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 5] “On the wedding of Sultan al-Ghawri’s son, sugar was offered to the guests in 20 large bowls of Chinese porcelain, and at one of his banquets, food was served in 400 porcelain dishes” [Behrens-Abouseif 2016, p. 4]