mamluk sultanate interactions with the environment

[71] Meanwhile, the perceived harshness of Yalbugha's educational methods and his refusal to rescind his disciplinary reforms led to a mamluk backlash. Warring continued between the Mamluks and Mongols, with the Mamluks consistently defeating the Central Asian invaders. The muhtasib in Cairo was the most senior of the four and his position was akin to that of a finance minister. those soldiers who were imported while young slaves. Source: Ro4444, CC-BY-SA-4.0, Wikimedia Commons. [152] More often than not, the sons of sultans were elected by the senior emirs with the ultimate intention that they serve as convenient figureheads presiding over an oligarchy of the emirs. ", "Chapter Nineteen Bedouin and Mamluks in Egypt-Co-Existence in a State of Duality", "Chapter 7 Personal loyalty and political power of the Mamluks in the eighteenth century", "The Art of the Mamluk Period (12501517)", "The logistics of the Mamluk-Mongol war, with special reference to the Battle of Wadi'l-Khaznadar, 1299 C.E. iii DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108557382 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Print publication year: 2022 Access options [100], Before Shaykh died in 1421, he sought to offset the power of the Circassian mamluks by importing Turkish mamluks and installing a Turk as atabeg al-asakir in 1420 to serve as regent for his infant son Ahmad. 1: Map of the Mamluk Sultanate, 1317 CE Author: User "Ro4444" Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC BY-SA 4.0. He left about 20,000 men to fortify their position in the Middle East. [52] In 1268, the Makurian king, David I, overthrew the Mamluks' vassal and in 1272, raided the Mamluk Red Sea port of Aydhab. [18] Despite his close relationship with his mamluks, tensions existed between as-Salih and the Salihiyyah, and a number of Salihi mamluks were imprisoned or exiled throughout as-Salih's reign. [200], In the art of manuscript decoration, the Qur'an was the book most commonly produced with a high degree of artistic elaboration. [84][85] This led to resentment from Hasan's own mamluks, led by Emir Yalbugha al-Umari, who killed Hasan in 1361. [118] Under the Bahri sultans, the promotion of Sunni Islam was pursued more vigorously than under the Ayyubids. Husam al-Din ibn Baghdad accused the Mamluks of the murders due to their Ottoman sympathies at a council of Arab shaykhs. [76] Unable to meet the military's need for new mamluks, the sultans often resorted to turning Ilkhanid deserters or prisoners of war into soldiers, sometimes while the war the prisoners were captured in was still ongoing. The Mamluk Sultanate has been added to your Cart Add a gift receipt for easy returns Have one to sell? [117], A wide range of Islamic religious expression existed in Egypt during the early Mamluk era, namely Sunni Islam and its major madhabs (schools of thought) and various Sufi orders, but also small communities of Ismai'li Shia Muslims,[118] particularly in Upper Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were the nominal sovereigns (figureheads). Shah Ismail I sent an embassy to Venice and Syria inviting them to join arms and recover the territory taken from them by the Ottoman Empire. [195] Mediterranean trade was dominated by spices, such as pepper, muscat nuts and flowers, cloves and cinnamon, as well as medicinal drugs and indigo. [71] Concurrent with an-Nasir Muhammad's reign was the disintegration of the Ilkhanate into several smaller dynastic states and the consequent Mamluk effort to establish diplomatic and commercial relationships with the new political entities. [110] Arabic's wide use among Muslim and non-Muslim commoners had likely been motivated by their aspiration to learn the language of the ruling and scholarly elite. [92] In Cairo, Barquq's loyalists took over the citadel and arrested as-Salih Hajji. [158] Three years later, Baybars reestablished the institution of the caliphate by making a member of the Abbasid family, al-Mustansir, caliph, who in turn confirmed Baybars as sultan. While Inal and his close circle of officials were notably less tyrannical and brutal than their predecessors, the transgressions of the julban . [155], The sultan was the head of state and among his powers and responsibilities were issuing and enforcing specific legal orders and general rules, making the decision to go to war, levying taxes for military campaigns, ensuring the proportionate distribution of food supplies throughout the sultanate and, in some cases, overseeing the investigation and punishment of alleged criminals. The Crusade ended with King Louis IX defeated and ransomed back to France for a hefty sum (some historians estimate the ransom to be equivalent to a third of France's economy at the time). [171] Every agricultural commodity was taxed by the state, with the sultan's treasury taking the largest share of the revenues; emirs and major private brokers followed. [165] Starting with the reign of Qalawun, the sultan and the military administration maintained lists of all emirs throughout the sultanate and defined their roles as part of the right or left flanks of the army should they be mobilized for war. [63] While the Salihi mamluks were typically Kipchak Turks, Qalawun diversified mamluk ranks purchasing numerous non-Turks, particularly Circassians, forming out of them the Burji regiment. The Mamluks were well trained in combat, governance, and other skills in their slavery, equipping them with the tools necessary to rule a state. They were mostly drawn from among the Cumans-Kipchaks who controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea. [217][218][219], State in Egypt, Hejaz and the Levant (12501517), Extent of the Mamluk Sultanate under Sultan, "The Cambridge History of Egypt", Volume 1, (1998) P. 250. 5. [50], Baybars initiated a more aggressive policy than his predecessors toward the Christian Nubian kingdom of Makuria on Egypt's southern border. [131] Many Coptic Christians decided to convert to Islam or at least adopt the outward expressions of Muslim faith to protect their employment, avoid jizyah taxation and avoid official measures against them. [92] Ali died in May 1381 and was succeeded by his nine-year-old brother, as-Salih Hajji. [45], Another major component to Baybar's rule was intrastate communication. [167] The offices of ustadar (majordomo), hajib (chamberlain), emir jandar and khazindar (treasurer), which existed during the Ayyubid period, were preserved, but Baybars established the additional offices of dawadar, emir akhur, ru'us al-nawab and emir majlis. After thorough training in various fields such as martial arts, court etiquette and Islamic sciences, these slaves were freed. After Napoleon Bonaparte weakened the Ottoman Empire by occupying Egypt in the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire tumbled into civil war. [45], Through opening diplomatic channels with the Mongols, Baybars also sought to stifle a potential alliance between the Mongols and the Christian powers of Europe, while also sowing divisions between the Mongol Ilkhanate and the Mongol Golden Horde. Having defeated the Hashashin assassins of Persia and successfully besieged the illustrious city of Baghdad in 1258, the Mongols seemed unstoppable. Its 100% free. [44], Baybars rebuilt the Bahriyyah's former headquarters in Rawdah island and put Qalawun, one of his most senior associates, in command of it. [171][183] Agricultural products were the main exports of Mamluk Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Gender roles and relations/patriarchy . [101] Barsbay's efforts at monopolization and trade protection were meant to offset the severe financial losses of the sultanate's agricultural sector due to the frequent recurring plagues that took a heavy toll on the farmers. Afterward, he purged and/or arrested the Mu'izziyah and any Bahri mamluks he could locate in Egypt in a bid to eliminate dissent towards his rule. [177] The iqta of the Muslims differed from the European concept of fiefs in that iqta represented a right to collect revenue from a fixed territory and was accorded to an officer (emir) as income and as a financial source to provision his soldiers. There were four muhtasibs based in Cairo, Alexandria, al-Fustat and Lower Egypt. [53], Meanwhile, Louis IX of France launched the Eighth Crusade, this time targeting Tunis with the intention of ultimately invading Egypt. [176], The system largely consisted of land assignments from the state in return for military services. In May 1285, he captured the Marqab fortress and garrisoned it. [215], After the Ottoman conquest of 1517, new Ottoman-style buildings were introduced, however the Mamluk style continued to be repeated or combined with Ottoman elements in many subsequent monuments. [28], Aybak was one of the oldest of the Salihi mamluks and a senior member of as-Salih's inner circle, despite only being an emir awsat (middle-ranked emir). [30] Aybak moved against the Bahriyyah in 1251 by shutting down their Rawda headquarters in a bid to sap Aktay's power base. 1. Abstract: Agriculture has been the main source of the economy for all dynasties established in Egypt and the Mamluk kingdom was no exception. [197] This contributed to and coincided with the fall of the sultanate. The Abbasid Caliphate, for example, was ruled by caliphs, descendants of Muhammed, while the Mamluk Sultanate was ruled by non-descendant rulers: sultans. [105], Although the Mamluk Sultanate was ended by the Ottoman conquest, the Mamluks as a "self-perpetuating, largely Turkish-speaking warrior class" continued to influence politics under Ottoman rule. For example, enameled glassware was a prominent industry during the first half of the Mamluk period but declined significantly in the 15th century. [33] The Syrian mamluks were led by their patron Jamal ad-Din Aydughdi and were assigned most of the iqta of Aktay and his allies. [200] An excellent example of the later period is a series of candlesticks commissioned by Qaytbay for Muhammad's tomb in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. Many Bedouin women mourned his death. [71] An-Nasir Muhammad also attempted to assert permanent Mamluk control over the Makurian vassal state, launching an invasion in 1316 and installing a Muslim Nubian king, Abdallah Barshambu. [100] However, following his death, a Circassian emir, Tatar, married Shaykh's widow, ousted the atabeg al-asakir and assumed power. [190] Early into their rule, the Mamluks sought to expand their role in foreign trade, and to this end Baybars signed a commercial treaty with Genoa, while Qalawun signed a similar agreement with Ceylon. [123] While Ibn Taymiyyah was not a typical representative of Sunni orthodoxy in the sultanate, he was the most prominent Muslim scholar of the Mamluk era and was arrested numerous times by the Mamluk government for his religious teachings, which are still influential in the modern-day Muslim world. 1. Map depicting the territorial holdings of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1337 CE. Empire.) . [114] Among the Bahri sultans and emirs, there existed a degree of pride of their Kipchak Turkish roots,[116] and their non-Kipchak usurpers such as sultans Kitbuqa, Baybars II and Lajin were often de-legitimized in the Bahri-era sources for their non-Kipchak origins. Emirates NBD. However, an-Nasir Muhammad's senior aide, Qawsun, held real power and ultimately imprisoned and executed Abu Bakr and had an-Nasir Muhammad's infant son, al-Ashraf Kujuk, appointed in his stead. [189], Egypt and Syria played a central transit role in international trade in the Middle Ages. Then, Aybak's successor, another Mamluk commander named Qutuz, officially founded the Mamluk Sultanate in 1250 CE. The Mamluk Sultanate lasted until 1517 when it was consumed by the expanding Ottoman Empire. As such it was a fundamental feature of Mamluk society, on the one hand giving way to a military hierarchy that crystallized into an even more developed economic hierarchy and that had substantial economic interests in society at large; on the other hand, it deeply characterized the realm's economic and social development, its agriculture, grain trade, and rural demography in particular. [84] The emirs Shaykhu and Sirghitmish deposed Salih and restored Hasan in a coup in 1355, after which Hasan gradually purged Taz, Shaykhu and Sirghitmish and their mamluks from his administration. [165] To bring further uniformity to the military, Baybars and Qalawun standardized the undefined Ayyubid policies regarding the distribution of iqtaat to emirs. [98] Shaykh's main goal in office was restoration of the state's authority within the sultanate, which saw further plagues in 14151417 and 1420. [45] During his early reign and through heavy financial expense, Baybars rebuilt and stringently trained the Mamluk army, which grew from 10,000 cavalry to 40,000, with a 4,000-strong royal guard at its core. The iqta system was inherited from the Ayyubids and further organized under the Mamluks to fit their military needs. [147], The Mamluk sultan was the ultimate government authority, while he delegated power to provincial governors known as nuwwab as-saltana (deputy sultans, sing. [93] Towards the end of the 14th century, challengers to the Mamluks emerged in Anatolia, including the Ottoman dynasty who absorbed the territory of the Karamanids in central Anatolia and installed a vassal as the leader of the Dulkadirids in 1399, and the Turkic allies of Timur, the Aq Qoyonlu and Kara Qoyounlu tribes who entered southern and eastern Anatolia in the same time period. [131] By the end of the Mamluk period, the ratio of Muslims to Christians in Egypt may have risen to 10:1. [82], Following Hajji's death, the senior emirs of an-Nasir Muhammad hastily appointed another of his sons, the twelve-year-old an-Nasir Hasan. Lasting from the deposition of the Ayyubid dynasty (c. 1250) to the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, this regime of slave-soldiers incorporated many of the political structures and cultural traditions of its Fatimid and Ayyubid predecessors. [160] The halqa had inferior status to the mamluk regiments. Monumental decorated entrance portals became common compared to earlier periods, often carved with muqarnas. [148] In Hama, the Mamluks had permitted the Ayyubids to continue to govern until 1341 (its popular governor in 1320, Abu'l Fida, was granted the honorary title of sultan by an-Nasir Muhammad), but otherwise the nuwwab of the provinces were Mamluk emirs.

Geodis Company Access Code, Articles M