21 Facts About Mamluk Sultanate

1.

Mamluk Sultanate, known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries.

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2.

Mamluk Sultanate was an "owned slave", distinguished from the ghulam, or household slave.

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3.

Mamluk Sultanate regiments constituted the backbone of Egypt's military under Ayyubid rule in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, beginning with Sultan Saladin who replaced the Fatimids' black African infantry with mamluks.

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4.

Mamluk Sultanate served as the principal bulwark against the more junior Bahri and Jamdari elements of the Salihiyyah, and his promotion to atabeg al-askar was met by Bahri rioting in Cairo, the first of many examples of intra-Salihi tensions surrounding Aybak's ascendancy.

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5.

Qalawun was the last Salihi sultan and following his death in 1290, his son, al-Ashraf Khalil, drew his legitimacy as a Mamluk Sultanate by emphasizing his lineage from Qalawun, thus inaugurating the Qalawuni period of Bahri rule.

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6.

Mamluk Sultanate then assigned emirates to over thirty of his own mamluks.

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7.

Mamluk Sultanate's rule was challenged in Syria in 1389 during a revolt by the Mamluk governor of Malatya, Mintash, and the governor of Aleppo, Yalbugha an-Nasiri, who was a former mamluk of both an-Nasir Hasan and Yalbugha al-Umari.

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8.

Secure now against Ismail I, in 1516 he drew together a great army aiming at conquering Egypt, but to obscure the fact he presented the mobilisation of his army as being part of the war against Ismail I The war started in 1516 which led to the later incorporation of Egypt and its dependencies in the Ottoman Empire, with Mamluk cavalry proving no match for the Ottoman artillery and the janissaries.

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9.

Mamluk Sultanate survived until 1517, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

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10.

Between 1688 and 1755, Mamluk Sultanate beys, allied with Bedouin and factions within the Ottoman garrison, deposed no fewer than thirty-four governors.

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11.

The Mamluk Sultanate influence remained a force in Egyptian politics until their abrupt end at the hands of Muhammad Ali in 1811.

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12.

One Mamluk Sultanate, Al-Alfi was reported by al-Jabarti to marry Bedouin women many times, sending those back he did not like and keeping those that pleased him.

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13.

The process was not formalized and the electoral body was never defined, but typically consisted of the emirs and mamluks of whatever Mamluk Sultanate faction held sway; usurpations of the throne by rival factions were relatively common.

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14.

Lesser-ranked Mamluk Sultanate emirs viewed the sultan more as a peer whom they entrusted with ultimate authority and as a benefactor whom they expected would guarantee their salaries and monopoly on the military.

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15.

In general, the monetary system during the Mamluk Sultanate period was highly unstable due to frequent monetary changes enacted by various sultans.

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16.

Typically, a qadi or Muslim scholar would occupy the post, but in the 15th century, Mamluk Sultanate emirs began to be appointed as muhtasibs in an effort to compensate emirs during cash shortages or as a result of the gradual shift of the muhtasib's role from the legal realm to one of enforcement.

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17.

The Mamluk Sultanate state resolved to increase allotments by dispersing an individual emir's iqta?at over several provinces and for brief terms.

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18.

Mamluk Sultanate Egypt was a major producer of textiles and a supplier of raw materials for Western Europe.

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19.

For example, Mamluk Sultanate glassware had an influence on the Venetian glass industry.

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20.

Mamluk Sultanate architecture is distinguished in part by the construction of multi-functional buildings whose floor plans became increasingly creative and complex due to the limited available space in the city and the desire to make monuments visually dominant in their urban surroundings.

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21.

In modern times, from the late 19th century onwards, a "neo-Mamluk Sultanate" style appeared, partly as a nationalist response against Ottoman and European styles, in an effort to promote local "Egyptian" styles.

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