Mameluke - Mameluke (or
Mamluk or Mameluk or mamaluke or mamluq or marmeluke or marmluk) (Arabic:
مملوك (singular), مماليك
Mameluke - Mameluke (or
Mamluk or Mameluk or mamaluke or mamluq or marmeluke or marmluk) (Arabic:
مملوك (singular), مماليك (plural), literally means "owned by the king" or
"slave." It refers to white slave soldiers, primarily Christians, like the
Janissaries but also Mongols, who converted to Islam and were employed by
various rulers including the Abbasid
dynasties and the
Mamelukes converted to Islam and served the Muslim rulers until modern times.
And like the Janissaries, the Mameluke caste was governed by rules that
supposedly prevented children of Mamelukes from inheriting their position and
similar restrictions designed to ensure they would never be a threat. As in the
case of the Janissary soldiers, the rules were often eroded or disregarded. The
Mamelukes seized power for a time in Egypt, Damascus and India and set up their own
dynasties. They did two signal services to the
world: They stopped the advance of the Mongols at Ayn Jalut, and they finally
drove the Crusaders from Palestine.
|Mameluke Mithrab, Al Azhar,
At its largest extent, the Mameluke empire
included the three most important religious cities of Islam: Mecca, Medina and
Jerusalem. However, the real capital in terms of political power as well as
culture and development, was always Cairo. The sack of Baghdad by Mongols had
eliminated it as a Muslim center, so Cairo was also the economic capital of the
Muslim world in their time. The Mameluke empire reached its greatest extent and
highest cultural achievements from 1250 to about 1350, immediately after their
rise to power in Egypt. They left behind achievements in historiography and in
architecture, including renovations and new building work in Cairo and
Jerusalem. The madrassas, khans (hostels) and other buildings that the Mamelukes
built are often characterized by the alternate use of red and white stones,
geometric black and white stone interlace ("ablaq"), softening of angles using
domes, use of "stalactite" like formations in domes and arches, and elaborate
facades with carved stone frames as if in a picture.
The map shows a portion of the Mameluke empire in the Middle East,
excluding the Indian branch.
Mamelukes in Egypt
The Mamelukes were evidently brought to
Egypt originally with the armies of
and his uncle Sharkuh. The last of the
Sultans, as Salih, brought additional slaves from foreign lands to shore
up his army. In 1250, the French Crusaders invaded Egypt.
In June 1249, the Seventh Crusade under
Louis IX of France landed in Egypt. The Crusaders conquered Damietta. The
Egyptians retreated. When the Egyptian sultan As-Salih Ayyub died, power passed
briefly to his son Turanshah and then his favorite wife Shajar Al-Durr. She took
control with Mameluke support and the Egyptians counterattacked. The Bahri
commander Baibars defeated Louis, who was captured by the Mamlukes in March 1250
Shajar married a Mameluke commander named