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Late Medieval caliphate which ruled Egypt, Hejaz and the Levant from 1250-1517 The Mamluk Sultanate (Arabic: سلطنة المماليك‎, romanized: Salṭanat al-Mamālīk) was a medieval realm spanning Egypt, the Levant and Hejaz that established itself as a caliphate. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Historians have traditionally broken the era of Mamluk rule into two periods, one covering 1250–1382 and the other 1382–1517. Western historians call the former the "Baḥrī" period and the latter the "Burjī" because of the political dominance of the regimes known by those names during the respective eras. Modern sources also refer to the same divisions as the "Turkish"[4][5][6][7][8] and "Circassian" periods to stress the change in the ethnic origins of most Mamluks.[4][5][6][7][8] The term "Mamluk Sultanate" is a modern historiographical term. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, soldiers predominantly of Cuman-Kipchaks (from Crimea),[10] Circassian, Abkhazian,[11] Oghuz Turks[12] and Georgian slave origin.[13][14] While Mamluks were purchased, their status was above that of ordinary slaves, who were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks. Mamluks were considered to be "true lords", with social status above citizens of Egypt. Though it declined towards the end of its existence, at its height the sultanate represented the zenith of medieval Egyptian and Levantine political, economic, and cultural glory in the Islamic Golden Age.[15] Name [ edit ] The term 'Mamluk Sultanate' is a modern historiographical term. Arabic sources for the period of the Bahri, Mamluks refer to the dynasty as the State of the Turks (Arabic: دولة الاتراك‎, Dawlat al-Atrāk; دولة الترك, Dawlat al-Turk) or State of Turkey (الدولة التركية, al-Dawla al-Turkiyya).[16][17] The other official name was State of the Circassians (دولة الجراكسة, Dawlat al-Jarākisa) during Burji rule. A variant thereof (الدولة التركية الجراكسية, al-Dawla al-Turkiyya al-Jarakisiyya) emphasized the fact that the Circassians were Turkish-speaking. History [ edit ] Origins [ edit ] The mamluk was an "owned slave", distinguished from the ghulam, or household slave. After thorough training in various fields such as martial arts, court etiquette and Islamic sciences, these slaves were freed. However, they were still expected to remain loyal to their master and serve his household.[18] Mamluks had formed a part of the state or military apparatus in Syria and Egypt since at least the 9th century, rising to become governing dynasties of Egypt and the Levant during the Tulunid and Ikhshidid periods.[19] Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of Egypt's military under Ayyubid rule in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, beginning with Sultan Saladin ( r . 1174–1193) who replaced the Fatimids' black African infantry with mamluks.[20] Each Ayyubid sultan and high-ranking emir had a private mamluk corps.[21] Most of the mamluks in the Ayyubids' service were ethnic Kipchak Turks from Central Asia, who, upon entering service, were converted to Sunni Islam and taught Arabic.[20] A mamluk was highly committed to his master, to whom he often referred as "father", and was in turn treated more as a kinsman than as a slave.[20] Sultan as-Salih Ayyub ( r . 1240–1249), the last of the Ayyubid sultans, had acquired some 1 000 mamluks (some of them free-born) from Syria, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula by 1229, while serving as na'ib (viceroy) of Egypt during the absence of his father, Sultan al-Kamil ( r . 1218–1238). These mamluks were called the "Salihiyyah" (singular "Salihi") after their master.[22] A Mamluk training with a lance, early 16th century As-Salih became sultan of Egypt in 1240, and, upon his accession to the Ayyubid throne, he manumitted and promoted large numbers of his original and newly recruited Mamluks on the condition that they remain in his service.[22] To provision his mamluks, as-Salih forcibly seized the iqtaʿat (fiefs; singular iqtaʿ) of his predecessors' emirs.[22] As-Salih sought to create a paramilitary apparatus in Egypt loyal to himself, and his aggressive recruitment and promotion of mamluks led contemporaries to view Egypt as "Salihi-ridden", according to historian Winslow William Clifford.[23] 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.[24] While historian Stephen Humphreys asserts that the Salihiyyah's increasing dominance of the state did not personally threaten as-Salih due to their fidelity to him, Clifford believes that the Salihiyyah developed an autonomy within the state that fell short of such loyalty.[25] Opposition among the Salihiyyah to as-Salih rose when the latter ordered the assassination of his brother Abu Bakr al-Adil in 1249, a task that affronted many of the Salihiyyah and by whom was rejected; four of the Salihiyyah ultimately agreed to execute the controversial operation.[24] Rise to power [ edit ] Conflict with the Ayyubids [ edit ] Tensions between As-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub and his mamluks came to a head later in 1249 when Louis IX of France's forces captured Damietta in their bid to conquer Egypt during the Seventh Crusade.[24] As-Salih believed Damietta should not have been evacuated and was rumored to have threatened punitive action against the Damietta garrison. The rumor, accentuated by the execution of civilian notables who evacuated Damietta, provoked a mutiny by the garrison of his camp in al-Mansurah, which included numerous Salihi mamluks.[24] The situation was calmed after the intervention of the atabeg al-askar (commander of the military), Fakhr ad-Din ibn Shaykh al-Shuyukh.[24] As the Crusaders advanced, as-Salih died and was succeeded by his son al-Muazzam Turanshah,[26] who was in al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) at the time. Initially, the Salihiyyah welcomed Turanshah's succession, with many greeting him and requesting confirmation of their administrative posts and iqtaʿ assignments at his arrival to the Egyptian frontier.[27] However, Turanshah sought to challenge the dominance of the Salihiyyah in the paramilitary apparatus by promoting his Kurdish retinue from Upper Mesopotamia ("al-Jazira" in Arabic) and the Levant as a counterweight to the predominantly Turkic Salihiyyah.[27] Prior to Turanshah's arrival at the front facing the French, the Bahriyyah, a junior regiment of the Salihiyyah commanded by Baibars al-Buduqdari, defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of al-Mansurah on 11 February 1250. On 27 February, Turanshah, as new sultan, arrived in Egypt from Hasankeyf (Turkish for "rock fortress"), where he had been Emir (Arabic for "Prince") of Hisn Kayfa (Arabic for "rock fortress") since AH 636 (1238/1239 CE), and went straight to al-Mansurah to lead the Egyptian army. On 5 April 1250, covered by the darkness of night, the Crusaders evacuated their camp opposite al-Mansurah and began to flee northward towards Damietta. The Egyptians followed them into the Battle of Fariskur where the Egyptians utterly destroyed the Crusaders on 6 April. King Louis IX and a few of his surviving nobles surrendered and were taken as prisoners, effectively ending the Seventh Crusade.[28] Turanshah proceeded to place his own entourage and mamluks, known as the "Mu'azzamiyah",[26] in positions of authority to the detriment of Salihi interests. On 2 May 1250,[26] a group of disgruntled Salihi officers had Turanshah assassinated at his camp in Fariskur.[29] According to Humphreys, as-Salih's frequent wars against his Ayyubid relatives likely voided the Salihiyyah's loyalty to other members of the Ayyubid dynasty.[30] Nonetheless, the Salihiyyah were careful not to depict the assassination of Turanshah as an assault against Ayyubid legitimacy, but rather an act against a deviant of the Muslim polity.[31] Moreover, an electoral college dominated by the Salihiyyah convened to choose a successor to Turanshah among the Ayyubid emirs, with opinion largely split between an-Nasir Yusuf of Damascus and al-Mughith Umar of al-Karak. Ultimately, however, consensus settled on as-Salih's widow, Shajar ad-Durr.[31] Shajar ad-Durr ensured the Salihiyyah's dominance of the paramilitary elite, and ushered in a process of establishing patronage and kinship ties with the Salihiyyah. In particular, she cultivated close ties with the Jamdari (pl. Jamdariyyah) and Bahri (pl. "Bahriyyah") elements of the Salihiyyah, by distributing to them iqtaʿ and other benefits.[32] The Bahriyya were named after the Arabic word bahr, meaning "sea" or "large river", because their barracks was located on the Nile River island of Rawda. They were mostly drawn from among the Cumans-Kipchaks who controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea.[21] Shajar al-Durr's efforts and the lingering desire among the military in Egypt to maintain the Ayyubid state was made evident when the Salihi mamluk and atabeg al-askar, Aybak, attempted to claim the sultanate, but was prevented from monopolizing power by the army and the Bahriyyah and Jamdariyyah, which asserted that only an Ayyubid could exercise sultanic authority.[31][32] The Bahriyyah compelled Aybak to share power with al-Ashraf Musa, a grandson of Sultan al-Kamil.[33]