The Mamluk Sultanate

Discover the history of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517) — a powerful Islamic empire that ruled Egypt, Syria, and parts of Arabia. Founded by slave soldiers, the Mamluks established a strong military state, defeated the Mongols and Crusaders, and turned Cairo into a flourishing center of culture, trade, and learning during the medieval period.

The Mamluk Sultanate

The Mamluk Sultanate

Introduction

The Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517 CE) was one of the most remarkable Islamic empires of the medieval world, emerging from a unique social and military system in which enslaved soldiers rose to rule. Originating from Turkic and Circassian slave warriors who served under the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks seized power in Egypt and established a sultanate that would dominate much of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Under their rule, Egypt and Syria became the political, economic, and cultural heart of the Islamic world. The Mamluks are best known for their defeat of the Mongols at Ain Jalut (1260) and the eradication of the Crusader states, which safeguarded the Islamic heartlands. Beyond their military prowess, they transformed Cairo into a flourishing center of art, architecture, learning, and trade, marking a golden age in medieval Islamic history.

The beginning of the Seventh Crusade

The year was 1249, and Louis IX’s seventh crusade had just gotten underway when as-Salih, the last Ayyubid ruler, took to his deathbed. Under the eminent threat of a Crusader invasion, as-Salih’s wife, Shajar al-Durr, a Turkish concubine, agreed to take over the reins of government until her son, Turanshah, could assert himself. But he had never truly gained the trust of his father, and a cabal of mamluks loyal to as-Salih murdered Turanshah. They then raised Shajar al-Durr to the throne. Her rule resulted in much controversy and suffered from many internal problems. According to tradition, she sought recognition as sultana from the figurehead Abbasid Caliph, but he refused to pay homage to her.

Mamluks, an elite warrior race

The mamluks responded by installing into power one of their own, a certain Aybak. He married Shajar al-Durr, and she abdicated the throne. The most powerful mamluk in Egypt, Aybak placated some of the opposition to Shajar al-Durr’s rule and also dealt with Louis IX’s crusade to Egypt. While mamluks did not possess a tribal asabiyah in the traditional sense, they did constitute a proud caste of elite warriors who had an exaggerated sense of group solidarity. As a social group, their former status as slaves provided them with enough group cohesion to overthrow the Ayyubids.

Prisoner Shazar Al Dur

Shajar al-Durr remained unsatisfied in her new role, however. In fact, she saw herself as another Cleopatra and wanted to rule in her own right. She also feared the consequences of Aybak’s potential marriage alliance with the daughter of the Ayyubid Emir of Mosul. In 1257, Shajar al-Durr had Aybak strangled and claimed that he had died a natural death. However, Qutuz, a leading mamluk, did not believe her story. Under duress, her servants confessed to the murder. Qutuz arrested Shajar al-Durr and imprisoned her in the Red Tower. Not long thereafter, Aybak’s fifteen year old son, al-Mansur Ali, had Shajar al-Durr stripped and beaten to death. He as sultan for two years until Qutuz deposed him, as he thought the sultanate needed a strong and capable ruler to deal with the looming Mongol threat.

The war between the Mamluks and the Mughals

The Mamluk Sultanate appeared to be on a collision course with Hulagu’s Ilkhanate, one of Mongol Empire’s four khanates, whose forces were advancing through the Mamluk-held Levant. Then in the summer of 1260, the Great Khan Möngke died and Hulagu returned home with the bulk of his forces to participate in the required khuriltai, or Mongol assembly, perhaps expecting to be elected the next Great Khan. Hulagu left his general Kitbuqa behind with a smaller army to fight the Mamluks. In July of that year, a confrontation took place at Ayn Jalut, near Lake Tiberias. During the ensuing battle, the Mamluk General Baybars drew out the Mongols with a feigned retreat. Hiding behind a hill, Aybak’s mamluk heavy cavalrymen ambushed the unsuspecting Mongols and defeated them in close combat, securing a rare victory over the Mongols. The Mamluks captured and executed Kitbuqa, and forced the remnants of the Mongol forces to retreat.

Baybars murdered Qutuz

Just days after their signal victory over the Mongols, Baybars (1260 – 1277) murdered Qutuz, continuing a pattern of rule in which only the strongest Mamluk rulers could survive. Too clever to be deposed, Baybars developed a strong military oligarchy that rested on the iqta system, a centralized system of land tenure based on money that, by the thirteenth century, had been perfected in Egypt. Under the iqta system, individual mamluks received a percentage of profit from the sale of crops for their upkeep. Baybars owned all of the land, so mamluks only received the right to collect taxes from the land, a right akin to usufruct in feudal Europe.

The spread of Sufism

Baybars relocated the Abbasid Caliph from Baghdad to Cairo in order to present a veneer of legitimacy to mamluk rule. Since the Ptolemys, Egypt had been ruled by foreigners. In fact, the only impact native-born Egyptians had was in religion. The Mamluk Sultanate practiced Sunni Islam and emphasized Sufism. Sufis believed that traditional, orthodox Islam lacked compassion, and their Sufism helped conversion efforts because of its emphasis on love and making a closer connection to God, as opposed to a strict adherence to the dictates of the Quran. Sufis desired something more from religion and emphasized integrating the reality of God into man. Sufis thought that they could achieve a union with God based on love, a notion that contrasted sharply with the general perception of orthodox Islam which denied believers a direct experience to God because Muhammad represented the Seal of the Prophets and all understanding of God came through the prophet. They set up new religious schools to pass on this Sufism. These madrasa consisted of a complex, with a mosque, school, hospital, and water supply for each community.

Black Death

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the decline of the Mamluk Empire. Several internal and external factors help explain their decline. Domestically, the Black Death ravaged Egypt for years. In fact, it continued in North Africa longer than it did in Europe. This plague caused economic disruption in the sultanate. With fewer people available, labor, or human capital, became much more expensive. Further, plague-related inflation destabilized the economy, as the value of goods and services also rose. The mamluks responded to inflationary pressures by increasing taxes, but their revenue from those taxes actually decreased. This decrease made it difficult for the mamluks to maintain their irrigation networks and, without irrigation, agricultural productivity decreased.

Rise of the Ottomans

Externally, plague was not the only cause of inflation. Columbus’s discovery of the New World began a process in which gold began filtering through Europe and into North Africa. Egypt’s weak economy could not absorb this massive influx of money, thus causing more inflation. New trade routes, like the one pioneered by Vasco de Gama, offered Europeans direct sea routes to Asia. No longer was Egypt the middleman for long-distance trade between Europe and Asia, thereby losing out on valuable revenue from tariffs. The profits from commerce transferred to the ascending states of Portugal and Spain. The decline of the Mamluks set the stage for the rise of the Ottomans.

Conclusion

The Mamluk Sultanate stands as a testament to how a society of former slaves could rise to create one of the most powerful and enduring empires of the medieval Islamic world. Through their military strength, administrative skill, and devotion to Islam, the Mamluks preserved the cultural and political integrity of the Middle East during times of great upheaval. Their victory over the Mongols and Crusaders secured the region from external threats, while their patronage of art, architecture, and scholarship transformed Cairo into a beacon of Islamic civilization. Although their rule eventually succumbed to internal decline and the Ottoman conquest in 1517, the Mamluks’ legacy endures in the monumental architecture, historical memory, and cultural achievements they left behind.

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