…in the establishment of the Mamluk dynasty, which ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517 and whose descendants survived in Egypt as an important political force during the Ottoman occupation (1517–1798). The Kurdish general Saladin, who gained control of Egypt in 1169, followed what by then constituted a tradition…

During the Mamluk period Egypt became the unrivaled political, economic, and cultural centre of the eastern Arabic-speaking zone of the Muslim world. Symbolic of this development was the reestablishment in 1261 under the Mamluk rulers of…

Kipchak slaves—called Mamlūks—serving in the Ayyūbid dynasty’s armies came to play important roles in the history of Egypt and Syria, where they formed the Mamlūk state, the remnants of which survived until the 19th century.

…Egypt was completed with the Mamluk accession to power following the battle at Al-Manṣūrah (1250), but the dynasty persisted in some areas of Syria until 1260; in Ḥamāh, Ayyubid governance was in place, at least nominally, in the first half of the 14th century. The local Ayyubid dynasts survived with…

…on the administration of the Mamlūk dominions of Egypt and Syria became standard sources for Mamlūk history.

Mamluk constructions of the 13th to the 15th century, as well as coats of arms of Mamluk rulers, are found along David Street and near the Gate of the Chain at the Western Wall. The constructions are characterized by “stalactite” or “honeycomb” (muqarnas) ornamentation and…

The Mamluks were chiefly enslaved Turks and Circassians from the Caucasus and Central Asia who formed the mercenary army of the various feudal states of Syria and Egypt. During the 13th century the importance of this military caste grew as the older feudal…

… atabegs of Mosul) and the Mamlūks, engraving became almost the only form of decoration, but only to serve as a basis for the yet richer technique of inlaying, or damascening: small silver plates and wires, themselves delicately engraved, were hammered into the ribs and surfaces, which were hollowed out and…

Al-Azhar was revived under the Mamluks (1250–1517), who elevated it to be one of the most revered centers of Sunni scholarship in the world. It was damaged in an earthquake in the early 1300s and subsequently repaired. Additions, alterations, and renovations to the university’s structures were undertaken at various points…

In 1260 the Mamlūks of Egypt, a new dynasty that had arisen from the leaders of former slave bodyguards of the sultan, defeated the Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūt in Syria and halted their southward advance. The Muslim states of Syria were caught in the middle, and the Latin…

…of strong links with the Mamluks of Egypt. The Mamluks were themselves Kipchak Turks from the Kipchak steppes of southern Russia over which the khans of the Golden Horde ruled.

…pitted the il-khans against the Mamluks of Egypt was not resolved until 1323, when a peace was concluded between the sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir and Abū Saʿīd (1316–35), the last effective il-khan. After Abū Saʿīd’s death the Il-Khanate, no longer held together by Mongol efficiency, disintegrated.

…from direct hostilities until the Mamlūks established their control over Egypt (1250). In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the Mamlūk sultans sent regular military expeditions against Maqurrah, as much to rid Egypt of uncontrollable Arab Bedouin as to capture Nubia. The Mamlūks never succeeded in actually occupying Maqurrah,…

…10, 1257) was the first Mamlūk sultan of Egypt (1250–57) in the Turkish, or Baḥrī, line.

…the most eminent of the Mamlūk sultans of Egypt and Syria, which he ruled from 1260 to 1277. He is noted both for his military campaigns against Mongols and crusaders and for his internal administrative reforms. The Sirat Baybars, a folk account purporting to be his life story, is still…

…1412, Damascus) was the 26th Mamlūk ruler of Egypt and Syria; his reign was marked by a loss of internal control of the Mamlūk kingdom, whose rulers were descendants of slaves. Faraj was the victim of forces—including foreign invasion and domestic feuds—that he did not create and could not control.

…for suspected collusion with the Mamlūks. Though now the Muslim head of a Muslim state, Ghāzān took up the hereditary quarrel of his family with these champions of Islām. In 1299–1300 he invaded Syria, defeated the Egyptian army at Homs, and made a triumphal entry into Damascus. Upon his return…

Mamlūk Egypt, a high government official. The term originally designated a chamberlain, but under the Spanish Umayyads (756–1031) the ḥājib functioned as a chief minister, paralleling the position of vizier (wazīr) in the eastern caliphates. He was the chief representative of the caliph and directed…

He eliminated the Mamlūks, the former ruling oligarchy, expropriated the old landholding classes, turned the religious class into pensioners of the government, restricted the activities of the native merchant and artisan groups, neutralized the Bedouins, and crushed all movements of rebellion among the peasants. The task of rebuilding…

Mamlūk sultan of Egypt (1279–90), the founder of a dynasty that ruled that country for a century.

…Parvāna opened diplomatic relations with Mamlūks of Syria and Egypt, a military corps of servile origin that had supplanted the Ayyūbids and had emerged as the most formidable enemies of the Mongols. The Mamlūk ruler Baybars I invaded Anatolia in 1277, defeated the Mongols, and penetrated as far west as…

Although the Yemeni Rasūlids sometimes disputed with the Mamluks the overlordship of the Holy Cities, the Mamluks generally prevailed. Egyptians and Meccans attacked al-Mujāhid the Rasūlid on a pilgrimage in 1350, and he was held prisoner in Egypt though released later.

…continued, however, until 1517; the Mamlūk sultan Baybars I, shortly after his defeat of the Mongols, invited a member of the ʿAbbāsid house to “invest” him and to live in Cairo as spiritual head of all Muslims.

The Mamlūk (slave) al-Ḥusayn ibn Salāmah, who had preserved the kingdom from collapse after the Yaʿfurid attack, was succeeded by his slave Marjān, who divided the government of the kingdom between two other Mamlūks, the northern provinces falling to Najāḥ, the capital and southern regions coming…