The Mamluk Sultanate: Military Slaves turned Sultans

Image description: Sultan Hassan & El Refai

PART 1: White military slavery in the Muslim World: Overview

Slavery in Muslim society was institutionalized in 9th century Baghdad. It

quickly became a major political and social element of Muslim elite
circles. For men within the slavery institution there were two main paths
of career: soldiers or harem eunuchs. For women the option was of
concubines. Turkish military slaves, or Mamluks, were the most
prominent and visible among them. As discussed in earlier in this Lesson,
mamluks gained political power that defies there legal status as slaves or
even emancipated slaves. Mamluks even appointed caliphs and sultans
and deposed them. However, they were always behind the scenes.
Despite their power and ability to take control, they refrained from
officially taking power into their own hands. This changed in mid-13th
century Cairo. The Mamluks established a sultanate in Egypt and Syria
which they ruled on their own behalf. How did it happen that a group of
emancipated slaves was able to found a strong sultanate? The Mamluk
transition to the political front occurred on the background of several
simultaneous crises, both internal and external, as we shall see below.

PART 2: The Middle East and the Ayyubid family

The Muslim Middle East during the 11th and 13th centuries was
fragmented, following Abbasid decentralization, Turkish mass migration
into the Middle East, and the Crusades. The Abbasid Caliphs were still in
Baghdad and claimed world dominance. Nonetheless, its effective power
on the ground was in the hands of others, namely: local and regional
powers. The most noted among them in the 13th century were the
Ayyubids in Egypt and Syria. After the death of Saladin in 1193, his
Ayyubid descendants were rather unstable, like other regional powers,
because of divided loyalties within the ruling family, tribal clans, and
elite power factions.
PART 3: The Ayyubids and their Mamluks

New term:

Title – English AL-MALIK AL-SALIH AYYUB

Title – Arabic ‫الملك الصالح أيوب‬
Description An Ayyubid Sultan (reigned 1240 – 1249) who was
(English) the first Sultan in Egypt to establish a personal
guard composed of Mamluks.

During the 1240s, the Ayyubid Sultan al-Malik al-Salih Ayub (reigned
1240 – 1249) tried to install an effective rule loyal personally to him. He
did so by establishing his own personal guard, comprised of Mamluks; a
method he borrowed from the Abbasids. The Mongol invasions into
central Asia of the 1230s increased the slave markets so there was no
shortage of Turkish young men to be bought. Like the Abbasids caliphs,
the Ayyubid sultan became dependent on his Mamluks. He relied on
them in fighting the Crusaders and his opponents within the Ayyubid
family and for his personal safety.

PART 4: The Ayyubid political crisis in 1249

New term:

Title – English TURANSHAH

Title – Arabic ‫توران شاه‬
Description The only son of the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Malik al-Salih
(English) Ayyub, who was executed by his father's Mamluks.
In 1249 the Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Ayyub died unexpectedly in a
dramatic moment: the Seventh Crusade lead by Louis IX of France
landed in Egypt. The sultan had only one son, Turan Shah, who did not
have the support and loyalty of his father's Mamluks. Finally, in 1250
they executed him on the banks of the Nile. The Mamluks saw that
Turan Shah starting his own Mamluk army, which will make his father's
Mamluks redundant, and feared he may physically annihilate them.

PART 5: The Mamluk taking over

New terms:

Title – English SHAJAR AL-DURR

Title – Arabic ‫شجر الدر‬
Description The concubine and widow of the Ayyubid Sultan,
(English) Al-Malik al-Salih Ayyub. After his death, she
became the ruler of the Ayyubid state for a short
time.

c
Title – English AYN JALUT
Title – Arabic ‫عين جالوت‬
Description The "Spring of Goliath" in the Jezreel Valley in
(English) Israel; the site of the 1260 battle between the
Mamluks and the Mongols.
At this juncture the Mamluks of the Ayyubid Sultan Salih Ayyub took
over in an official and declarative manner and assumed the title 'sultan'.
It was a moment of rare political opportunity. On the one hand there
was no other member of the Ayyubid family, except concubine and
widow, Shajar al-Durr, who enjoyed some prestige. She did rule for a few
months, and even after marrying she was a ruling and signing royal
decrees. A Woman, however, cannot be the formal head of state. On the
other hand, it seemed the Mamluk army was the only group in Egypt
able to repel the Crusaders from entering Cairo, and that gave them
legitimacy they may have otherwise lacked. The Mamluks seized this
opportunity and in 1250 they founded their own sultanate. They started
as the rulers of Egypt, in 1260 upon vanquishing the Mongols in the
Battle of cAyn Jalut (Goliath’s Spring) in the Jezreel Valley, their rulership
extended all the way to Syria and lasted till the Ottoman conquest of the
Middle East in 1516-1517.

PART 6: A unique political system

New term:

Title – English KHUSHDASHIYYA

Title – Arabic ‫خشداشية‬
Description Comradeship and extreme loyalty between
(English) Mamluks who belong to the same military unit, and
between them and their officer.
The Mamluks continued the Ayyubid administrative and legal systems.
However, they devised a unique method of transferring authority from
one ruler to another based on Mamluk affiliation. Instead of blood ties
and biological family contacts, affiliation with a Mamluk household and a
career as a military slave from either a Turkic or Caucasian ethnic origin
were the required criteria for being eligible for the sultanate. A key
organizing factor in political networking was the khusdhasiyya, an Arabic
term meaning comradeship and extreme loyalty between members of
the same military unit, and between then and their officer).
Contemporary chronicles attest that the Mamluks even used family
terminology, e.g. siblings, parents, children, to denote their relationship
and hierarchies with fellow soldiers when they spoke or wrote about
them.

PART 7: Several types of families

The Mamluks professional and social contacts did not replace biological
families. Mamluks married and raised families. Despite the long distance
and the years of separation, Mamluks could maintain contact with
relatives from their original region. In some cases they even brought
them to Egypt. Mamluk officers certainly took care of their biological
offspring and arranged, when possible, lucrative positions as state
administrators and religious scholars. Some sons even succeeded their
fathers to become sultans themselves in the Mamluk Empire. However,
these cases of sons inheriting their father's sultanate were the exception
to the rule, and occurred only when it fitted the interests of the ruling
Mamluks.
PART 8: Turkish Mamluks and Islam

This unique system meant that the political elite in Arabic-speaking

Egypt and Syria comprised of emancipated Turkish or Caucasian slaves
converted to Islam. A way to bridge the ethnic, language, and religious
barrier between the foreign origin elite to the local population was to
emphasize the common religious denominator, namely Islam. Hence the
Mamluks took the reigning title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques"
(that is Mecca and Madina), carefully organized the annual pilgrimage
(the hajj); and sponsored numerous mosques, schools (madrasas),
religious scholars, and religious festivals celebrating the birth of
Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, and graves of saints. The Mamluk
involvement in religious projects was a means to legitimize their political
power and social status.

Partial incentive to Mamluk involvement in religious projects was to

allow their sons opportunities to integrate into the state via religious
and administrative systems. Moreover, during the second half of the
13th century the Mamluks still competed with the Crusaders. Even when
the last Crusaders left the Middle East, their shadow lingered. Hence the
Mamluks were interested in Islamizing the environment. A further
incentive to religious projects stemmed from the Mamluk involvement
in mystical movements, a phenomenon that grew in their domain and
under their sponsorship during the 13th century onwards. However, all
these motivations, including the personal incentive, should not diminish
the sincerity in the Mamluk commitment to promoting Islamic
atmosphere in the Middle East.
The Mamluk political system ruled Egypt (from 1250) and Syria (from
1260) till 1516-1517, when the new rising Muslim empire, the Ottomans,
conquered the Arab Middle East.

Credits: Jorge Láscar