The Mamluk Sultanate

The OTTOMANS, the MAMLUKS, and the MING HIST 1301 | History The Mamluk Sultanate In 1250, the Egyptian mamluks achieved the height of their extraordinary power and prestige. They overthrew the last Ayyubid sultan—who was still a minor—and seized power in that year. The Ayyubid dynasty originated in the Levant and Egypt during the eleventh century, when they broke away from the Abbasid Caliphate. The Ayyubid ruling dynasty gathered a strong contingent of mamluk guards and warriors, primarily Kipchak Turks from the steppes north of the Black Sea, to aid them in their struggle for supremacy in the early 1200s. Rulers gained control of their mamluk army when they vanquished their brothers and uncles in the struggle for supremacy. Before long, the mamluk army greatly outnumbered the Ayyubid Arab ruling elite. Sultan as-Salih Ayyub passed away in 1249. He was supplanted by his son, who was murdered in 1250 by Mamluks. Shajur al-Durr, AsSalih's widow, too held temporary power until being overthrown. Shajur al-Durr, who had married Aybak to support her own claim to power, put an Ayyubid royal child on the throne as a puppet ruler and his nominal "master" after the Ayyubid commander of the Syrian city of Aleppo initially rebelled against Mamluk rule and led an army to Egypt to retake the state. Aybak overthrew the young sultan and assumed personal authority after defeating the Ayyubid army. This effectively put an end to Ayyubid rule in Egypt and established the Mamluk Sultanate. After Aybak's assassination in 1257, his adolescent son assumed the throne, although Saif ad-Din Qutuz, a different mamluk commander, held actual control in Egypt. The power of the recently established Mamluk Sultanate was immediately put to the test when Mongol armies invaded. The capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad, was assaulted and destroyed by Hulagu Khan in 1258. Then, his army captured Damascus, which was located inside the Mamluk Sultanate's disputed borders. Qutuz was asked by Hulagu to give up Egypt, but he refused. At the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which took place in what is now modern-day Israel, the Mamluks emerged victorious over the Mongol army. As a result, the Mongols were unable to continue their push into western Asia or invade North Africa. But Qutuz did not survive to see the Mamluks triumph against the Mongols. He was killed soon after his victory at Ain Jalut, and rival mamluk leader Baybars usurped the throne as sultan. The mamluk barracks from which Baybars had come was located near Cairo, thus the name of the dynasty he founded, the Bahri. The mamluks that ruled the Bahri dynasty were mostly of Turkish descent. In contrast to other dynasty members, they were often not the founder's descendants. After his death, two of Baybars' sons assumed the throne, but different Mamluk army groups swiftly overthrew them. For the majority of Mamluk sultans, who ruled for an average of only seven years, and sometimes considerably less, this was the case. A persistent issue facing the Mamluk Sultanate was stability. The sultans' reign was never stable, even though it held sway over Egypt and the Levant until the Ottomans overthrew them in 1517. Rival heirs frequently overthrew sultans and killed them in the process. Moreover, provincial administrators frequently revolted against Cairo's authority. The root of the issue was where the mamluks came from. The mamluks were disdainful of individuals who had not had such a terrible upbringing and had gained their place via merit after enduring hard training, having been in slavery, and rising through the ranks based only on their ability. Because of this, the army frequently rejected sultans' attempts to recognise their biological sons as their heirs and refused to obey them. Additionally, although Mamluk soldiers were devoted to their masters, they had no such devotion towards other commanders. A sultan's mamluks were unlikely to submit to the person who succeeded him when he passed away or was removed from power. As a result, the Mamluk Sultanate's dynasty was never assured since the army insisted on having the power to select (and remove) the monarch. The army ousted "unworthy" monarchs to make room for others, and individual commanders made many efforts to take control over Mamluk history. The Mamluk Sultanate was a formidable power, and its soldiers were effective in destroying their adversaries, even if the succession plan was never clearly defined. For example, the Mamluks progressively regained authority over the Christian Crusader States in the Levant, either by razing their fortifications or turning them into Mamluk garrisons, starting under the reign of Baybars. In 1291, Acre, the last Christian bastion, collapsed. Before signing a peace contract with the Ilkhanate Mongols in Persia in 1322, the Mamluks also overthrew the Christian Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and thwarted a Mongol invasion attempt in Syria in 1313. The empire grew throughout the first century of Mamluk rule, or the Bahri dynasty. Upon the Mongols' conquest of Baghdad in 1258 and the killing of Caliph al-Musta'sim, the Abbasid family fled to Egypt. Al-Mustansir, al-Musta'sim's nephew, was anointed as the next caliph by Baybars in 1261. Al-Mustansir acknowledged Baybars's right to govern the areas that the Abbasids had previously controlled in exchange. Therefore, even though the Mamluk sultans never claimed the caliphate for themselves, they looked to their position as the caliph's defenders for legitimacy. The virtuous Mamluk kings guarded travellers their route to Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, three sacred cities. Cairo developed into a significant hub of religious learning as a result of their construction of mosques and madrasas. Because they did not want to face the wrath of Muslim judges, the mamluks backed all four major schools of Islamic law. To supply the impoverished with clean drinking water, they also constructed public fountains, hospitals, and elementary schools. Their support of Islam and establishment of benevolent organisations gave them a crucial link with their non-Turkish people, who may have otherwise opposed their authority. A new Mamluk dynasty, the Burji, also called for the site of their mamluk barracks, sprang to power in the latter part of the fourteenth century. Unlike the Bahri dynasty's Turks, the Burji sultans were mamluks, mostly of Circassian and Georgian descent. Al-Zahir Barquq, the first Burji sultan, came to power in 1382. Plots to overthrow him began to surface almost immediately; one was led by the caliph, who desired independent power, and another involved Turkish tribes in Syria. Though both efforts were unsuccessful, the quiet did not last long. In Cairo's streets, troops rioted in 1399, 1434, and 1437. Occasionally, competing mamluk factions would fight, which would then spill over into the streets and include bystanders. In previous instances, unpaid soldiers had rioted. Food shortages and the belief that the grain trade, from which government officials benefited, was inefficient and that pricing were unreasonable were the main causes of the riots in 1441. Enraged rioters looted merchants' shops. Mamlukinitiated anarchy broke out almost annually in the second part of the fifteenth century when troops battled in the streets and raided the residences of the affluent and public officials. Not even academics of religion were protected. The Mamluk emperors were unable to put an end to uprisings in more remote areas of their realm in addition to struggling to keep order in their capital. The Syrian Arabs and the Upper Egyptian Bedouin tribes, who were seminomadic and nomadic themselves, were difficult for the Mamluks to subjugate. Bedouin rebels suffered terrible punishments: women and children were sold into slavery, while men were burnt alive or impaled. To deter future uprisings, the heads of rebels were hung on Cairo's gates. Less severe punishment was meted out to Syrian Arabs since their help was required to stave off Mongol and Ottoman assaults. The Mamluks saw their rule over the area endangered after they lost Syria to the Ottomans in 1516, despite the fact that they continued to be an aristocratic class in Egypt until 1811. Cairo was then taken over by the Ottoman ruler Selim I in 1517. Though actual authority resided with the Ottomans in Istanbul, the Mamluks were permitted to manage their ancient provinces on behalf of their conquerors rather than being overthrown by the Ottomans.