Origins The
mamluk was a
manumitted slave, distinguished from the , or household slave. After thorough training in martial arts, court etiquette and Islamic sciences, these slaves were freed but expected to remain loyal to their master and serve his household. Mamluks formed part of the military apparatus in
Syria and
Egypt since at least the 9th century, rising to become
governing dynasties in Egypt and Syria as the
Tulunid and
Ikhshidid dynasties. Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of Egypt's military under
Ayyubid rule in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, beginning under the first Ayyubid
sultan Saladin (), who replaced the
Fatimid Caliphate's black African infantry with mamluks. Each Ayyubid sultan and high-ranking
emir had a private mamluk corps. 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. Mamluks were highly committed to their master, whom they often referred to as 'father', and were in turn treated more as kinsmen than as slaves. After their manumission, mamluks were given a position in either the courtly administration or the army. Mamluks were preferred to freeborn soldiers because they were raised to view the army and their sultan-ruler as their family and thus considered more loyal than freeborn soldiers who were first loyal to their biological families. The Ayyubid emir and future sultan
as-Salih Ayyub acquired about one thousand mamluks (some of them free-born) from Syria, Egypt and
Arabia by 1229, while serving as (viceroy) of Egypt during the absence of his father, Sultan
al-Kamil (). These mamluks were called the 'Salihiyya' (singular 'Salihi') after their master. , Mamluk Egypt or Syria, circa 1330. Al-Salih became sultan of Egypt in 1240, and, upon his accession, he manumitted and promoted large numbers of his mamluks, provisioning them through confiscated (akin to fiefs; singular ) from his predecessors' emirs. He created a loyal paramilitary apparatus in Egypt so dominant that contemporaries viewed Egypt as "Salihi-ridden", according to historian Winslow William Clifford. While historian Stephen Humphreys asserts the Salihiyya's increasing dominance of the state did not personally threaten al-Salih due to their fidelity to him, Clifford believes the Salihiyya's autonomy fell short of such loyalty.
Rise to power Conflict with the Ayyubids Tensions between as-Salih and his mamluks culminated in 1249 when
Louis IX of France's forces captured
Damietta in their bid to conquer Egypt during the
Seventh Crusade. Al-Salih opposed the evacuation of Damietta and threatened to punish the city's garrison. This provoked a mutiny by his garrison in
al-Mansura, which only dissipated with the intervention of the (commander of the military),
Fakhr ad-Din ibn Shaykh al-Shuyukh. As the Crusaders advanced, al-Salih died and was succeeded by his Jazira (
Upper Mesopotamia)-based son
al-Mu'azzam Turanshah. Although the Salihiyya welcomed his succession, Turanshah challenged their dominance in the paramilitary apparatus by promoting his
Kurdish retinue from the Jazira and Syria as a counterweight. On 11 February 1250, the
Bahriyya, a junior regiment of the Salihiyya commanded by
Baybars, defeated the Crusaders at the
Battle of al-Mansura. On 27 February, Turanshah arrived in al-Mansura to lead the Egyptian army. On 5 April 1250, the Crusaders evacuated their camp opposite al-Mansura. The Egyptians followed them into the
Battle of Fariskur where the Egyptians destroyed the Crusaders on 6 April. King Louis IX and a few of his surviving nobles were taken as prisoners, effectively ending the Seventh Crusade. Turanshah proceeded to place his own entourage and mamluks, known as the 'Mu'azzamiya', in positions of authority at the expense of the Salihiyya. On 2 May 1250, disgruntled Salihi emirs assassinated Turanshah at Fariskur. An electoral college dominated by the Salihiyya then 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. Consensus settled on al-Salih's widow,
Shajar al-Durr. She ensured the Salihiyya's dominance of the paramilitary elite, and inaugurated patronage and kinship ties with the Salihiyya. In particular, she cultivated close ties with the Jamdari (pl. Jamdariyya) and Bahri (pl. Bahriyya) corps, distributing to them and other privileges. Her efforts and Egyptian military's preference to preserve the Ayyubid state were evident when the Salihi mamluk and ,
Aybak, was rebuffed from monopolizing power by the army and the Bahriyya and Jamdariyya, who all asserted that sultanic authority was exclusive to the Ayyubids. The Bahriyya compelled Aybak to share power with
al-Ashraf Musa, a grandson of Sultan al-Kamil. Aybak was the main bulwark against the Bahri and Jamdari emirs, and his promotion as led to Bahri rioting in Cairo, the first of many intra-Salihi clashes about his ascendancy. The Bahriyya and Jamdariyya were represented by their patron,
Faris al-Din Aktay, a principal organizer of Turanshah's assassination and the recipient of Fakhr ad-Din's large estate by Shajar al-Durr; the latter viewed Aktay as a counterweight to Aybak. Aybak moved against the Bahriyya by shutting their Roda headquarters in 1251 and assassinating Aktay in 1254. Afterward, Aybak purged his retinue and the Salihiyya of perceived dissidents, causing a temporary exodus of Bahri mamluks, most of whom settled in
Gaza. The purge caused a shortage of officers, which led Aktay to recruit new supporters from among the army in Egypt and the Turkic Nasiri and Azizi mamluks from Syria, who had defected from an-Nasir Yusuf and moved to Egypt in 1250. Aybak felt threatened by the growing ambitions of the Syrian mamluks' empowered patron
Jamal ad-Din Aydughdi. Upon learning of Aydughdi's plot to install an-Nasir Yusuf as sultan, which would leave Aydughdi as practical ruler of Egypt, Aybak imprisoned Aydughdi in
Alexandria in 1254 or 1255. Aybak was assassinated on 10 April 1257, possibly on orders from Shajar al-Durr, who was assassinated a week later. Their deaths left a relative power vacuum in Egypt, with Aybak's teenage son,
al-Mansur Ali, as heir to the sultanate and Aybak's close aide,
Sayf al-Din Qutuz, as strongman. The Bahriyya and
al-Mughith Umar made two attempts to conquer Egypt in November 1257 and 1258 but were defeated. They then turned on an-Nasir Yusuf in Damascus, who defeated them at
Jericho. An-Nasir Yusuf followed up with a siege of al-Mughith and the Bahriyya at al-Karak, but the growing threat of a
Mongol invasion of Syria led the Ayyubid emirs to reconcile, and Baybars to defect to an-Nasir Yusuf. Qutuz deposed Ali in 1259 and purged or arrested the Mu'izziya and any remaining Bahri mamluks in Egypt to eliminate potential opposition. The surviving Mu'izzi and Bahri mamluks went to Gaza, where Baybars had established a shadow state opposed to Qutuz. While mamluk factions fought for control of Egypt and Syria, the Mongols under
Hulagu Khan had
sacked Baghdad, the intellectual and spiritual center of the Islamic world, in 1258, and proceeded westward, capturing
Aleppo and
Damascus. Qutuz sent military reinforcements to his erstwhile enemy an-Nasir Yusuf in Syria, and reconciled with the Bahriyya, including Baybars, who was allowed to return to Egypt, to face the common Mongol threat. Hulagu sent emissaries to Qutuz in Cairo, demanding submission to Mongol rule but Qutuz had them killed, an act which historian Joseph Cummins called the "worst possible insult to the Mongol throne". After hearing that Hulagu withdrew from Syria to claim the Mongol throne, Qutuz and Baybars mobilized a 120,000-strong force to conquer Syria. The Mamluks entered
Palestine and confronted the Mongol army Hulagu left behind under
Kitbuqa in the plains south of
Nazareth at the
Battle of Ain Jalut in September 1260. The battle ended in a Mongol rout and Kitbuqa's capture and execution. Afterward, the Mamluks recaptured Damascus and the other Syrian cities taken by the Mongols. Upon Qutuz's triumphant return to Cairo, he was assassinated in a Bahri plot. Baybars then assumed power in October 1260, inaugurating Bahri rule.
Bahri rule (1250–1382) Reign of Baybars (1320–1340). This is a probable depiction of Sultan
Baybars. In 1263, Baybars deposed al-Mughith based on allegations of collaboration with the Mongol
Ilkhanate of Persia, and thereby consolidated his authority over Islamic Syria. During his early reign, Baybars expanded the Mamluk from 10,000 cavalry to 40,000, with a 4,000-strong royal guard at its core. The new force was rigidly disciplined and highly trained in horsemanship, swordsmanship and archery. To improve intracommunication, Baybars instituted a (postal network) extending across Egypt and Syria, which led to large scale building of roads and bridges along the postal route. His military and administrative reforms cemented the power of the Mamluk state. He opened diplomatic channels with the Mongols to stifle their potential alliance with the Christian powers of Europe, while also sowing divisions between the Mongol Ilkhanate and the Mongol
Golden Horde. His diplomacy was additionally intended to maintain the flow of Turkic mamluks from Mongol-held Central Asia. With his power in Egypt and Islamic Syria consolidated by 1265, Baybars launched expeditions against the Crusader fortresses throughout Syria, capturing
Arsuf in 1265, and
Halba and
Arqa in 1266. Baybars captured and destroyed fortresses along the Syrian coast to prevent their potential future use by new waves of Crusaders. He often established new cities further inland, irreversibly changing settlement patterns in the region, as was the case, for example, with
Ascalon whose inhabitants were moved to Al-Majdal Asqalan. In August 1266, the Mamluks launched a punitive expedition against the
Armenian Cilician Kingdom for its alliance with the Mongols, laying waste to numerous Armenian villages and significantly weakening the kingdom. At around the same time, Baybars
captured Safed from the
Knights Templar, and shortly after,
Ramla, both cities in interior Palestine. Unlike the coastal fortresses, the Mamluks strengthened and utilized the interior cities as major garrisons and administrative centers. In 1268, the Mamluks captured
Jaffa before conquering the Crusader stronghold of
Antioch on 18 May. In 1271, Baybars captured the major
Krak des Chevaliers fortress from the Crusader
County of Tripoli. Despite an alliance with the
Isma'ili Shia Assassins in 1272, in July 1273, the Mamluks, who by then considered the Assassins' independence as problematic, wrested control of their fortresses in the
Jabal Ansariya range, including
Masyaf. In 1277, Baybars launched an expedition against the Ilkhanids, routing them in
Elbistan in
Anatolia, but withdrew to avoid overstretching his forces and risk being cut off from Syria by a larger incoming Ilkhanid army. '' headgear. To Egypt's south, Baybars had initiated an aggressive policy toward the Christian
Nubian kingdom of
Makuria. In 1265, the Mamluks invaded northern Makuria, forcing the Nubian king to become their vassal. Around that time, the Mamluks had conquered the
Red Sea areas of
Suakin and the
Dahlak Archipelago, while attempting to extend their control to the
Hejaz (western Arabia), the desert regions west of the Nile, and
Barqa (Cyrenaica). In 1268, the Makurian king, David I, overthrew the Mamluks' vassal and in 1272, raided the Mamluk Red Sea port of
Aydhab. In 1276, the Mamluks defeated King
David of Makuria in the
Battle of Dongola and installed their ally Shakanda as king. This brought the fortress of
Qasr Ibrim under Mamluk suzerainty. The conquest of Nubia was not permanent and the process of invading the region and installing vassal kings was repeated by Baybars's successors. Nonetheless, Baybars' initial conquest led to the annual expectation of tribute from the Nubians by the Mamluks until the Makurian kingdom's demise in the mid-14th century. Furthermore, the Mamluks received the submission of King
Adur of
al-Abwab further south. Baybars attempted to establish his Zahirid house as the state's ruling dynasty by appointing his four-year-old son
al-Sa'id Baraka as co-sultan in 1264. This represented a break from the Mamluk tradition of choosing the sultan by merit rather than lineage. In July 1277, Baybars died en route to Damascus, and was succeeded by Baraka.
Early Qalawuni period , led against the
Crusaders by the Mamluks of
Qalawun in 1289 Baraka was ousted in a power struggle ending with
Qalawun, a top deputy of Baybars, as sultan in November 1279. The Ilkhanids launched a massive offensive against Syria in 1281. The Mamluks were outnumbered by the 80,000-strong Ilkhanid-Armenian-Georgian-
Seljuk coalition, but routed the coalition at the
battle of Homs, confirming Mamluk dominance in Syria. The Ilkhanids' rout enabled Qalawun to proceed against Crusader holdouts in Syria and in May 1285, he
captured and garrisoned the
Marqab fortress. Qalawun's early reign was marked by policies intended to garner support from the merchant class, the Muslim bureaucracy and the religious establishment. He eliminated the illegal taxes that burdened the merchants and commissioned extensive building and renovation projects for Islam's holiest sites, such as the
Prophet's Mosque in
Medina, the
al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the
Ibrahimi Mosque in
Hebron. His building activities later shifted to more secular and personal purposes, including his large, multi-division
hospital complex in Cairo. After the détente with the Ilkhanids, Qalawun suppressed internal dissent by imprisoning dozens of high-ranking emirs in Egypt and Syria. He diversified the hitherto mostly Turkic mamluk ranks by purchasing numerous non-Turks, particularly
Circassians, forming out of them the
Burjiyya regiment. in Cairo (1284–1285) Qalawun was the last Salihi sultan and after his death in 1290, his son,
al-Ashraf Khalil, drew legitimacy by emphasizing his lineage from Qalawun. Like his predecessors, Khalil's main priorities were organizing the state apparati, defeating the Crusaders and Mongols, integrating Syria, and preserving the flow of new mamluks and weaponry into the empire. Baybars had purchased 4,000 mamluks, Qalawun 6,000–7,000 and by the end of Khalil's reign, there was an estimated total of 10,000 mamluks in the sultanate. In 1291, Khalil
captured Acre, the last major Crusader stronghold in Palestine and Mamluk rule consequently extended across all of Syria. Khalil's death in 1293 led to period of factional struggle, with Khalil's prepubescent brother,
al-Nasir Muhammad, being overthrown the following year by an ethnic
Mongol mamluk of Qalawun,
al-Adil Kitbugha, who in turn was succeeded by a
Greek mamluk of Qalawun,
Husam al-Din Lajin. To consolidate control, Lajin redistributed to his supporters. He was unable to keep power and al-Nasir Muhammad was restored as sultan in 1298, ruling over a fractious realm until being toppled by
Baybars II, a Circassian mamluk of Qalawun, who was wealthier, and more pious and cultured than his immediate predecessors. Early into al-Nasir Muhammad's second reign, the Ilkhanids, whose leader
Mahmud Ghazan was a Muslim convert, had invaded Syria and routed a Mamluk army near Homs in the
Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar in 1299. Ghazan largely withdrew from Syria shortly after due to a lack of fodder for their numerous horses and the residual Ilkhanid force retreated in 1300 at the approach of the rebuilt Mamluk army. Another Ilkhanid invasion in 1303 was repelled after a Mamluk victory at the Battle of Marj al-Suffar in the plains south of Damascus.
Third reign of al-Nasir Muhammad . Probably Egypt, dated 1334.
Maqamat of al-Hariri. "In the paintings the facial cast of these [ruling] Turks is obviously reflected, and so are the special fashions and accoutrements they favored". The brimmed hats in the bottom right corner are Mongol. Al-Nasir Muhammad was himself of
Kipchak (
Turkic) and
Mongol descent. Baybars II ruled for roughly one year before al-Nasir Muhammad became sultan again in 1310, this time ruling for over three decades in a period often considered by historians to be the zenith of the Mamluk empire. To avoid the experiences of his previous two reigns where the mamluks of Qalawun and Khalil held sway and periodically assumed power, al-Nasir Muhammad established a centralized autocracy. In 1310, he imprisoned, exiled or killed any Mamluk emirs that supported those who toppled him in the past, including the Burji mamluks. He assigned to over thirty of his own mamluks. Initially, he left most of his father's mamluks undisturbed, but in 1311 and 1316, he imprisoned and executed most of them, and again redistributed to his own mamluks. By 1316, the number of mamluks decreased to 2,000. Al-Nasir Muhammad further consolidated power by replacing Caliph
al-Mustakfi () with his own appointee,
al-Wathiq, as well as compelling the
qadi (head judge) to issue legal rulings advancing his interests. in the
Citadel of Cairo (1318–1335) Under al-Nasir Muhammad, the Mamluks repulsed an Ilkhanid invasion of Syria in 1313 and concluded a peace treaty with the Ilkhanate in 1322, bringing a long-lasting end to the Mamluk–Mongol wars. Afterward, al-Nasir Muhammad ushered in a period of stability and prosperity through the enactment of major political, economic and military reforms ultimately intended to ensure his continued rule and consolidate the Qalawuni–Bahri regime. Concurrent with his reign was the disintegration of the Ilkhanate into several smaller dynastic states and the consequent Mamluk effort to establish diplomatic and commercial relationships with the new states. Amid conditions reducing the flow of mamluks from the Mongol territories to the sultanate, al-Nasir Muhammad compensated by adopting new methods of training, and military and financial advancement that introduced a great level of permissiveness. This led to relaxed conditions for new mamluks and encouraged the pursuit of military careers in Egypt by aspiring mamluks outside of the empire.
End of the Bahri regime Al-Nasir Muhammad died in 1341 and his rule was followed by a succession of descendants in a period marked by political instability. Most of his successors, except for
al-Nasir Hasan () and
al-Ashraf Sha'ban (), were sultans in name only, with the patrons of the leading mamluk factions holding actual power. The first of al-Nasir Muhammad's sons to accede was
al-Mansur Abu Bakr, who al-Nasir Muhammad
designated as successor. Al-Nasir Muhammad's senior aide,
Qawsun, held real power and imprisoned and executed Abu Bakr and had al-Nasir Muhammad's infant son,
al-Ashraf Kujuk, appointed instead. By January 1342, Qawsun and Kujuk were toppled, and the latter's half-brother,
al-Nasir Ahmad of al-Karak, was declared sultan. Ahmad relocated to al-Karak and left a deputy to govern in Cairo. This unorthodox arrangement, together with his seclusive and frivolous behavior and his execution of loyal partisans, ended with Ahmad's deposition and replacement by his half-brother
al-Salih Isma'il in June 1342. Isma'il ruled until his death in August 1345, and was succeeded by his brother
al-Kamil Sha'ban. The latter was killed in a mamluk revolt and was succeeded by his brother
al-Muzaffar Hajji, who was also killed in a mamluk revolt in late 1347. (1356–1363) is the largest and costliest Mamluk building in Cairo, despite being built in a
time of plague.|left After Hajji's death, the senior emirs hastily appointed another son of al-Nasir Muhammad, the twelve-year-old al-Nasir Hasan. Coinciding with Hasan's first reign, in 1347–1348, the
Bubonic Plague arrived in Egypt and other plagues followed, causing mass death in the country, which led to major social and economic changes in the region. In 1351, the senior emirs, led by Emir Taz, ousted and replaced Hasan with his brother,
al-Salih Salih. The emirs
Shaykhu and
Sirghitmish deposed Salih and restored Hasan in 1355, after which Hasan gradually purged Taz, Shaykhu and Sirghitmish and their mamluks from his administration. Hasan recruited and promoted the (descendants of mamluks who did not undergo the enslavement/manumission process) in the military and administration, a process lasted for the remainder of the Bahri period. This caused resentment among Hasan's own mamluks, led by Emir
Yalbugha al-Umari, who killed Hasan in 1361. Yalbugha became regent to Hasan's successor, the young son of the late sultan Hajji,
al-Mansur Muhammad. By then, mamluk solidarity and loyalty to the emirs had dissipated. To restore discipline and unity within the Mamluk state and military, Yalbugha revived the rigorous training of mamluks used under Baybars and Qalawun. In 1365, a Mamluk attempt to annex Armenia, which had since replaced Crusader Acre as the Christian commercial foothold of Asia, was stifled by an invasion of Alexandria by
Peter I of Cyprus. The Mamluks concurrently experienced a deterioration of their lucrative position in international trade and the economy declined, further weakening the Bahri regime. Meanwhile, the harshness of Yalbugha's educational methods and his refusal to rescind his disciplinary reforms provoked a mamluk backlash. Yalbugha was killed by his mamluks in an uprising in 1366. The rebels were supported by Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban, who Yalbugha had installed in 1363. Sha'ban ruled as the real power in the sultanate until 1377, when he was killed by mamluk dissidents on his way to
Mecca perform the
Hajj.
Burji rule (1382–1517) Reign of Barquq Sha'ban was succeeded by his seven-year-old son
al-Mansur Ali, though the oligarchy of the senior emirs held the reins of power. Among the senior emirs who rose to prominence under Ali were
Barquq and Baraka, both Circassian mamluks of Yalbugha. Barquq was made in 1378, giving him command of the Mamluk army, which he used to oust Baraka in 1380. Ali died in May 1381 and was succeeded by his nine-year-old brother,
al-Salih Hajji, with real power held by Barquq as regent. The next year, Barquq toppled al-Salih Hajji and assumed the throne. His accession was enabled by Yalbugha's mamluks, whose corresponding rise to power left Barquq vulnerable. His rule was challenged by a revolt in Syria in 1389 by the Mamluk governors of
Malatya and Aleppo, Mintash and
Yalbugha al-Nasiri, the latter a mamluk of Yalbugha. The rebels took over Syria and headed for Egypt, prompting Barquq to abdicate in favor of al-Salih Hajji. The alliance between Yalbugha al-Nasiri and Mintash soon fell apart and factional fighting ensued in Cairo, with Mintash ousting Yalbugha. Barquq was arrested and exiled to al-Karak where he rallied support. In Cairo, Barquq's loyalists took the citadel and arrested al-Salih Hajji. This paved the way for Barquq's usurpation of the sultanate once more in February 1390, firmly establishing the
Burji regime. The ruling Mamluks of this period were mostly Circassians drawn from the Christian population of the
northern Caucasus. in Cairo (1384–1386) Barquq solidified power in 1393, when his forces killed the major opponent to his rule, Mintash, in Syria. Barquq oversaw the mass recruitment of Circassians (estimated at 5,000 recruits) into the mamluk ranks and the restoration of the state's authority throughout its realm in the tradition of Baybars and Qalawun. A major innovation to this system was the division of Egypt into three (sing. ; provinces), similar to the administrative divisions in Syria. The new Egyptian were Alexandria,
Damanhur and
Asyut. Barquq instituted this to better control the Egyptian countryside from the rising strength of the Bedouin tribes. He further dispatched the
Berber Hawwara tribesmen of the
Nile Delta to Upper Egypt to check the Arab Bedouins. During Barquq's reign, in 1387, the Mamluks had forced the Anatolian entity in
Sivas to become a Mamluk vassal. Towards the end of the 14th century, challengers to the Mamluks emerged in Anatolia, including the
Ottoman dynasty and the Turkmen allies of
Timur, the
Aq Qoyunlu and
Qara Qoyunlu tribes of southern and eastern Anatolia.
Crises and restoration of state power Barquq died in 1399 and was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son,
an-Nasir Faraj. That year, Timur invaded Syria, sacking Aleppo and Damascus. Timur ended his occupation of Syria in 1402 to fight the Ottomans in Anatolia, whom he deemed a more dangerous threat. Faraj held onto power during this turbulent period, which, in addition to Timur's devastating raids, the rise of Turkmen tribes in the Jazira, and attempts by Barquq's emirs to topple Faraj, also saw a famine in Egypt in 1403, a severe plague in 1405 and a Bedouin revolt that practically ended Mamluk control of Upper Egypt between 1401 and 1413. Mamluk authority throughout the sultanate significantly eroded, while the capital Cairo underwent an economic crisis. Faraj was toppled in 1412 by the Syria-based emirs, Tanam, Jakam, Nawruz and
al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh, against whom Faraj had sent seven military expeditions. The emirs could not usurp the throne themselves, and had Caliph
al-Musta'in () installed as a puppet sultan; the caliph had the support of the non-Circassian mamluks and legitimacy with the local population. Six months later, Shakyh ousted al-Musta'in after neutralizing his main rival, Nawruz, and assumed the sultanate. Shaykh's main policy was restoring state authority within the empire, which experienced further plagues in 1415–1417 and 1420. Shaykh replenished the treasury through tax collection expeditions akin to raids across the empire to compensate the tax arrears that accumlated under Faraj. Shaykh also commissioned and led military campaigns against the Mamluks' enemies in Anatolia, reasserting the state's influence there.
Reign of Barsbay in Cairo, completed in 1432. The carved dome (center) covers his tomb. Before Shaykh died in 1421, he attempted to offset the power of the Circassians by importing Turkish mamluks and installing a Turk as to serve as regent for his infant son Ahmad. After his death, a Circassian emir,
Tatar, married Shaykh's widow, ousted the and assumed power. Tatar died three months into his reign and was succeeded by
Barsbay, another Circassian emir of Barquq, in 1422. Under Barsbay, the Mamluk Sultanate reached its greatest territorial extent and was militarily dominant throughout the region, but his legacy was mixed in the eyes of contemporary commentators who criticized his fiscal methods and economic policies. Barsbay pursued an economic policy of establishing state monopolies over the lucrative trade with Europe, particularly spices, at the expense of local merchants. European merchants were forced to buy spices from state agents who set prices that maximized revenue rather than promoting competition. This monopoly set a precedent for his successors, some of whom established monopolies over other goods such as sugar and textiles. Barsbay compelled Red Sea traders to offload their goods at the Mamluk-held Hejazi port of
Jeddah rather than the
Yemeni port of
Aden to derive the greatest financial gain from the Red Sea transit route to Europe. Barsbay's efforts at monopolization and trade protection were meant to offset the severe financial losses of the agricultural sector due to the frequent recurring plagues that took a heavy toll on the farmers. In the long term, the monopoly over the spice trade had a negative effect on Egyptian commerce and became a motivation for European merchants to seek alternative routes to the east around Africa and across the Atlantic. Barsbay undertook efforts protect the caravan routes to the Hejaz from Bedouin raids. He reduced the independence of the
Sharifs of Mecca to a minimum, sent troops to occupy the Hejaz and rein in the Bedouin, and took direct control of much of the region's administration. He aimed to secure the Egyptian Mediterranean coast from
Catalan and
Genoese piracy. Related to this, he launched
campaigns against Cyprus in 1425–1426, during which the island's
Lusignan king,
Janus, was taken captive, because of his alleged assistance to the pirates; the large ransoms paid to the Mamluks by the Cypriots allowed them to mint new gold coinage for the first time since the 14th century. Janus became Barsbay's vassal, an arrangement enforced on his successors for several decades after. In response to Aq Qoyonlu raids against the Jazira, the Mamluks launched expeditions against them, sacking
Edessa and massacring its Muslim inhabitants in 1429 and attacking their capital
Amid in 1433. The Aq Qoyonlu consequently recognized Mamluk suzerainty. While the Mamluks succeeded in forcing the
Anatolian beyliks to largely submit to their suzerainty, Mamluk authority in Upper Egypt was mostly relegated to the emirs of the Hawwara tribe. The latter had grown wealthy from their burgeoning trade with
central Africa and achieved a degree of local popularity due to their piety, education and generally benign treatment of the inhabitants.
Successors of Barsbay of Mamluk sultan
Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq minted in Cairo between 1438 and 1440 Barsbay died on 7 June 1438 and, per his wishes, was succeeded by his fourteen-year-old son,
al-Aziz Yusuf, with a leading emir of Barsbay,
Sayf al-Din Jaqmaq, appointed regent. The usual disputes over succession ensued and after three months Jaqmaq won and became sultan, exiling Yusuf to Alexandria. Jaqmaq maintained friendly relations with the Ottomans. His most important foreign military effort was an abortive campaign to conquer
Rhodes from the
Knights of St. John, involving three expeditions between 1440 and 1444. Domestically, Jaqmaq largely continued Barsbay's monopolies, though he promised to enact reforms and formally rescinded some tariffs. Jaqmaq died in February 1453. His eighteen-year-old son,
al-Mansur Uthman, was installed on the throne but soon lost all support when he tried to buy the loyalty of other mamluks with
debased coins.
Sayf al-Din Inal, who Barsbay had made his , won enough support to be declared sultan two months after Jaqmaq's death. He ruled when
Mehmed II, the Ottoman sultan,
conquered Constantinople in 1453 and ordered public celebrations to commemorate the event, much like the celebrations of a Mamluk victory. It is unclear whether Inal and the Mamluks understood the implications of this event. It marked the rise of the Ottomans as a superpower, a status that brought them into increasing conflict with the evermore stagnant Mamluk Sultanate. By then, the state was under severe financial stress, with the state selling off properties, depriving the treasury of their tax revenues. Coins based on precious metals nearly disappeared from circulation. Inal died on 26 February 1461. His son,
al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad, ruled for a short stint under challenges from the governors of Damascus and Jeddah. A compromise candidate, the Greek
Khushqadam al-Mu'ayyadi, was then chosen and eventually neutralized his opposition. His reign was marked by further political difficulties abroad and domestically. Cyprus remained a vassal, but Khushqadam's representative was killed in battle after insulting James II (who had been installed by Inal). At home, Bedouin tribes caused unrest and the sultan's attempts to suppress the Labid tribe in the Nile Delta and against the Hawwara in Upper Egypt had little effect.
Reign of Qaitbay (r.1468-1496, here "
Mag Caitbeivs Cairi Svltan", "The great Caitbeius, Sultan of
Cairo") by Florentine painter
Cristofano dell'Altissimo (16th century),
Galleria degli Uffizi. Khushqadam died on 9 October 1467 and the mamluk emirs initially installed
Yalbay al-Mu'ayyadi as his successor. After two months he was replaced by
Timurbugha al-Zahiri. Timurbugha was deposed in turn on 31 January 1468, but voluntarily consented to the accession of his second in command,
Qaitbay. Qaitbay's 28-year-long reign, the second longest in Mamluk history after al-Nasir Muhammad, was marked by relative stability and prosperity. Historical sources present a sultan whose character was markedly different from other Mamluk rulers. Notably, he disliked engaging in conspiracy, even though this had been a hallmark of Mamluk politics. He had a reputation for being even-handed and treating his colleagues and subordinates fairly, exemplified by his magnanimous treatment of the deposed Timurbugha. These traits seem to have kept internal tensions and conspiracies at bay throughout his reign. While the Mamluk practices of confiscation, extortion, and bribery continued in fiscal matters, under Qaitbay they were practiced in a more systematic way that allowed individuals and institutions to function within a more predictable environment. His engagement with the civil bureaucracy and the
ulema (Islamic jurists and scholars) appeared to reflect a genuine commitment to Sunni Islamic law. He was one of the most prolific Mamluk patrons of architecture, second only to al-Nasir Muhammad, and his patronage of religious and civic buildings extended to the provinces beyond Cairo. Nonetheless, Qaitbay operated in an environment of recurring plague epidemics that underpinned a general population decline. Agriculture suffered, the treasury was often stretched thin, and by the end of his reign the economy was still weak. at
al-Aqsa in Jerusalem (1482) The challenges to Mamluk dominance abroad were also mounting, particularly to the north. Shah Suwar, the leader of the Dulkadirid principality in Anatolia, benefited from Ottoman support and was an excellent military tactician. Meanwhile, Qaitbay supported the ruler of the Karamanid principality,
Ahmad. Initially, the Mamluks failed in a series of campaigns against Shah Suwar. The tide turned in 1470–1471 when an agreement was reached between Qaitbay and Mehmed II, by which Qaitbay stopped supporting the Karamanids and the Ottomans stopped supporting the Dulkadirids. Now without Ottoman support, Shah Suwar was defeated in 1471 by a Mamluk expedition led by Qaitbay's senior field commander,
Yashbak min Mahdi. Shah Suwar held out in his fortress near
Zamantı, before agreeing to surrender himself if his life was spared and he was allowed to remain as a vassal. In the end, Qaitbay was unwilling to let him live and Shah Suwar was betrayed, brought to Cairo, and executed. Shah Budaq was installed as his replacement and as a Mamluk vassal, though the Ottoman-Mamluk rivalry over the Dulkadirid throne continued. The next challenge to Qaitbay was the rise of the Aq Qoyunlu leader Uzun Hasan. The latter led an expedition into Mamluk territory around Aleppo in 1472, but was routed by Yashbak. The next year, Uzun Hassan was more resoundingly defeated in battle against Mehmed II near
Erzurum. His son and successor, Ya'qub, resorted to inviting Yashbak min Mahdi to participate in a campaign against Edessa. As this avoided any challenge against Qaitbay's authority, Yashbak accepted. Although initially successful, he was killed during the siege of the city, thus depriving Qaitbay of his most important field commander. and
plate armor belonging to Sultan Qaitbay, one of the few surviving sets of armor from the Mamluk period. In 1489, the
Republic of Venice annexed Cyprus. The Venetians promised Qaitbay their occupation would benefit him as well, as their large fleet than could better keep the peace in the eastern Mediterranean than the Cypriots. Venice also agreed to continue the Cypriots' yearly tribute of 8,000 ducats to Cairo. A treaty signed between the two powers in 1490 formalized this arrangement. It was a sign that the Mamluks were now depending partly on the Venetians for naval security. With the death of Mehmed II in 1481 and the accession of his son,
Bayezid II, to the Ottoman throne, Ottoman-Mamluk tensions escalated. Bayezid's claim to the throne was challenged by his brother,
Jem. The latter fled into exile and Qaitbay granted him sanctuary in Cairo in September 1481. Qaitbay eventually allowed him to return to Anatolia to lead a new attempt against Bayezid. This venture failed and Jem was fled into exile again, this time into Christian hands to the west. Bayezid interpreted Qaitbay's welcome to Jem as direct support for the latter's cause and was furious. Qaitbay also supported the Dulkadirid leader,
Ala al-Dawla (who had replaced Shah Budaq), against the Ottomans, but Ala al-Dawla was compelled to shift his loyalty to Bayezid or 1484, which soon triggered the start of an
Ottoman–Mamluk war over the next six years. By 1491, both sides were exhausted and an Ottoman embassy arrived in Cairo in the spring. An agreement was concluded and the
status quo ante bellum was reaffirmed. During the rest of Qaitbay's reign, no further external conflicts took place.
Reign of al-Ghuri (r. 1501–1516, here "''Campson Gavro re d'Egitto''", "Campson Gauro, king of Egypt") by Florentine painter
Cristofano dell'Altissimo,
Galleria degli Uffizi. Qaitbay's death on 8 August 1496 inaugurated several years of instability. Eventually, following several brief reigns by other candidates,
Qansuh al-Ghuri (or al-Ghawri) was placed on the throne in 1501. Al-Ghuri secured his position over several months and appointed new figures to key posts. His nephew,
Tuman Bay was appointed and his second in command. In Syria, al-Ghuri appointed
Sibay, a former rival who opposed him in 1504–1505, as governor of Damascus in 1506. The latter remained a major figure during his reign but he acknowledged Cairo's suzerainty and helped to keep the peace. Al-Ghuri is often viewed negatively by historical commentators, particularly Ibn Iyas, for his draconic fiscal policies. He inherited a state beset by financial problems. In addition to the demographic and economic changes under his predecessors, changes in the organisation of the Mamluk military over time had also resulted in large numbers of soldiers feeling alienated and repeatedly threatening to revolt unless given extra payments, which drained the state's finances. To address the shortfalls, al-Ghuri resorted to heavy-handed and far-reaching taxation and extortion to refill the treasury, which elicited protests that were sometimes violent. He used the raised funds to repair fortresses throughout the region, to commission his own construction projects in Cairo, and to purchase a large number of new mamluks to fill his military ranks. Al-Ghuri also attempted reforms of the Mamluk military. He recognized the impact of gunpowder technology used by the Ottomans and Europeans, but which the Mamluks had eschewed. In 1507, he established a foundry to produce cannons and created a new regiment trained to use them, known as the 'Fifth Corps' (). The latter's ranks were filled recruits from outside the traditional mamluk system, including Turkmens, Persians, , and craftsmen. The traditional mamluk army, however, regarded firearms with contempt and vigorously resisted their incorporation into Mamluk warfare, which prevented al-Ghuri from making effective use of them until the end of his reign. In the meantime, Shah
Ismail I had emerged in 1501 and forged the
Safavid Empire in
Iran. The Safavids styled themselves as champions of
Twelver Shi'ism, in direct opposition to the Sunnism of the Mamluks and Ottomans. Tensions along this frontier encouraged al-Ghuri to rely more on the Ottomans for aid, a policy that the Venetians ultimately also urged him to follow in order to counter their common foe, the
Portuguese. The latter's expansion into the
Indian Ocean was one of the major concerns of al-Ghuri's time. In 1498, the Portuguese navigator
Vasco da Gama had circumnavigated Africa and reached India, thus opening a new route for European trade with the east which bypassed the Middle East. This posed a serious threat to Muslim commerce, which was dominant in the area, as well as to the prosperity of Venice, which relied on trade passing from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean through Mamluk lands. For over more than a decade,
a series of confrontations took place between Portuguese forces in the Indian Ocean and Muslim expeditions sent against them. A Mamluk fleet of fifty ships left from Jeddah in 1506, with assistance of forces from the
Gujarat Sultanate. It
defeated the Portuguese in 1507 but lost at the
Battle of Diu in 1509. In 1515, a joint Ottoman-Mamluk fleet set out under the leadership of
Salman Ra'is, but ultimately it did not accomplish much.
Fall to the Ottomans being remitted to
Selim I Selim I, the new Ottoman sultan, defeated the Safavids decisively at the
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Soon after, he attacked and defeated the Dulkadirids, a Mamluk vassal, for refusing to aid him against the Safavids. Secure now against Ismail I, in 1516 he drew together a great army aiming at conquering Egypt, but to obscure the fact he presented the mobilisation of his army as being part of the war against Ismail I. The war started in 1516 which led to the later incorporation of Egypt and its dependencies in the Ottoman Empire, with Mamluk cavalry proving no match for the Ottoman artillery and the
janissaries. On 24 August 1516, at the
Battle of Marj Dabiq, the Ottomans were victorious against an army led by al-Ghuri himself.
Khayr Bak, the governor of Aleppo, had secretly conspired with Selim and betrayed al-Ghuri, leaving with his troops part-way during the battle. In the subsequent chaos, al-Ghuri was killed. The surviving Mamluk forces returned to Aleppo but were denied entry to the city and marched back to Egypt, harassed along the way. Syria passed into Ottoman possession, and the Ottomans were welcomed in many places as deliverance from the Mamluks. The Mamluk Sultanate survived a little longer until 1517. Tuman Bay, whom al-Ghuri had left as deputy in Cairo, was hastily and unanimously proclaimed sultan on 10 October 1516. The emirs rejected his plan to confront the next Ottoman advance at Gaza, so instead he prepared a final defense at al-Raydaniyya to the north of Cairo. In the early days of 1517, Tuman Bay received news that a Mamluk army was
defeated at Gaza. The
Ottoman attack at al-Raydaniyya overwhelmed the defenders on 22 January 1517 and reached Cairo. Over the following days, furious fighting continued between Mamluks, locals, and Ottomans, resulting in much damage to the city and three days of pillaging. Selim proclaimed an amnesty on 31 January, at which point many of the remaining Mamluks surrendered. Tuman Bay fled to
Bahnasa in Middle Egypt with some of his remaining forces. Selim initially offered the Mamluk sultan peace as an Ottoman vassal, but his messengers were intercepted and killed by mamluks. Tuman Bay, with 4,000 cavalry and some 8,000 infantry, confronted the Ottomans in a final bloody battle near
Giza on 2 April 1517, where he was defeated and captured. Selim intended to spare him, but
Khayr Bak and
Janbirdi al-Ghazali, another former Mamluk commander, persuaded the Ottoman sultan that Tuman Bay was too dangerous to keep alive. Accordingly, the last Mamluk sultan was executed by hanging at
Bab Zuwayla, one of Cairo's gates, on 13 April 1517. In reward for his betrayal at Marj Dabiq, Selim installed Khayr Bak as Ottoman governor of Egypt. Janbirdi was appointed governor of Damascus.
Mamluks under Ottoman rule While the Mamluk Sultanate ceased to exist with the Ottoman conquest and the recruitment of Royal Mamluks ended, the mamluks as a military-social class continued to exist. They constituted a "self-perpetuating, largely Turkish-speaking warrior class" that continued to influence politics under Ottoman rule. They existed as military units in parallel with the more strictly Ottoman regiments like the janissaries and the s. The difference between these Ottoman regiments and the Egyptian mamluk regiments became blurred over time as intermarriage became common, resulting in a more mixed social class. During this period, a number of mamluk 'households' formed, with a complex composition including both true mamluks and , who could also rise to high ranks. Each household was headed by an , who could be an Ottoman officer or a local civilian. Their patronage extended to include retainers recruited from other Ottoman provinces as well as allies among the local urban population and tribes. Up to the early 17th century, the vast majority of Egyptian mamluks were still of Caucasian or Circassian origin. In the later 17th and 18th centuries, mamluks from other parts of the Ottoman Empire or its frontiers, such as
Bosnia and
Georgia, began to appear in Egypt. Throughout the Ottoman period, powerful mamluk households and factions struggled for control of important political offices and of Egypt's revenues. Between 1688 and 1755, mamluk
beys, allied with Bedouin and factions within the Ottoman garrison, deposed at least thirty-four governors. The mamluks remained a dominating force in Egyptian politics until their
final elimination at the hands of
Muhammad Ali in 1811. ==Society==