Early origins in Egypt , 1299. depicting
Mongol archers and Mamluk cavalry; 14th-century illustration from a manuscript of the
History of the Tatars. (left) along with the later
Al-Rifa'i Mosque (right) and two
Ottoman mosques (foreground) in
Cairo The practice of
recruiting slaves as soldiers in the Muslim world and turning them into Mamluks began in
Baghdad during the 9th century CE, From the 900s through the 1200s,
medieval Egypt was controlled by dynastic foreign rulers, notably the
Ikhshidids,
Fatimids, and
Ayyubids. Throughout these dynasties, thousands of Mamluk
slave-soldiers and guards continued to be used and even took high offices. The Mamluks in medieval Egypt were predominantly of
Turkic and
Circassian origins, Because of political pressure for a male leader,
Shajar married the Mamluk commander,
Aybak. He was assassinated in his bath. In the ensuing power struggle,
viceregent Qutuz, also a Mamluk, took over. He formally founded the
Mamluke Sultanate and the
Bahri mamluk dynasty. The first Mamluk dynasty was named Bahri after the name of one of the regiments, the
Bahriyyah or River Island regiment. Its name referred to their center on
Rhoda Island in the
Nile. The regiment consisted mainly of
Kipchaks and
Cumans. and then China.
Relationship with the Mongols When the
Mongol Empire's troops of
Hulagu Khan sacked
Baghdad in 1258 and advanced towards Syria, the Mamluk emir
Baibars left Damascus for
Cairo. There he was welcomed by Sultan
Qutuz. After taking Damascus, Hulagu demanded that Qutuz surrender Egypt. Qutuz had Hulagu's envoys killed and, with Baibars' help, mobilized his troops. When
Möngke Khan died in action against the
Southern Song, Hulagu pulled the majority of his forces out of Syria to attend the
kurultai (funeral ceremony). He left his lieutenant, the Christian
Kitbuqa, in charge with a token force of about 18,000 men as a garrison. The Mamluk army, led by Qutuz, drew the reduced
Ilkhanate army into an ambush near the
Orontes River, routed them at the
Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, and captured and executed Kitbuqa. After this great triumph, Qutuz was assassinated by conspiring Mamluks. It was widely said that Baibars, who seized power, had been involved in the assassination plot. In the following centuries, the Mamluks ruled discontinuously, with an average span of seven years. The Mamluks defeated the Ilkhanids a second time in the
First Battle of Homs and began to drive them back east. In the process they consolidated their power over Syria, fortified the area, and formed mail routes and diplomatic connections among the local princes. Baibars' troops attacked
Acre in 1263, captured
Caesarea in 1265, and took
Antioch in 1268. in 1289 Mamluks also defeated new Ilkhanate attacks in Syria in 1271 and 1281 (the
Second Battle of Homs). They were defeated by the Ilkhanids and their Christian allies at the
Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in 1299. Soon after that, the Mamluks defeated the Ilkhanate again in 1303/1304 and 1312. Finally, the Ilkhanids and the Mamluks signed a treaty of peace in 1323.
Burji dynasty By the late fourteenth century, the majority of the Mamluk ranks were made up of
Circassians from the
North Caucasus region, whose young males had been frequently captured for slavery. The rulers of
Gujarat in India and
Yemen also turned to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt for help. They wanted an armed fleet in the Red Sea that could protect their important trading sea routes from Portuguese attacks.
Jeddah was soon fortified as a harbour of refuge so
Arabia and the Red Sea were protected. However, the fleets in the Indian Ocean were still at the mercy of the enemy. The last Mamluk sultan, Al-Ghawri, fitted out a fleet of 50 vessels. As Mamluks had little expertise in naval warfare, he sought help from the Ottomans to develop this naval enterprise. In 1508 at the
Battle of Chaul, the Mamluk fleet defeated the Portuguese viceroy's son,
Lourenço de Almeida. In the following year, the Portuguese won the
Battle of Diu and wrested the port city of
Diu from the
Gujarat Sultanate. Some years after,
Afonso de Albuquerque attacked
Aden, and Egyptian troops suffered disaster from the Portuguese in Yemen. Al-Ghawri fitted out a new fleet to punish the enemy and protect the Indian trade. Before it could exert much power, Egypt had lost its sovereignty. The Ottoman Empire took over Egypt and the Red Sea, together with
Mecca and all its Arabian interests.
Ottomans and the end of the Mamluk Sultanate The Ottoman Sultan
Bayezid II was engaged in warfare in southern Europe when a new era of hostility with Egypt began in 1501. It arose out of the relations with the
Safavid dynasty in
Persia. Shah
Ismail I sent an embassy to the
Republic of Venice via Syria, inviting Venice to ally with Persia and recover its territory taken by the Ottomans.
Mameluk Egyptian sultan Al-Ghawri was charged by
Selim I with giving the Persian envoys passage through Syria on their way to Venice and harboring refugees. To appease him, Al-Ghawri placed in confinement the Venetian merchants then in Syria and Egypt, but after a year released them. After the
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, Selim attacked the bey of
Dulkadirids, as Egypt's vassal had stood aloof, and sent his head to Al-Ghawri. Now secure against Persia, in 1516 he formed a great army for the conquest of Egypt, but gave out that he intended further attacks on Persia. In 1515, Selim began the war, which led to the conquest of Egypt and its dependencies. Mamluk cavalry proved no match for the Ottoman artillery and
Janissary infantry. On 24 August 1516, at the
Battle of Marj Dabiq, Sultan Al-Ghawri was killed. Syria passed into Turkish possession, an event welcomed in many places as it was seen as deliverance from the Mamluks.
Independence from the Ottomans by
Carle Vernet In 1768,
Ali Bey Al-Kabir declared independence from the Ottomans. However, the Ottomans crushed the movement and retained their position after his defeat. By this time new slave recruits were introduced from Georgia in the Caucasus.
Napoleon invades by
Felician Myrbach. An elite body of cavalry whom the French encountered during their
campaign in Egypt in 1798, the Mamluks could trace their lineage of service to the Ottomans back to the mid-13th century. In 1798, the ruling
Directory of the
Republic of France authorised a campaign in "The Orient" to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India. To this end,
Napoleon Bonaparte led an
Armée d'Orient to Egypt. The French defeated a Mamluk army in the
Battle of the Pyramids and drove the survivors out to
Upper Egypt. The Mamluks relied on massed cavalry charges, changed only by the addition of
muskets. The French infantry
formed square and held firm. Despite multiple victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, mounting conflict in Europe and the earlier defeat of the supporting French fleet by the British
Royal Navy at the
Battle of the Nile decided the issue. On 14 September 1799, General
Jean-Baptiste Kléber established a mounted company of Mamluk auxiliaries and Syrian
Janissaries from Turkish troops captured at the
siege of Acre.
Menou reorganized the company on 7 July 1800, forming three companies of 100 men each and renaming it the "Mamluks de la République". In 1801 General
Jean Rapp was sent to Marseille to organize a squadron of 250 Mamluks. On 7 January 1802 the previous order was canceled and the squadron reduced to 150 men. The list of effectives on 21 April 1802 reveals three officers and 155 of other rank. By decree of 25 December 1803 the Mamluks were organized into a company attached to the
Chasseurs-à-Cheval of the
Imperial Guard (see
Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard). '': the charge of the Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard in
Madrid, by
Francisco de Goya Napoleon left with his personal guard in late 1799. His successor in Egypt, General
Jean-Baptiste Kléber, was assassinated on 14 June 1800. Command of the Army in Egypt fell to
Jacques-François Menou. Isolated and out of supplies, Menou surrendered to the British in 1801.
After Napoleon After the departure of French troops in 1801, the Mamluks continued their struggle for independence; this time against the Ottoman Empire. In 1803, Mamluk leaders
Ibrahim Bey and
Osman Bey al-Bardisi wrote to the
Russian consul-general, asking him to mediate with the Sultan to allow them to negotiate for a cease-fire, and a return to their homeland, Georgia. The Russian ambassador in
Constantinople refused, however, to intervene, because of nationalist unrest in Georgia that might have been encouraged by a Mamluk return. On 1 March 1811, Muhammad Ali invited all of the leading Mamluks to his palace to celebrate the declaration of war against the Wahhabis in Arabia. Between 600 and 700 Mamluks paraded for this purpose in
Cairo. Muhammad Ali's forces killed almost all of these near the Al-Azab gates in a narrow road down from Mukatam Hill. This ambush came to be known as the
Massacre of the Citadel. According to contemporary reports, only one Mamluk, whose name is given variously as Amim (also Amyn), or Heshjukur (a
Besleney), survived when he forced his horse to leap from the walls of the citadel. During the following week, an estimated 3,000 Mamluks and their relatives were killed throughout Egypt by Muhammad's regular troops. In the citadel of Cairo alone, more than 1,000 Mamluks died. Despite Muhammad Ali's destruction of the Mamluks in Egypt, a party of them escaped and fled south into what is now
Sudan. In 1811, these Mamluks established a state at
Dunqulah in the
Sennar as a base for their slave trading. In 1820, the sultan of Sennar informed Muhammad Ali that he was unable to comply with a demand to expel the Mamluks. In response, the
Pasha sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan, clear it of Mamluks, and reclaim it for Egypt. The Pasha's forces received the submission of the Kashif, dispersed the Dunqulah Mamluks, conquered
Kordofan, and accepted Sennar's surrender from the last
Funj sultan,
Badi VII. ==Impact==