The Mamluks
A Mamluk inn for merchants in Cairo
The Mamluks were originally slave boys of the Abbasid caliphs of the Islamic Empire (the word “mamluk” just means “slave”). Starting around 850 AD, the Abbasid caliphs captured or bought young boys who were not Muslims as slaves and brought them up to be Sunni Muslim soldiers in a slave army. These men made a great army and there soon got to be more and more Mamluks.
In 1144, the Mamluk general Imad-ud-Din Zangi conquered Edessa, one
of the Crusader states founded after the First
Crusade. He was murdered by his own slaves
shortly after that, when he caught them drinking his wine.
When the Second
Crusade arrived to win Edessa back, Zangi’s son Nureddin fought
them off successfully, and after the Second Crusade ended without taking any of his territory,
Nureddin created a kingdom for himself by conquering Damascus from local
Muslim rulers.
During the 1100's, other Mamluks worked for the Ayyubid
sultans in Egypt and Syria, but little by little the sultans had
less power and the Mamluks got more and more power. Finally in 1250
AD the mother of the last Ayyubid sultan killed her son and married
the leader of the Mamluks, Aybak, so that he became the ruler of Egypt
and Syria.
The Mamluk sultans who came after Aybak were called the Bahris. They
were mainly from Turkish and Mongol
families. They ruled Egypt and Syria, and sometimes the Arabian Peninsula,
until 1382.
When the Mongols invaded
Syria in 1260 AD, the Bahri Mamluks defeated them at Ain Jalut and pushed
the Mongols back to Persia. It was the first time anyone had defeated
the Mongols in a big battle. The man who led the Mamluks, Baybars, became
sultan after the battle.
Mosque of Baybars in Cairo
Baybars and the Bahri Mamluks defeated the last of the Crusaders in 1263. There was a big battle at Antioch, and in the end 16,000 Christian soldiers were killed and all of the hundred thousand people living in Antioch were sold as slaves.
From 1293 to 1340, the sultan al-Nasir enjoyed an unusually long reign of 47 years! The Mamluks were very powerful, and his court was very rich with gold and all kinds of luxuries. But this long period of peace and wealth ended when the Black Death, or bubonic plague, came to Cairo in 1347 AD and killed many of the people who lived there.
After 1382 AD, another group of Mamluks took charge. These sultans were called the Burjis, and they were mainly Circassians. There was less peace and more fighting among the Burjis. But they were still very good soldiers against other people too. In 1426 AD, for instance, the Mamluks conquered the island of Cyprus. In 1440, they attacked Rhodes, but they could not take it. By 1517, however, the Mamluks had been defeated by the Ottomans.
