Yehoshua Frenkel, “The Mamluk Sultanate and its Neighbours: Economic, Social and Cultural Entanglements,” in Reuven Amitai and Stephan Conermann, eds., The Mamluk Sultanate fromthe Perspective of Regional and World History (Göttingen: V&R, 2019), 39-60 (original) (raw)

The MamlūkSultanate negotiated with distant forces and commercial partners and exchanged dispatches and embassiesw ith competitorsa nd rivals. These research topics attracted historians' attention already during the nineteenth century. Their studies illuminated the visible position of Cairo'sCitadel in the world and the diplomatic histories of the 13 th-16 th centuries. 1 This article, based on literary evidence, is the first chapter in aresearchenterprise that deals with the diplomatic communications between the MamlūkS ultanate and Muslim and non-Muslimsg overnments. 2 Ap lanned second chapter will focus on an investigation of archivalmaterials. 3 How did the Mamlūkelite, both its civilian and military echelons, perceivethe world around it?Several directions can be chosen in search for answer(s). The careful scrutinyofdiverse literary genres, as well as the investigation of artefacts, certainly is apossible first one. 4 This article is based primarily on the inspection of 15 th-century literary sources. It will concentrate primarily on three genres: 1) legal writings; 2) slavet rade guides; and 3) geographical texts. These texts cast light on the juridical division employed by the religious establishment, on communications with foreign markets and on the image of these remote lands in the collectiveimagination of the texts' consumers. Certainly, the three literary genres mentioned abovea re not the only type of *Iwould like to thank Prof. Reuven Amitai and Dr Julia Rubanovich for their help and advice. 1F or earlier works of mine on this topic, see Y. Frenkel, "Animals and Otherness in Mamluk Egypt and Syria," in Francisco de Asís García García, Mónica Ann Wa lker Va dillo and María Victoria Chico Picazabar(eds.), Animals and Otherness in the Middle Ages: Perspectives across Disciplines (Oxford, 2013), 52-55; Y. Frenkel, "Embassies and Ambassadors in Mamluk Cairo," in Frédéric Bauden (convener), Mamluk Cairo: ACrossroad for Embassies (Université de Liège, September 2012) (in preparation for publication). 2T he historyoft he Mamlūks and the Italian merchant republics is excluded. 3O ne documentw as presented in Y. Frenkel, "MamlūkE mbassies and Diplomats in 15 thcentury Mediterranean-The MamlūkSultanate in the Days of Qā ʾ it-Bā yand the al-Ifranj," a talk at the Second Conference of the School of MamlūkStudies, Liége, June 2015 (Panel: The Mamlūks and Distant Realms). 4D oris Behrens-Abouseif, Practising Diplomacy in the Mamluk Sultanate: Gifts and Material Cultureinthe Medieval Islamic Wo rld (London, 2014).