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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).
This book offers an analysis of the Syro-Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate's political culture, focusing on the period between 1341 and 1382 CE, when twelve descendants of the regime's most successful sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad b. Qalāwūn reigned and the military were more deeply involved in the political process than ever. The book consists of three chapters, each of which discusses one major component of this period's political culture: political institutions, political relationships engendering households and networks, and the dynamics of the period's many socio-political conflicts. This book marks an important breakthrough in Mamluk studies, offering both insights into the history of a long-neglected period and new models of analysis that call for wider application in the field of Mamluk socio-political history. 'The main strength of Van Steenbergen's book lies in the combination of a traditional approach to the sources, command of the literature, the application of prosopography and inslghts derived from political SOciology and, in this respect, is similar to Frenkel's use of prosopography and sociology. The book succeeds in living up to its title: it makes sense of the chaos, explains the order that emerged out of it and sheds light on MamlUk socio-political culture.' Yaacov Lev, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 34(2008), 560-562 'A masterful and very valuable evaluation ... offers, for the first time in many years, a refreshing sociological perspective on Mamluk ''decline'... a 'must-read'' Bethany J. Walker, Bulletin d'Études Orientales, LVIII (2008-2009) 412-415
Islamic History and Civilization Studies and Texts
2009
Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Contents Professor Amalia Levanoni's Contribution to the Field of Mamluk Studies ix Michael Winter Preface xi Acknowledgments xxi List of Figures xxiI Notes on Transliteration xxiv Notes on Contributors xxv Part 1 Social and Cultural Issues 1 Already Rich? Yet 'Greed Deranged Him' Elite Status and Criminal Complicity in the Mamluk Sultanate 3 Carl F. Petry 2 Usages of Kinship Terminology during the Mamluk Sultanate and the Notion of the 'Mamlūk Family' 16 Koby Yosef 3 Medieval Middle Eastern Court Taste The Mamluk Case 76 Limor Yungman 4 Du sang et des larmes Le destin tragique d'Aṣalbāy al-Jarkasiyya (m. en 915/1509
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2023
The field of Mamluk studies, the common name for the scholarship dedicated to understanding various aspects of the history of the Mamluk sultanate (648/1250-922/1517), has witnessed remarkable developments over the last few decades. There is now a community of enthusiastic "Mamlukists" who convene regularly in specialized colloquia and publish a substantial number of captivating and diverse studies in dedicated venues that appear in English, German, Arabic, Turkish, French, Hebrew, Japanese, and Italian, and reflect advances that span every discipline of history. Such developments are possible owing to the cultural legacy of the Mamluk period, which left us a treasure trove of historical sources (both literary and material) to examine as a result of prolific cultural production that was often driven by the charitable endowments of Mamluk military and civilian elites. Despite this legacy, Mamluk studies has had no grand narrative or overview, no History of the Mamluk Sultanate. For far too long Mamlukists have lacked a source akin to Jonathan Riley-Smith's concise and still influential one-volume survey, The Crusades: A History (1987). Finally this bewildering gap in historiography has been filled with the longawaited publication of Carl F. Petry's The Mamluk Sultanate: A History. An authority on the social and cultural history of the Burji/Circassian period, author of the influential The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages (1981) and other vital works, and editor of the first volume of The Cambridge History of Egypt (1998), Petry is the ideal scholar to accomplish this much-needed contribution. Petry highlights the absence of such a work hitherto. The astonishing transformation of the Mamluk institution of military slavery into an autonomous state ruled from Cairo was an exceptional occurrence in world history and it was odd that it had not previously yielded a book on the Mamluk sultanate "beyond a summation of its political trajectory" (p. 3), he notes. He perceptively highlights the relevance of this sultanate that "presided over the central Islamic lands during their transition from the medieval to early modern periods" and, in addition, notes how its ongoing study by a generation of international scholars is "reshaping the field of Islamic History overall" (p. 203). Using a wealth of captivating detail, Petry brings to life this unique experience of a powerful empire ruled by militaryslaves, while scrutinizing the politics, processes, and characters behind its rise and highlighting its durability for over two and a half centuries. To complete his survey, Petry successfully integrates into his study recent developments not just in historiography but in "the disciplines of anthropology archaeology, art and architecture, gender and