Political Significance of the Mamluk rulers’ Movements in the Second Half of the 13th Century (original) (raw)
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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
This article focuses on surprisingly traditional aspects of Mamluk political culture in the 1360s. It presents a first, detailed account of the life and times of the military slave (mamlūk) Yalbughā al-Khāṣṣakī, who rose to prominence in the later 750s/1350s and who dominated the Mamluk political arena in the 760s/1360s. Instead of approaching this from the perspective of Yalbughā’s career as an exponent of Mamluk decline, his historical role is assessed within the remit of surprising continuities of 1360s elite politics with past practices of royal loyalty and wide-ranging patronage —of the Qalāwūnid sultanate and the Mamluk cultural matrix—, as an important stepping stone in the larger process of identifying an alternative paradigm for that of Mamluk decline.