The Mamluk Sultanate from the Perspective of Regional and World History

Economic, Social and Cultural Development in an Era of Increasing International Interaction and Competition

Reuven Amitai, Stephan Conermann, Reuven Amitai, Stephan Conermann

• Publisher: V&R Unipress
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9783847104117
• eBook ISBN: 9783847004110
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The Mamluk Sultanate represents an extremely interesting case study to examine social, economic and cultural developments in the transition into the rapidly changing modern world. On the one hand, it is the heir of a political and military tradition that goes back hundreds of years, and brought this to a high pitch that enabled astounding victories over serious external threats. On the other hand, as time went on, it was increasingly confronted with "modern" problems that would necessitate fundamental changes in its structure and content. The Mamluk period was one of great religious and social change, and in many ways the modern demographic map was established at this time. This volume shows that the situation of the Mamluk Sultanate was far from that of decadence, and until the end it was a vibrant society (although not without tensions and increasing problems) that did its best to adapt and compete in a rapidly changing world.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Preface
• A Note on Citations, Transliteration and Dates
• I. General Considerations on the International Context of the Mamluk Sultanate
• Stephan Conermann (University of Bonn): The Mamluk Empire. Some Introductory Remarks on a Perspective of Mediterranean History
• Yehoshua Frenkel (University of Haifa): The Mamlūk Sultanate and its Neighbours: Economic, Social and Cultural Entanglements
• Albrecht Fuess (Philipps University, Marburg): How to Cope with the Scarcity of Commodities? The Mamluks' Quest for Metal
• Jo Van Steenbergen (Ghent University): Revisiting the Mamlūk Empire. Political Action, Relationships of Power, Entangled Networks, and the Sultanate of Cairo in Late Medieval Syro-Egypt
• II. Local Concerns with Wider Implications
• Robert Irwin (London): How Circassian Were the Circassian Mamluks?
• Nimrod Luz (Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee): Reconstructing the Urban Landscape of Mamluk Jerusalem: Spatial and Socio-political Implications
• Koby Yosef (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan): Cross-Boundary Hatred: (Changing) Attitudes towards Mongol and “Christian” mamlūks in the Mamluk Sultanate
• Georg Christ (University of Manchester): The Sultans and the Sea: Mamluk Coastal Defence, Dormant Navy and Delegation of Maritime Policing (14th and Early 15th Centuries)
• Bethany J. Walker (University of Bonn): The “Liquid Landscapes” of the Late Mamluk Mediterranean: Rural Perspectives on the Ever-Evolving Sultanate
• III. Mediterranean Connections
• Amar S. Baadj (Bonn and Trier Universities): Travel by Sea and Land between the Maghrib and the Mamluk Empire
• Nikolas Jaspert (Heidelberg University): The Crown of Aragon and the Mamluk Sultanate: Entanglements of Mediterranean Politics and Piety
• IV. Looking North and East
• Marie Favereau (University of Oxford): The Mamluk Sultanate and the Golden Horde. Tension and Interaction During the Mongol Peace
• Michal Biran (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem): The Mamluks and Mongol Central Asia
• Cihan Yüksel Muslu (University of Houston): Patterns of Mobility between Ottoman and Mamluk Lands
• Albrecht Fuess (Philipps University, Marburg): Three's a Crowd. The Downfall of the Mamluks in the Near Eastern Power Struggle, 1500–1517
• V. The Red Sea and Beyond
• John Meloy (American University of Beirut): Mecca Entangled
• Anne Regourd (CNRS, UMR 7192, Paris) with the collaboration of Fiona Handley (University of Brighton): Late Ayyubid and Mamluk Quṣayr al-Qadīm: What the Primary Sources Tell Us
• Contributors
• List of Illustrations
• Index