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Mamluks)
An Ottoman Mamluk, from 1810
Mamluks (also Mameluks, Mamelukes, Mamlukes) (the Arabic word usually translates as "owned", singular: مملوك plural: مماليك) comprised slave soldiers who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ottoman Empire. Over time they became a powerful military caste, and on more than one occasion they seized power for themselves, for example in Egypt from 1250 to 1517.
Overview
The first mamluks served the Abbasid caliphs in 9th century Baghdad. The Abbasids recruited them from mainly Turkic non-Muslims captured in areas north of the Black Sea, the steppes of modern Southwestern Russia and the Caucasus. The mamluk system gave rulers troops with no link to the established power structure. The local warriors were often more loyal to their tribal sheiks, their families or nobles other than the sultan or caliph. If some commander conspired against the ruler, it was often not possible to deal with him without causing unrest among the nobility. The slave-troops were strangers of the lowest possible status who could not conspire against the ruler and who could easily be punished if they caused trouble.
The mamluks who seized power in Egypt 1250 were the most famous. They were mostly Turkic, along with some Georgians, Circassians, a few Mongols from the regions ruled by the Juchi branch of the Mongol family sold into slavery for various reasons such as bankruptcy. The Turkic element then was dominant, and most of them were from the Russian steppe, in the lands alloted by Genghis Khan to his son Juchi and Juchi's heirs. However, the Circassians later domninated. The mamluks were often sold into slavery by impoverished steppe families, or kidnapped by slave-traders.
After being converted to Islam, they were trained as cavalry soldiers. While technically after training they were no longer slaves, they were still obliged to serve the Sultan. They were kept by the Sultan as an outsider force, under his direct command, to use in the event of local tribal frictions. Many mamluks rose to high positions throughout the empire, including army command. Their status remained non-hereditary at first and children were strictly prevented from following their fathers. The intensive and rigorous training given to each new recruit helped ensure a great deal of continuity in mamluk practices. However, over time both in places like Egypt the mamluk forces became linked to existing power structures and gained significant amounts of influence on those powers. A similar evolution occurred in the Ottoman Empire with the Janissaries but the Sultans managed to maintain de jure power until 1826 when Mahmud II crushed them in a revolt.
Mamluks' beginnings in Egypt
Two Mamluk dynasties ruled Egypt: the Bahri (بحري meaning 'of the sea', referring to their center in al-Manial Island in the Nile, and consisting of Kipchak Turks) and Burji (برجي meaning 'of the tower', referring to their center in the citadel of Cairo, and consisting of Circassians and Georgians). The Bahri led the way in breaking the rule of non-hereditary positions by establishing a dynasty ruled by a few families.
The precursor to the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt lies in the Ayyubid Dynasty, founded by Saladin (Salah ah-Din) in 1174, who, with his uncle Shirkuh, conquered Egypt for the Zengid King Nur ad-Din of Damascus in 1169. By 1189 with the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin had solidified his Kurdish family's control over the Middle East. However, following Saladin's death, his sons fell to squabbling over the division of the Empire, and each attempted to surround themeselves with larger expanded mamluke retinues. By 1200 Saladin's brother, Al-Adil, succeeded in securing control over the whole empire by defeating and killing or imprisoning his brothers and nephews in turn. With each victory, Al-Adil incorporated the defeated mamluke retinue into his own. This process was repeated at Al-Adil's death in 1218, and at his son Al-Kamil's death in 1238. The Ayyubid's became increasingly surrounded by the power of the mamluks and soon involved them in the internal court politics of the kingdom itself.
With the death of the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Salihin 1249, power passed briefly to his son Turanshah, then to Al-Salih's favorite wife, Shajar Al-Durr and her later husband, the mamluk chief Aibek. By 1259, another mamluk, Qutuz, had taken power, thereby formally starting the Mamluk Sultanate.
Over the next two and a half centuries, the Mamluk Sultanate ruled over Greater Syria, Egypt, easter Libya, and the two holy cities in western Arabia. It was to defeat repeated Mongol Invasions from across the border in Iraq, as well as expell the Crusader Kingoms from the levant.
The Mamluk Sultanate would survive until 1517, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The institution of the mamluks would continue under the Ottomans, though it would not be the same as that of the Sultanate.
Mamluks' independence from the Ottomans
In 1768, Sultan Ali Bey Al-Kabir declared independence from the Ottomans but the Mamluks crushed the movement and retained their position after his defeat. By this time new slave recruits were introduced from Georgia in the Caucasus. Napoleon defeated Mamluk troops when he attacked Egypt in 1798 and drove them to Upper Egypt. By this time Mamluks had added only muskets to their typical cavalry charge tactics.
After the departure of French troops in 1801, Mamluks continued their struggle for independence, this time against the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain. In 1803, Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Beg and Usman Beg wrote a letter to Russian general-consul and asked him to act as a mediator with the Sultan as they wanted a cease fire and return to their homeland, Georgia. The Russian Ambassador in Istanbul categorically refused to mediate because the Russian government was afraid of allowing Mamluks to return to Georgia, where a strong national-liberation movement was on rise and the Mamluk return would have empowered it.
In 1805, the population of Cairo rebelled. There was an excellent opportunity for the Mamluks to seize the state authority, but the tension among them and betrayal by some Mamluks did not allow them to exploit this opportunity. In 1806, the Mamluks defeated the Turkish forces several times, and in June the rival parties concluded a peace treaty, according to which Muhammad Ali (appointed as governor of Egypt on 26 March 1806) was to be removed and the state authority in Egypt returned to the Mamluks. But again, internal tension and conflicts between the clans did not allow the Mamluks to use this opportunity. Muhammad Ali kept his authority.
Muhammed Ali knew that eventually he would have to contend with the Mamluks if he ever wanted to control Egypt. They were still the feudal owners of Egypt and their land was still the source of wealth and power.
In 1809–1810, Muhammad Ali managed to split the Mamluks, one part of them went to Sudan and settled there. Finally, on March 1, 1811, Muhammad Ali invited all Mamluks to his palace to celebrate the declaration of war against the Arabs. There were nearly 600 Mamluks (in another source about 700) on parade in Cairo. Near the Al-Azab gates, in a narrow road down from Mukatamb Hill, Muhammad Ali's forces ambushed and slaughtered almost everyone. According to the tradition, only one Mamluk named Hasan survived and he cut his way though the Turks and jumped with a horse over a precipice to freedom.
Over the following week hundreds of Mamluks were killed throughout Egypt. In the citadel of Cairo more than 1000 Mamluks were killed and in the streets about 3,000 Mamluks and their relatives. One little group of Mamluks escaped to Sudan and settled in a little village of Dongola. Many of them died within 2 or 3 years (among them Ibrahim Beg, who died in 1816). In 1820, Muhammad Ali pardoned them and allowed them to return to Egypt, but only 80 Mamluks crossed the border.
Mamluks in France
Napoleon formed his own Mamluk corps in the early years of the 19th century and they became the last known Mamluk force. Even his Imperial Guard had Mamluk soldiers during the Belgian campaign, including one of his personal servants. Napoleon's famous bodyguard Roustan was also a Mamluk from Egypt.
One of the pictures by Francisco de Goya shows a charge of Mamluks against the Madrilene on 2 May 1808.
Throughout the Napoleonic era, there was a special Mamluk corps in the French army. In his history of the 13th Chasseurs, Colonel Descaves recounts how Napoleon used the Mamluks by the young General Bonaparte in Egypt. In his so-called "Instructions", which Bonaparte gave to Kleber after departure, Napoleon wrote that he had already bought about 2,000 Mamluks from Syrian merchants from whom he intended to form a special detachment. On 14 September 1799, General Kleber established a mounted company of Mamluk auxiliaries and Syrian janissaries from Turks captured at the siege of Acre.
On 7 July 1800, General Menou reorganized the company, forming 3 companies of 100 men each and renaming it the "Mamluks de la Republique". In 1801, General Rapp was sent to Marseille to organize a squadron of 250 Mamluks under his command. On 7 January 1802, the previous order was canceled and the squadron reduced to 150 men. The list of effectives on 21 April 1802 reveals 3 officers and 155 rank and file. By decree of 25 December 1803, the Mamluks were organized into a company attached to the Chasseurs-a-Cheval of the Imperial Guard.
Mamluks fought well at Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805 and the regiment was granted a standard and a roster increased to accommodate a standard bearer and a trumpet. A decree of 15 April 1806 defined the strength of squadron as 13 officers and 147 privates, while in 1813 its Chasseurs-a-Cheval of the Imperial Guard. A decree of 17 March established another company attached to the Young Guard. Despite the Imperial decree of 21 March 1815 which stated that no foreigner could be admitted into the Guard, Napoleon’s decree of 24 April prescribed inter alia that the Chasseurs-a-Cheval of the Imperial Guard included a squadron of two companies of Mamluks for the Belgian Campaign.
With the First Restoration, the company of the Mamluks of the Old Guard was incorporated in the Corps Royal des Chasseurs de France. The Mamluks of Young Guard were incorporated in the 7th Chasseurs a Cheval.
Mamluk uniform
During their service in Napoleon’s army, the Mamluk squadron wore the following uniform:
Before 1804: The only "uniform" part was the green cahouk (hat), white turban, and red saroual (pants), all to be worn with a loose shirt and a vest. Boots were of yellow, red or tan soft leather. Weapons consisted of an "Oriental" scimitar, a brace of pistols in a holder decorated with a brass crescent and star, and a dagger.
After 1804: The cahouk became red with a brass crescent and star and the shirt was closed and had a collar. The main change was the addition of a "regulation" chasseur-style saddle-cloth and roll, imperial green in color, piped red, with a red and white fringe. The saddlery and harness remained Arabic in style. The undress uniform was as for the Chasseurs-a-Cheval of the Guard but of a dark blue cloth.
Mamluks in Baghdad
In the Ottoman Empire, mamluks of Baghdad proclaimed their independence in the 18th century and remained autonomous until the Ottoman reconquest in 1832.
Mamluks in India
In 1206, the mamluk commander of the Muslim forces in India, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, proclaimed himself sultan, becoming, in effect, the first independent Sultan-e-Hind. This Mamluk dynasty lasted until 1290. See Delhi Sultanate for more information.
Related terms
Mameluco is a Portuguese word used to identify people of mixed European and Native American descent in South America. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Mameluco referred to organized bands of Portuguese slave-hunters based at São Paulo, also known as bandeirantes, who roamed the vast interior of South America from the Atlantic to the slopes of the Andes, and from the Paraguay to the Orinoco Rivers, raiding the Guarani-inhabited areas for slaves, being responsible for the expansion of Brazil from its original dimensions delineated by the Tordesilhas Treaty to its current form, mostly in originally Spanish areas. The connection of bandeirantes to mamelucos is that initially only men travelled from Portugal to Brazil, and thus they mostly married native Indian women; thus the founders of the Brazilian expansion of the Portuguese empire had mostly Indian blood, sometimes speaking only Tupi instead of their forefather's Portuguese.
Mameluk name was used in Hungary in the last decades of the 19th century as a nickname for Members of Parliament, belonging to the governing "Liberal" party. This party governed Hungary for 30 years (1875-1905) and its MPs - to preserve their seat in the Parliament and the accompanying privileges - fulfilled all wishes of the party leader and prime minister Tisza.
See also
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