For more than half a millennium the Mamluks - military slaves emanating from the steppes of southern Russia and later from the Caucasus and the Balkans - wielded power over Egypt. During this time they formed a remarkable political, military and economic elite, ruling as sovereigns from 1250 to 1517 and, after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt, regaining much of their former paramountcy under Turkish supremacy. In this collection of essays, Ulrich Haarman and Thomas Philipp have brought together the research of some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to provide an accessible and coherent introduction to the structure of political power under the Mamluks and its economic foundations. The essays also offer a unique insight into the Mamluk households and their relationship with the indigenous Egyptian population.

For more than half a millennium the Mamluks - military slaves emanating from the steppes of southern Russia and later from the Caucasus and the Balkans - wielded power over Egypt. During this time they formed a remarkable political, military and economic elite, ruling as sovereigns from 1250 to 1517 and, after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt, regaining much of their former paramountcy under Turkish supremacy. In this collection of essays, Ulrich Haarman and Thomas Philipp have brought together the research of some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to provide an accessible and coherent introduction to the structure of political power under the Mamluks and its economic foundations. The essays also offer a unique insight into the Mamluk households and their relationship with the indigenous Egyptian population.

History writing in Islamic Egypt was highly developed and no country in the Middle East has a richer or more developed tradition. This book is a collection of essays by leading scholars in the field, examining different authors, their works and the intellectual climate in which they flourished. Due prominence is given to the great historians of the Mamluk period (c.1260-1517) but also to the less well-known writers of the Ottoman period. The essays are also enlivened by insights into personalities and customs of the time.
This book will be of interest to historians of the Islamic world in mediaeval and modern times, and to all those who are concerned with history writing as an intellectual discourse.