Mamluk

Mamluk - Page 1

A mamluk (Arabic: مملوك (singular), مماليك (plural), "owned"; also transliterated mameluk, mameluke, mamaluke, or mamluke) was a slave soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans during the Middle Ages. Over time, they became a powerful military caste, and, on more than one occasion, they seized power for themselves, for example ruling Egypt in the Mamluk Sultanate from 1250-1517.

Overview

Main article: Mamluk identity

The first mamluks served the Abbasid caliphs at the end of the 9th century Baghdad. The Mamluk system was an evolution of a previous system, the Ghulam system, invented by the Caliph al-Mu'tasim, in which Turkish prisoners of war became the caliphal guard. This system ended in disaster in the 860s with the murder of four caliphs in a row, and the Mamluk system was created on its ruins. The main difference was that the Mamluks were captured as children and then trained and moulded within the Islamic world to ensure their loyalty to their masters. The Abbasids "recruited" them mainly from areas near the Caucasus (mainly Circassian and Georgian) and in areas north of the Black Sea (mainly Turkic, most of whom were Kipchak Turks) and of Yoruk background. Most of those captured were of non-Muslim origin. Many mamluks had been sold into slavery by their impoverished steppe families or kidnapped by slave-traders.