Burji Mamluks

State of the Circassians
دولة الجراكسة (Arabic)
*Dawlat al-Jarākisa*
State of the Circassians دولة الجراكسة (Arabic); Dawlat al-Jarākisa
1382–1517
Status	Sultanate, nominally under the Abbasid Caliphate
Capital	Cairo
Spoken languages	Arabic ; Kipchak Turkish ; Circassian
Religion	Sunni Islam
Sultan
• 1382-89 · 1390-1399	Barquq
• 1508-1516 · 1517	Al-Mutawakkil III
History
• Established	1382
• Disestablished	1517
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Bahri Mamluks
Ottoman Empire

The Burji Mamluks (Arabic: المماليك البرجية, romanized: al-Mamalik al-Burjiya) or Circassian Mamluks (Arabic: المماليك الشركس, romanized: al-Mamalik al-Sharkas), sometimes referred to as the Burji dynasty,^[1]^[2] were the rulers of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt from 1382 until 1517. As with the preceding Bahri Mamluks, the members of the Burji Mamluk ruling class were purchased as slaves (mamluks) and manumitted, with the most powerful among them taking the role of sultan in Cairo. During this period, the ruling Mamluks were generally of Circassian origin, drawn from the Christian population of the northern Caucasus.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] The name Burji, meaning 'of the tower', refers to the traditional residence of these Mamluks in the barracks of the Citadel of Cairo.^[3]^[7]^[8]

Although sultans typically designated their sons to succeed them after death, the latter rarely lasted more than a few years before being usurped by one of the powerful Mamluk commanders, usually from among the Mamluks purchased by previous sultans.^[3] Political power-plays often became important in designating a new sultan.^[9]

During this period, the Mamluks fought Timur and conquered Cyprus. Over the course of the 15th century, the sultanate was weakened by infighting and economic decline brought about by multiple factors. Although militarily powerful, they were eventually unable to compete with the more modern army of the Ottoman Empire, leading to their eventual conquest in 1517 by the Ottomans.^[9]

History

Establishment and early challenges

From 1250, Egypt had been ruled by the first Mamluk dynasty, the mostly Cuman-Kipchak Turkic Bahri dynasty.^[4] In 1377 a revolt broke out in Syria which spread to Egypt, and the government was taken over by the Circassians Barakah and Barquq; Barquq was proclaimed sultan in 1382, ending the Bahri dynasty. He was expelled in 1389 but recaptured Cairo in 1390. Early on, the Zahiri Revolt threatened to overthrow Barquq though the conspiracy was discovered before agitators could mobilize. Permanently in power, he founded the Burji dynasty.

Faced with a common enemy, Timur, Barquq joined with Bayezid I and Toktamish in a combined resistance and executed Timur's peace envoys^[when?].^[11] In the following months Timur was engaged in Georgia and unable to respond to Barquq's actions, while Barquq had died by 1399.^[11] In 1401, Timur invaded Syria and sacked Aleppo^[12] and Damascus. Syria was regained by Barquq's son, sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj, after Timur died in 1405, but Faraj continually faced rebellions from the emirs there and he was forced to abdicate in 1412.

After Faraj, the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'in was permitted to rule the sultanate in Cairo for several months, but the role of sultan was soon taken by another Mamluk, Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh.^[13]

Apogee and decline

Under the reign of Sultan Barsbay, the Mamluk Sultanate grew to its widest territorial extent. In 1426, he invaded the Kingdom of Cyprus and forced its kings to become Mamluk vassals. However, Barsbay also introduced a number of economic policies that were damaging in the long term, such as a state monopoly on the spice trade.^[14] During Barsbay's reign Egypt's population was greatly reduced from what it had been a few centuries before, with only one fifth of the number of towns.^{[citation needed]} He frequently raided Asia Minor, but died in 1438.

During the reign of Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq an attempt to conquer Rhodes in 1444 from the Knights of St. John was repelled.

Sayf ad-Din Inal came to power in 1453 and had friendly relations with the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who captured Constantinople later that year, causing great celebration in Egypt. The relationship between the Ottomans and the Mamluks became more adversarial after this time. Both states constantly vied for control of the spice trade, and the Ottomans aspired to eventually take control of the Holy Cities of Islam.^[15] Under the reign of Khusqadam, of Greek origin,^[16] tensions increased. Both Khusqadam and Mehmed II supported different candidates to the principality of Karaman.^{[citation needed]}

After the death of Mehmed II in 1481, Sultan Qaitbay offended the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II by harboring his rebellious brother, Cem. Bayezid II later seized Adana, Tarsus and other places within Mamluk territory, but was unable to defeat the Mamluks during a prolonged war that ended in 1491.^[18] Qaitbay also tried to help the Muslims in Spain by threatening the Christians in Syria, but without effect.^{[citation needed]} He died in 1496, leaving several hundred thousand ducats in debts to the great Venetian trading families.^{[citation needed]}

Following another several years of political instability and succession disputes, the last major Mamluk sultan was Qansuh al-Ghuri, who came to power in 1501. While he attempted some reforms, including the introduction of the first military regiment with gunpowder weapons, he was unable to fully integrate them into the Mamluk army and he could not fix the country's economic problems.^[19]

Conquest by the Ottomans

By 1516, the Ottomans were free from other concerns — Sultan Selim I had just vanquished the Safavid Persians at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514^[20] —and turned their full might against the Mamluks, who still ruled in Syria and Egypt, to complete the Ottoman conquest of the Middle East.^[20] Al-Ghuri led his army to confront Selim I's invasion of Syria in 1516, but he died in the Battle of Marj Dabiq and the Mamluk army was routed.^[19]

In 1517, the Ottomans completed their conquest with the capture of Cairo on January 22.^[19] The centre of power transferred from Cairo to Constantinople. However, the mamluks continued to exist as a political and military class in Ottoman Egypt. While the governors were appointed by the Ottoman sultan, the mamluks vied for influence within the country and held many high political positions. They were finally destroyed and exterminated by Muhammad Ali Pasha during his rise to power in Egypt in the early 19th century.^[21]

Culture

Some of the Circassian Mamluks who composed the ruling elite in this period could speak the Circassian language of their origins,^[22] but they generally learned Turkish while in Egypt, specifically Kipchak Turkish,^[23] as it was the main spoken language among the mamluks during the wider Mamluk Sultanate period.^[24]^[25]^[23] The main language for writing was Classical Arabic, while the common language of the general population was a form of colloquial Arabic.^[24]^[26] Kipchak Turkish was also used in writing, but to a lesser extent and mainly for a mamluk audience. Over time, it was replaced in this role by Oghuz Turkish due to influence from Turkish Anatolia.^[25]^[26]

List of Burji Sultans

al-Zahir Barquq (first reign), mamluk of Yalbugha al-Umari, 1382–1389^[a]
al-Zahir Barquq (second reign), mamluk of Yalbugha al-Umari, 1390–1399
an-Nasir Faraj (first reign), son of Barquq, 1399–1405
al-Mansur Abd al-Aziz, son of Barquq, 1405
an-Nasir Faraj (second reign), son of Barquq, 1405–1412^[b]
al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh, mamluk of Barquq, 1412–1421
al-Muzaffar Ahmad, son of Shaykh, 1421
az-Zahir Tatar, mamluk of Barquq, 1421
as-Salih Muhammad, son of Tatar, 1421–1422
al-Ashraf Barsbay, mamluk of Barquq, 1422–1437
al-Aziz Yusuf, son of Barsbay, 1437–1438
az-Zahir Jaqmaq, mamluk of Barquq, 1438–1453
al-Mansur Uthman, son of Jaqmaq, 1453
al-Ashraf Inal, mamluk of Barquq, 1453–1461
al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad, son of Inal, 1461
az-Zahir Khushqadam, mamluk of Shaykh, 1461–1467
az-Zahir Bilbay, mamluk of Shaykh, 1467
az-Zahir Timurbugha, mamluk of Jaqmaq, 1467–1468
al-Ashraf Qaitbay, mamluk of Barsbay, 1468–1496
an-Nasir Muhammad, son of Qaitbay, 1496–1498
az-Zahir Qansuh, mamluk of Qaitbay, 1498–1500
al-Ashraf Janbalat, mamluk of Qaitbay, 1500–1501
al-Adil Tuman Bay I, mamluk of Qaitbay, 1501
al-Ashraf Qansuh II, mamluk of Qaitbay, 1501–1516
al-Ashraf Tuman Bay II, mamluk of Qansuh II, 1516–1517

In 1517, the Ottomans under Sultan Selim I conquered the Mamluk sultanate, bringing an end to the Burji period.

References

Citations

↑ Shoup, John A. (2017). The Nile: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4408-4041-8.
↑ Flood, Finbarr Barry; Necipoğlu, Gülru (2017). A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Wiley Blackwell. p. 579. ISBN 978-1-119-06857-0.
1 2 3 Bosworth, C. E. (1996). "The Mamluks". New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 76–80. ISBN 978-1-4744-6462-8.
1 2 McGregor, Andrew James (2006). A Military History of Modern Egypt: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 15. ISBN 9780275986018. By the late fourteenth century Circassians from the north Caucasus region had become the majority in the Mamluk ranks.
↑ Isichei, Elizabeth (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45599-2.
↑ Heng, Geraldine (2018). The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-42278-9.
↑ Petry, Carl F. (2014). The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages. Princeton University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-4008-5641-1.
↑ AlSayyad, Nezar (2013). Cairo: Histories of a City. Harvard University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-674-07245-9.
1 2 Petry 2022, pp. 23–52.
↑ Behrens-Abouseif, Doris (2007). Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of Architecture and its Culture. The American University in Cairo Press. p. 225. ISBN 9789774160776.
1 2 Ziada, Mustafa M. (1975). "The Mamluk Sultans: 1291–1517". In Setton, Kenneth (ed.). A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 490.
↑ Aleppo:the Ottoman Empire's caravan city, Bruce Masters, The Ottoman City Between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul, ed. Edhem Eldem, Daniel Goffman, Bruce Master, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 20.
↑ Petry 2022, p. 30.
↑ Petry 2022, pp. 35–39.
↑ Ottoman seapower and Levantine diplomacy in the age of discovery by Palmira Johnson Brummett p.52ff
↑ Kenneth Meyer Setton (1969). A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by .... Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 502.
↑ Behrens-Abouseif, Doris (2006). "The Islamic History of the Lighthouse of Alexandria". Muqarnas. 23 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1163/22118993-90000093.
↑ Petry 2022, p. 45.
1 2 3 Petry 2022, pp. 47–52.
1 2 The Ottoman Empire: A Short History by Saraiya Faroqhi p.60ff
↑ Clot, André (1996). L'Égypte des Mamelouks: L'empire des esclaves, 1250–1517. Perrin.
↑ Fischel, Walter Joseph (1967). Ibn Khaldūn in Egypt: His Public Functions and His Historical Research, 1382–1406, a Study in Islamic Historiography. University of California Press. p. 72.
1 2 Petry 2022, pp. 58, 204, and elsewhere.
1 2 Winter, Michael (1998). "The re-emergence of the Mamluks following the Ottoman conquest". In Philipp, Thomas; Haarmann, Ulrich (eds.). The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society. Cambridge University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-521-59115-7.
1 2 Flemming, Barbara (2017). Essays on Turkish Literature and History. Brill. p. 107. ISBN 978-90-04-35576-7.
1 2 Rabbat, Nasser (2001). "Representing the Mamluks in Mamluk Historical Writing". In Kennedy, Hugh N. (ed.). The Historiography of Islamic Egypt: (c. 950–1800). Brill. p. 69. ISBN 978-90-04-11794-5.

Sources

Petry, Carl F. (2022). The Mamluk Sultanate: A History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-47104-6.