Mamluk Military Slavery

Timeline

1. c. 1250–1300Cairo · EgyptThe military slave tradition carried over from the late Ayyubid period was institutionalized under Mamluk rule; boys were purchased from the Caucasus and the Kipchak steppe as mamluks, and after circumcision, Islamic education, and training in horsemanship and archery were enrolled in the sultan's guard.
2. c. 1360–1370Cairo Citadel · CairoUnder Sultan Sha'ban, Bahri-faction mamluks competed for offices through court promotion and military merit; elites of slave origin could serve as emirs and control provinces, while the sultan, though of slave origin, had to balance factional interests to maintain rule.
3. c. 1382–1517Egypt and Syria · LevantAfter the Burji-faction coup of 1382, the framework of slave recruitment and military training largely continued, but power became concentrated among Circassian-origin elites, and the institution gradually stiffened during fifteenth-century conflicts with Timur and the Ottomans.