Map – Mamluk Sultanate (1260 – 1517 CE)

TIME PERIOD: 1260 – 1517 CE

“In the middle of the thirteenth century the power of the Turkish Mamluks in Cairo was supreme and a new regime emerged, the Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled Egypt and Syria until 1517. In 1260, after a period of confusion following the death of the last Ayyubid, a Qipchaq Turk called Baybars became Sultan. His career in many ways forms an interesting parallel with that of Saladin. He united Muslim Syria/Palestine and Egypt into a single state, this time more permanently. He defeated the external enemies of that state, repulsing Mongol invaders from the east and crushing all but the last remnants of the Crusaders in Syria.”

Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 169-170 Oxford University Press, 1993

“Palestine was divided mainly between two of the six provinces of Syria, the province of Damascus and that of Safed. Mameluk officers, appointed as governors, were independent of each other and directly responsible to the sultan, in Cairo… No details exist of the size and composition of Palestine’s population under the mameluks.”

Moshe Sharon, “Palestine under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918),” The History of Israel and the Holy Land p. 278, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

“In the 15th century, instability plagued Mamluk rule: internal corruption, the continued Mongol threat, Bedouin incursions, and bad economic policies all combined to deliver a blow to the Mamluk economy and military, from which they were not able to recover.”

Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 172 Oxford University Press, 1993

“In a short, sharp war in 1516-1517, the Ottomans overthrew the tottering Mamluk sultanate which had dominated Egypt, Syria, and western Arabia for two and a half centuries and brought these lands under their rule.”

Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 114 Scribner paperback, 1995

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