eLibrary: The Mamluk Sultanate

The Mamluks were an elite warrior class of slave-soldiers, primarily of Turkic and Caucasian origin, who rose to power in Egypt and the Levant. Originally enslaved as young boys, they were trained in military and administrative skills, becoming a formidable force under the Ayyubid dynasty, In 1250, they overthrew their masters and established the Mamluk Sultanate, which rules for over 250 years. 

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Articles

Behrens-Abouseif, D.  (ed.) The Arts of the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria – Evolution and Impact 361pp

Metalworking

Afrough, M., 2019. Egyptian metalwork school (Cairo) during the Mamluk period. Negarineh Islamic Art, 5(16), pp.44-62.

Behrens-Abouseif, D., 2005. Veneto-Saracenic metalware, a Mamluk art. Mamlūk Studies Review, 9.

Bloom, J.M., 1987. A Mamluk Basin in the LA Mayer Memorial Institute. Islamic Art, 2, pp.15-26.

Dardier Afify Khalifa, G., 2022. Two Unpublished Metal Pen Boxes from the Mamluk Period in Egypt. International Journal of Advanced Studies in World Archaeology, 5(2), pp.351-375.

Edris, A.M., 2023. Study of a Rare Mamluk Metal Bucket in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. Shedet, 10(10), pp.166-183.

El-Basha, H., 1992. Chinese Impact on MamRuk Minor Arts. Senri ethnological studies, 32, pp.147-170.

Jacoby, D., 2018. Between Venice and Alexandria: Trade and the Movement of Precious Metals in the Early Mamluk Period. Mamlūk Studies Review, 21.

Merkle A.M. 2015 Sultan as Splendid as the Sun: The Radiating Inscription Under Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun (r. 1293-1294, 1299-1309, 1309-1341), PhD Thesis, Univ of Texas. (not freely available)

Mols, L. E. M. (2006, October 24). Mamluk metalwork fittings in their artistic and architectural context. Chapter from PhD thesis, Leiden

Peruski, J., 2014. The supposed dissipation of figural imagery in Mamluk art: a study of Mamluk iconography.

Porter, V. And Rosser-Owen, M. 2012.  Metalwork and material culture in the islamic world, ARt, Craft and Text. Essays presented to James W. Allan, London, New York,

Saad, H., 2009. Radiating Inscription on Mamluk Metalwork. Abgadiyat, 4 ,  pp.97-99.

Schulz, V.S., 2020. Artistic exchanges across Afro-Eurasia: a global taste for metal artifacts from Mamluk Syria and Egypt in Italy, West Africa, and China in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Convivium, 7(2), pp.132-157.

Schutz, V.S., 2024 Decentering the Renaissance: Afro-Eurasian Itineraries of Mamluk Metalwork. In The Routledge Companion to Global Renaissance Art (pp. 190-206). Routledge.

Ward, R. 2004. Brass, Gold and Silver from Mamluk Egypt: Metal Vessels Made for Sultan Al-Nāir Muammad, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 14, 1.

Architecture

Abdelsalam, M. and Ibrahım, M., 2019. Fractal dimension of islamic architecture: The case of the Mameluke Madrasas-Al-Sultan Hassan Madrasa. Gazi University Journal of Science, 32(1), pp.27-37.

Ali Ahmed Gaber, A. and Mahmoud Hamada Aly, R., 2021. The Architecture of Connections in Mamluk Architecture “The Methodology of Design by Connection Elements in Complex Buildings in Mamluk Eras Case-Study”. International Design Journal, 11(6), pp.93-117.

Al-Harithy, H., 2001. The concept of space in Mamluk architecture. Muqarnas, 18, pp.73-93.

Almahdali, S.S., Sukamto, S. and Sulaiman, U., 2025. Dinasti Mamalik di Mesir: Pembentukan, Kemajuan dan Kemunduran. Socius: Jurnal Penelitian Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial, 2(6).

Amer, I.A. and Gaber, A.A.A., 2018. A Generative Technique for Mamluk Madrasa Buildings Design. Journal of Urban Research, 29(1), pp.127-166.

Behrens-Abouseif, D., 1981. Four Domes of the Late Mamluk Period. In Annales islamologiques (Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 191-201). Persée-Portail des revues scientifiques en SHS.

Bloom, J.M., 1999. Mamluk art and architectural history: A review Article. Mamlūk Studies Review, 3.

El-Akkad, T.A., 2013. The aesthetics of Islamic architecture & the exuberance of Mamluk design.

Fayyad, I., 2018. An Example of Domestic Mamluk Architecture in Damascus (14th and 15th centuries). Ash Sharq, 2, pp.136-156.

Fernandes, L., 1997. Mamluk architecture and the Question of Patronage. Mamlūk Studies Review, 1.

Gallin, P., 2017. Mamluk Art Objects in their architectural context (Master's thesis, Boston College).

Hassannen Ibrahim, M., Mohamed Fathy, H.A. and AbdEl Rahim Ibrahim, G., 2025. Impact of economic, political, and social changes on architectural and artistic production during the Mamluk period in Cairo (648-923/1250-1517). Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality, 28(2), pp.197-211.

Jakeman, J. and Jakeman, J., 1993. Abstract art and communication in'Mamluk'architecture (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford).

Malhis, S., 2016. Narratives in Mamluk architecture: Spatial and perceptual analyses of the madrassas and their mausoleums. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 5(1), pp.74-90.

Malhis, S., 2017. The Spatial Logic of Mamluk Madrassas: Readings in the Geometric and Genotypical Compositions. Nexus Network Journal, 19(1), pp.45-72.

Mohamed Mahmoud, F., 2016. The Aesthetical Aspects for Monumentality of Mamluk Architecture Reasons and Analysis. Study Case: Sultan Hassan Complex in Cairo.

Rabbat, N., 2010. Mamluk history through architecture: Monuments, culture and politics in medieval Egypt and Syria. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Rabbat, N., 2002. Perception of architecture in Mamluk sources. Mamlūk Studies Review, 6.

Ramzy, N.S., 2013. Visual language in Mamluk architecture: A semiotic analysis of the Funerary Complex of Sultan Qaitbay in Cairo. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2(3), pp.338-353.

Sadeq, M., Mamluk Architecture and its Related Arts as Evidence for State Stability and Administration in Egypt and Syria, International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology, 1(2), pp.106-110.

Salem, A.M., 2024. The Impact of Vow (Naḏr) on the Mamluk Architecture in Egypt. Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality, 27(2), pp.39-65.

Sayed, H.I., 1987. The Rab'in Cairo: a window on Mamluk architecture and urbanism (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Whitcomb, D., 1997. Mamluk Archaeological Studies: A Review. Mamlūk Studies Review, 1.

History

Ahmad, S., 2025. Contribution of the Mamluk Dynasty to Islamic Civilization 1250-1517 AD. Agency Journal of Management and Business, 5(1), pp.44-51.

Aigle, D. ‘Legitimizing A Low-Born, Regicide Monarch: The Case Of The Mamluk Sultan Baybars And The Ilkhans In The Thirteenth Century’ 18pp

Al-Sulaiman, S. ‘Make-Up Products and the Beauty of Egyptian Women during the Mamluk Period (648-923H/1250-1517)’, Mediterranean Studies Group Hitotsubashi University 18pp

Amitai, R. 2008.  ‘Mamluks of Mongol origin and their role in early Mamluk political life’, Mamluk Studies Review 12, 1, 119-137.

Apellaniz, F.J. 2016.  News on the Bulaq : a Mamluk-Venetian memorandum on Asian trade, AD 1503, EUI Working paper, HEC 2016/01, 29pp

Banister, M. 2014.  ‘‘Naught remains to the caliph but his title’: Revisiting Abbasid authority in Mamluk Cairo’,  Mamlūk Studies Review 18,  219-245.

Ben-Bassat, Y. (ed), 2017.  Developing Perspectives in Mamluk History Essays in Honor of Amalia Levanoni, Leiden, 2017, 92p’

Behrens-Abouseif, D., 2011.  ‘Craftsmen, upstarts and Sufis in the late Mamluk period’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 74, 3, 375-395.

Behrens-Abouseif, D., 1997. ‘The mahmal legend and the pilgrimage of the ladies of the Mamluk court’,  Mamluk Studies Review 1, 87-96.

Broadbridge, A.F., 2001.  ‘Mamluk Legitimacy and the Mongols: The Reigns of Baybars and Qalawun’ Mamluk Studies Review, 91-118.

Elbendary, A.A., 2001. ‘The Sultan, The Tyrant, and the Hero: Changing Medieval Perceptions of al-Zahir Baybars’, Mamluk Studies Review, 5, 141-157.

Filipau, A. 2019  ‘Relations Between the Mamluk State In Egypt and “Tatars” In 1252–1281’, Весці БДПУ. Серыя 2. Гісторыя. Філасофія. Паліталогія. Сацыялогія. Эканоміка. Культуралогія,, 2, 2019, 35-40.

Firdaus, Y.R. e.a. 2020. Rise And Fall Of Mamluk Sultanate. The Struggle Against Mongols and Crusaders in Holy War, Al-Adjan. Journal of Religious Studies, 1, 1, 14-28

Fischel, W.J. 1958. ‘The Spice Trade in Mamluk Egypt: A Contribution to the Economic History of Medieval Islam’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 1, 2, 157-174.

Frenkel, Y. 2017. ‘Some Notes Concerning the Trade and Education of Slave-Soldiers during the Mamluk Era’, in R. Amitai and C. Cluse (eds) Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1000‒1500 ce), Turnhout, 187-212.

Fuess, A. 2020  Waqfization in the late Mamluk Empire: A deliberate policy or chaos management? EGY Landscape Working Paper 1. 13pp

Fuess, A., 2005. ‘Was Cyprus a Mamluk protectorate? Mamluk policies toward Cyprus between 1426 and 1517’, Journal of Cyprus Studies, 11, 28/29, 11-29.

Haarmann, U., 1988. ‘Arabic in speech, Turkish in lineage: Mamluks and their sons in the intellectual life of fourteenth-century Egypt and Syria’, Journal of Semitic Studies 33, 1, 81-114.

Hirschler, K., 2013.  ‘Studying Mamluk historiography. From source-criticism to the cultural turn’, in S. Conerman (ed) Ubi sumus? Quo Vedemus? Mamluk Studies – State of the Art, Bonn, 159-186.

Igarashi, D., 2008  ‘The Private Property and Awqaf of the Circassian Mamluk Sultans: The Case of Barqiiq’, Orient, 43, 167-106

Igarashi, D. and T. Ito, 2019. ‘An Overview of Recent Studies on Women and Family in Mamluk Society’, Orient, 54, 1–6

Iliushina, M,, 2014. The Origins of the Circassian Mamluks a Subject of Myth-Making, SSNR, 2014, 13pp Higher School of Economics Research Paper No. WP BRP 64/HUM/2014, 13pp

Jensen, K.E., 2013.  The Mamluk Lancer. A philological study of Nihāyat al-suʾl wa-ʾl-ʾumnīya fī taʿlīm ʾaʿmāl al-furūsīya, MA Thesis, Oslo,  136pp

Kunduzay, A., e.a., 2015.  ‘The Novel “Hizanat Shamail” and The Mamluk Sultanate’, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 543-548.

Levanoni, A., 1994. ‘The Mamluk conception of the Sultanate’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 26, 3, 373-392.

Levanoni, A. 2005.  ‘Food and cooking during the Mamluk Era: Social and political implications’, Mamluk Studies Review 9, 2, 222-201.

Massoud, S.G. 2005. An Analysis of the Annalistic Sources of the Early Mamluk Circassian Period, Volume One, PhD Thesis, Montreal, 580pp

Mauder, C. 2020. ‘Being Persian in Late Mamluk Egypt: The Construction and Significance of Persian Ethnic Identity in the Salons of Sultan Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 906–922/1501–1516)’, Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā, 28, 376-408

Muhanna, E.I., 2011. ‘The Sultan’s New Clothes: Ottoman–Mamluk Gift Exchange In The Fifteenth Century’, IMuqarnas, 27, 189-208.

Mujani, W.K. 2012. ‘The expenses of Mamluk army during the Burji period’, Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, 6, 3, 303-309.

Mujani, W.K. and Borsch, S., 2015. ‘The Peasants during the Mamlūk Period: How They Have Struggled’, Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies,  1, 3, 261-272.

Nicolle, D and A. McBride, 1993. The Mamluks 1250-1517,, 47pp

Pahlitzsch, J., 2012. ‘The Mamluks and Cyprus: Transcultural Relations between Muslim and Christian Rulers in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Fifteenth Century’  Abdellatif, Rania ua (Hgg.): Acteurs des transferts culturels en Méditerranée médiévale (Ateliers des Deutschen Historischen Institus Paris 9), München, pp.111-121.

Perho, I., 2011.  ‘Climbing the ladder: Social mobility in the Mamluk period’, Mamluk Studies Review15, 1, 19-35.

Perho, I., 1999.‘The Arabian Nights as a source for daily life in the Mamluk period’, Studia Orientalia Electronica, 85, 139-162

Petry, C.F. 1998. ‘” Quis Custodiet Custodes?” Revisited: The Prosecution of Crime in the Late Mamluk Sultanate.’ Quis Custodiet (1998). 18pp

Rapoport, Y. 2007.  ‘Women and gender in Mamluk society: An overview’ Mamlūk Studies Review, 11.

Rapoport, Y.2012.,  ‘Royal Justice and Religious law: siyāsah and Shariʿah under the Mamluks’,  Mamluk Studies Review 16, 71, 71- 102.

Sidarus, A.Y.,2020.  ‘The Mamluk Historian al-Amīr Baybars al-Manṣūrī al-Dawādār (d. 725/1325) and his Coptic Secretary al-Qiss al-Shams Abū alBarakāt Ibn Kabar (d. 724/1324) (A New Assessment)’, American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, 4, 1,141-148

Steenbergen, J. van, 2013 ‘The Mamluk sultanate as a military patronage state: household politics and the case of the Qalawunid bayt (1279-1382)’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 56, 189-217

Steward, A., 2000. The Mamluks and the Armenian kingdom during the reigns of King Hetùm II (1289-1307), PhD Thesis, St. Andrews, 184pp

Walker, B. J. 2008. ‘The role of agriculture in Mamluk-Jordanian power relations’,  Bulletin d’études orientales Supplément LVII, 79-99.

Wing, P., 2007. ‘The decline of the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk sultanate’s eastern frontier’, Mamluk Studies Review, 11, 2, 77-88.

Winter, M. and A. Levanoni (eds) 2000. The Mamluks in Egyptian and Syrian Politics and Society, 460pp

Yosef, K., 2012. ‘Ethnic Groups, Social Relationships and Dynasty in the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517)’, ASK Working Paper, 06, 2012, 15pp.

Yosef, K. 2013. ‘The Term Mamluk and Slave Status during the Mamluk Sultanate’, Al-Qantara, 34, 1, 7-34.

Zaimeche, S., 2004. The Mamluks in History, FSTC, 10pp

Mamluk Glass

Brosh, N., 2014. ‘Mamluk Glass Workshops in Jerusalem: Marvered Glass’, Proceedings of the 9th ICAANE, June 9th–13th, University of Basel. Basel, 357-368.

Carboni, S., 2004. ‘Fifteenth-Century Enameled and Gilded Glass Made for the Mamluks: The End of an Era, the Beginning of a New One’, Orient, 39, 69-78.

Carboni, S., e.a., 2001. Glass of the Sultans, New York.

Colomban, P., e.a., 2012.  ’Pigments and enamelling/gilding technology of Mamluk mosque lamps and bottle’, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 43(12),1975-1984.

Hess, C. (ed), 2004. The Arts of Fire. Islamic influences on glass and ceramics on the Italian Renaissance, .

Jenkins, M., 1985. Islamic Glass. A brief history, New York

Maḥmūd, S.M., 2016. ‘Star Pattern on Mamluk Enameled Glass’, Bulletin of the Center Papyrological Studies, 33(1), 43-52.

Ward, R., 2003. ‘Big Mamluk Buckets’, Annales du 16e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, 182-85.

Ward, R., 2013.´A Mamluk Enameled Bucket and Experiments in Glass Production’ in S. Blair and J. Bloom, God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty

Ward, R., 2012. ‘Mosque Lamps and Enamelled Glass: Getting the Dates Right’ The Arts of the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria -Evolution and Impact, 2012

Mamluk Art

Abou-Khatwa, N., 2017. Calligraphers, Illuminators and Patrons: Mamluk Qur’an Manuscripts from 1341-1412 AD in light of the collection of the National Library of Egypt, PhD Thesis Toronto

Ahmed, O.M.M., 2021. ‘Manufacturing Wooden and Armored Doors in the Mamluk Era’, XXXXXXX,

Brosh, N., 2014 ‘Mamluk Glass Workshops in Jerusalem: Marvered Glass’, Proceedings of the 9th ICAANE, June 9th–13th, University of Basel, 357-368.

Cipriani, B, and W.W. Lau., 2006. ‘Construction Techniques in Medieval Cairo: The Domes of Mamluk Mausolea (1250 AD-1517A. D.).’ In Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Construction History, 29, 695-716.

Jenkins, M., 1984. ‘Mamluk underglaze-painted pottery: foundations for future study’, Muqarnas 2, 95-114.

Malhis, S., 2016. ‘Narratives in Mamluk architecture: Spatial and perceptual analyses of the madrassas and their mausoleums’, Frontiers of Architectural Research, 5, 1, 74-90.

Mols, L.E.M., 2006. Mamluk metalwork fittings in their artistic and architectural context, PhD Thesis, Leiden.

Nashef, K., e.a., 2010.  ‘From Ceramics to Social Theory: Reflections on Mamluk Archaeology Today’, Mamlūk Studies Review, 14, 1, 3-19

Rabat, N., 2002. ‘Perception of architecture in Mamluk sources’, Mamluk Studies Review, 6, 155-176.

Rabat, N., 2010. ‘Mamluk History through Architecture: Monuments, Culture and Politics in Medieval Egypt and Syria’, American Journal of Social Sciences, 29,4, 5pp

Sadeq, M., 2014. ‘Mamluk Cartouches and Blazons Displayed in the Museum of Islamic Arts, Doha; an Art Historic Study’, International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology, 4, 2,138-143.

Stern, E.J., 2014. ‘The Crusader, Mamluk and Early Ottoman-Period Pottery’from Khirbat Din ‘ila: Typology, Chronology, Production and Consumption Trends‘. Atiqot, 78, 71-104.

Wahby, A. and D. Montasse, 2012. ‘The Ornamented Domes of Cairo : the Mamluk Mason’s Challenge’, In conference Masons at Work, University of Pennsylvania (Vol. 30).

Walker, B.J., 2004. Ceramic evidence for political transformations in early Mamluk Egypt, Mamluk Studies Review, 8, 2004, 114pp

Walker, B.J., 2000. Rethinking Mamluk Textiles, Mamlük Studies Review, 4, 167-217.

Woo, B., 2020. ‘Overview of Islamic Art and Architecture: The Mamluk Period (1250 – 1517’, SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 7, 3, 2020, 11-15

Videos

Rags to Riches — The Rise and Fall of Mamluk Egypt (Commander Radix) 6.41 mins

Rise of the Mamluks (Kings and Generals) 15.01 mins