Viziers in the Administrative System of Egypt under the Burji Mamluks

Abstract

Among the least studied issues in the history of the Sultanate of the Mamluks, there are the principles and dynamics of the Mamluks’ interaction with the administrative system represented by the local elite. The article considers issues connected with the transformation of the Mamluk administrative system which took place during the Burji period (1382–1517). As early as the thirteenth — fourteenth centuries, a gradual displacement of representatives of the civilian population from various administrative positions and their replacement with Mamluk emirs began. This process acquired particular importance in connection with the position of the vizier, since the last Mamluk sultans occupied this position before assuming the throne. In the twentieth century, D. Ayalon (1914–1998) raised some questions related to the evolution of the military-administrative system in Egypt between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, but a comprehensive and systematic study of the problems outlined by this pioneer and one of the founders of modern Mamluk studies has not yet been carried out. Based on several Arabic chronicles and biographical dictionaries of the fifteenth century, the author traces changes in the position and functions of the vizier in the Mamluk administrative system, highlighting the reasons for these changes, their significance for the evolution of political and social relations in the Mamluk Sultanate in the final period of its history. Referring to the vizierate, the author considers a significant transformation of the Egyptian state-administrative system under the Burji sultans, which is most closely associated with the destruction of the social boundaries and stereotypes that prevailed in the previous period, the acquisition of new forms and functions by political groups, and the reconfiguration of the central government.