Mamluk Period Research Articles

Relics of the Prophet and Practices of His Veneration in Medieval Cairo

The acquisition, trade and confiscation of relics of the Prophet Mu?ammad during the Medieval period is well documented in the primary sources. Such relics, from the impression of his feet in stone to artifacts believed to be his personal possessions, are prominently displayed in Egypt. The purpose of this article is to examine the history of footprints and other relics of the Prophet Mu?ammad associated with three buildings in Cairo that date to the Mamluk period: Rib?? al-?th?r (707 AH/1307 CE); the Funerary Complex of Qaytb?y (877–879 AH/1472–1474 CE); and the Funerary Complex of al-Ghur? (908–911 AH/1503–1505 CE). The functions associated with these buildings vary, yet in all cases the main purpose of the foundation is to commemorate a deceased person and/or the relics of the Prophet. Although the Prophet never traveled to Egypt during his lifetime, the presence of his footprints and other effects in Cairo raises several questions. First, how and when did these artifacts arrive in Cairo? Second, does their arrival several centuries after the Prophet’s death, and subsequent collecting and displaying, raise questions of intent and motivation? Third, were there specific events that precipitated their arrival during the Mamluk period? Finally, what, if any, is the significance of the placement of Prophet’s relics in these buildings?

Jewish Court Physicians in the Mamluk Sultanate during the First Half of the 8th/14th Century

Abstract It is usually accepted among modern scholars that the Mamluk period marked a drastic decline in the position of non-Muslims. Jews and Christians were exposed to increasing persecutions and, inter alia, could not serve as great physicians unless they converted to Islam. Against these assumptions, the article discusses new data regarding three Jewish court physicians from the first half of the 8th/14th century. Despite being under a strong pressure to convert, these doctors gained honorable positions and a high social status in the Mamluk sultanate. As erudite physicians and skillful practitioners, they were integrated with the highest circles of the political, military and especially intellectual Muslim elite of their time.

In the Studio of the Nights

Most of the ‘complete’ manuscripts of the Thousand and One Nights in Arabic preserved today were compiled in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the original manuscripts the compilers of the new manuscripts had at hand were fragmentary, they exploited a wide range of sources to come up with complete manuscripts. The sources the compilers used for their compilations were most probably works from the Mamluk and Ottoman periods that were more readily available than copies of the works dating from the classical period of Arabic literature. The particular work studied in the present essay is the chronicle Kitāb laṭāʾif akhbār al-uwal (‘Subtle Stories from the Forefathers’), compiled by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī al-Isḥāqī (died 1623). A detailed analysis of the corresponding tales between this work and the Nights reveals the fact that the compilers of the Nights copied a limited numbers of tales directly from Isḥāqī's chronicle, thus supplying a glimpse into the ‘studio’ of the compilers of the Nights.

New Discoveries from Excavations inside Jaffa Gate of Old City Jerusalem

The recent archaeological excavations conducted in the Old City of Jerusalem in the vicinity of the Jaffa Gate revealed a number of significant ancient architectural features associated with assemblages of artifacts of exceptional importance for the research of Jerusalem. There was exposed a segment of the upper aqueduct found integrated with a Byzantine period city wall. There was also discovered a section of the Byzantine Decumanus, the main east to west street of the city. Above it stood a spacious building from the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods that may have included part of the western gate structure. The outer walls of the moat of the Tower of David’s Citadel came to light in its respective stages from the time that the medieval moat was first dug until the 12th century. Within it there were found the ruins of a part of the city wall that was demolished on the eve of the visit of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife in the year 1898, alongside modern remains from the Jordanian rule of the city. These finds shed fresh light on a number of central questions that have been discussed since the dawn of the research of Jerusalem in the 19th century, for instance, the route of the city wall, the system of roads and the water supply in the Second Temple, Roman and Byzantine periods.

The Social and Political Identities of the Shi'i Community in Lebanon

Since the early days of the Shi'i presence in Lebanon, the Shi'i community has been considered the most marginalized and underprivileged community. This had been the case of the Shi'ites during the Mamluk period, the Ottoman period, the French mandate period, and again during the post-independence period. This article addresses the Shi'ite presence in Lebanon until the eve of Lebanese Civil War (1975). The article will explore the various aspects of socio-political identities of the Shi'ites and how that changed and developed during the Ottoman period, the French mandate, and the independence period by elaborating on the main actors and processes/phases that shaped this change. It has been argued that the marginalization and the neglect policies that were applied against the Shi'ites opened the wide doors for the Shi'i community to migrate to the urban cities in Lebanon (mainly Beirut) starting from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and this had also been expanded to the rest of the world (mainly America and West Africa). This migration played a key role in developing their contemporary social and political identities in which Musa al-Sadr and his movement played an important part.

The Islamic Scholarly Tradition

This collection comprises fourteen papers delivered at a December 2010 conference
 held at Princeton University in honor of Michael A. Cook, as well as
 a preface and an introduction. Its four sections are designed to reflect the prin-
 cipal areas of Near Eastern and Islamic studies to which Cook has contributed:
 “Early Islamic History,” “Early Modern and Modern Islamic History,” “Juridical
 and Intellectual History,” and “Reinterpretations and Transformations.”
 The papers cover a broad geographic range from al-Andalus to Central Asia,
 and an extensive disciplinary range, with studies of calendars, conquest,
 fatāwā, tafsīr, and logic, among other subjects.
 Part 1 begins with Michael Bonner’s “‘Time Has Come Full Circle’:
 Markets, Fairs, and the Calendar in Arabia before Islam,” which addresses
 the intercalation of Arabia’s pre-Islamic calendar and the utility of sources
 for social history in dealing with this topic. He extends his confirmation of
 intercalation to a discussion of trade and social activity, noting that the shift
 to the Islamic lunar calendar indicated a shift to a new moral and social order
 and a true “revolution” in breaking with the past. In “The Wasiyya of Abū
 Hāshim: The Impact of Polemic in Premodern Muslim Historiography,”
 Najam Haider focuses on reports of the alleged testament (in 98/716-17) of
 Abu Hashim in which, written just before his death, he transferred his imamate
 and leadership to the Abbasid Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abdullah. Relying
 primarily on Jacob Lassner’s approach to early material of this kind,
 which focuses on political propaganda and ideological debates, the author
 highlights the competition among reports of this testament and, later on in
 the Mamluk period, the processes of crafting a historical narrative that removed
 the polemical aspects. His study exemplifies the use of an alternative
 approach to early Islamic history, one that focuses on what compilations of
 historical reports tell us about contemporaneous political situations and religious
 doctrine, as well as about the historiographic methods of pre-modern
 historians ...

Visual language in Mamluk architecture: A semiotic analysis of the Funerary Complex of Sultan Qaitbay in Cairo

Cultural background plays a significant role in the sphere of visual art. Semiotics as a discipline is recognized as a useful tool in gauging cultural background and identifying signs that might represent the message of a certain work. Given the rich cultural context of Mamluk architecture, this form of art can be used in studying semiotics. Semiotic tools were employed to interpret the expression of architectural forms and to formulate a subsequent understanding of these architectural forms by turning each element into a communication tool that elucidates meaning.The Sufie tradition was the dominant Islamic practice during the Mamluk period, during which metaphysics, numbers, and geometry were regarded as indispensable tools in manifesting the nature of divinity and the order of being. A semiotic reading of the Funerary Complex of Sultan Qaitbay in Cairo, regarded as one of the perfect works of this era, was proposed to study the reflections of these notions on architectural works. Several messages were embodied in the building, such as functional or technical messages. The semiotic reading in this study is solely concerned with the spiritual message of the building.

Waqf and madrasas in late medieval Syria

The madrasa began to spread in Syria (Bilad al-Sham) as a higher institution for religious education since the Zangid rule (521H./1127 to 569H./ 1173). During the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, main cities of Syria were characterized by manymadrasas, especially the major cities that served the political rule like, Damascus, Aleppo, Jerusalem and others. By the late Mamluk period, various factors had a direct effect on the fall of the madrasa function in Syria. Although a number of attempts were made to renovate and redevelop the waqf of madrasas, the adverse circumstances had such a strong impact that the eventual result was extensive disintegration of the waqf and madrasas in Syria. This paper discussed the motives of endowing madrasas in Syria during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, despite the difficulty in separating one motive to another. During the Zangid and Ayyubid periods, it is noticeable that religious motives were stronger, while the political factor was underscored during the Mamluk era. Key words: Medieval Syria, waqf, madrasa.

BETHANY J. WALKER. Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier.

Bethany J. Walker describes the period under study (the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries C.E.) as a medieval “global” moment that witnessed radical changes to political structures and economic systems worldwide. Her monograph marks a turning point in the evolution of scholarship on the political economy of states and societies throughout the premodern Arabic-speaking Middle East. Walker's analysis of the rural hinterlands in Greater Syria during the late Mamluk period (ca. 1382–1517) is a path-breaking revision about the processes and objectives of provincial administration in one of the prominent regimes of the medieval Islamic world. It successfully challenges longstanding attitudes about provincial administration in one of the most prominent regimes of the medieval Islamic world toward the scope of feasible research in light of extant source materials. The North African historian Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) justified his own limitation of inquiry to urban centers by claiming that higher civilization was largely confined to them (The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History [abridged edition], edited by F. Rosenthal [1967], p. 263). Ibn Khaldun's successors followed his lead, assuming that period sources were for the most part written by city people for city people. Walker's study persuasively argues that close analysis of a rural society in the medieval Islamic world is credible, and can decisively alter contemporary thinking about that world as a whole.

Masuh: The 2001 TMAP Topographic and Archaeological Survey

In 2001, the Regional Survey of the University of Toronto’s Tall Madaba Archaeological Project (TMAP) conducted a topographic and archaeological survey at the site of Masuh in central Jordan. Using total station data and GIS software, this mapping project produced a site plan that incorporates Masuh’s visible archaeological remains (including a possible Roman temple, two churches, cisterns, and inscriptions) into its landscape. A small surface assemblage was also collected, including pottery, lithic tools, glass, a steatite vessel, and an Ottoman pipe. Analysis of these artifacts, especially the plain, painted and glazed ceramics, illustrates the site’s occupational history. There was an Iron II presence at Masuh, but thereafter, the site was apparently abandoned until the late Roman period. The late Byzantine-Umayyad and Mamluk periods are best represented in the surface collection, and occupation continued into Ottoman times, although the site was abandoned by the 19th century. The well-preserved site of Masuh, therefore, holds much promise for investigating village life in central Jordan from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages.

Ḥadīth Commentary in the Presence of Students, Patrons, and Rivals: Ibn Ḥajar and Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī in Mamluk Cairo

The following essay shows how commentaries on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī in the Mamluk period were deeply embedded in the ethics and culture of live performance and vice versa. By focusing on the figure of Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449) and the composition of his Fatḥ al-bārī, the primary objective is to make visible the complex web of institutional, political, economic, personal, and normative motivations that determined how the Ṣaḥīḥ was commented on, and who had the authority to comment in the first place. Parts one through three of this four-part essay examine the formulation of Fatḥ al-bārī in the presence of students, patrons, and rivals respectively. Part four is a case study that compares a chronicle account of Ibn Ḥajar’s commentary on a ḥadīth in the garden of the sulṭān on a summer afternoon with a section of Fatḥ al-bārī concerning the same ḥadīth. While previous investigations of medieval reading and commentarial practices have often been limited to manuscript and printed commentaries or glosses as source material, this study draws on evidence from Mamluk era chronicles, biographical dictionaries and commentarial prolegomena to offer a “thick” history of the local times, spaces, and stakes of live and written commentary on the Ṣaḥīḥ.

Toponymie et résidences urbaines à Damas au xive siècle

Palais et demeures des princes ayyoubides a Damas ont incontestablement constitue pour le nouveau pouvoir mamelouk un patrimoine immobilier particulierement convoite. Prestigieux marqueurs de l’espace urbain intra muros, ces edifices, parfois bien anterieurs a l’epoque ayyoubide, sont mentionnes de facon recurrente dans les sources textuelles tout au long du premier siecle mamelouk, avant de disparaitre. A partir d’une lecture attentive des sources historiques, l’identification et la localisation de ces toponymes ainsi que la reconstruction minutieuse de l’histoire des bâtiments auxquels ils font reference sont au cœur de la presente etude. Par ce travail, il s’agira des lors d’essayer de mieux comprendre l’une des modalites d’insertion des emirs mamelouks et du nouveau pouvoir dans la ville.

Pigments and enamelling/gilding technology of Mamluk mosque lamps and bottle

On‐site Raman spectroscopy is used to investigate four mosque lamps and a bottle dating back to the 13–14th centuries (Syria and/or Egypt, Mamluk period) from the Department of Islamic Art, Musée du Louvre, Paris. The pigments and the enamelled glass matrix have been identified in order to discuss their technology. A comparison is made with one masterpiece from the 19th century made by Brocard. The results obtained for blue (lapis lazuli or Co‐coloured glass), yellow (Naples yellows or zinc/chrome yellow), green (mixture of the aforementioned blue and yellow pigments or lead chromate for restorated foot) red (hematite), white (cassiterite or arsenate) and pink (hematite and cassiterite) pigments are presented. The consistency of the pigments period of use/technology with the datation proposed for each artefact is evaluated. For one lamp, the detection of quartz in some places of the hematite‐rich glassy layer supporting the gold is related to the search of a physical bonding with the artefact body. Carbon residues in such enamel are consistent with the use of an organic medium to place the enamel powder before the firing. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Characteristics of ancient Egyptian glazed ceramic objects from Fatimid and Mamluk periods as revealed by ion beam analysis

Ion beam analysis (PIXE, μPIXE) has been successfully applied in analysis of archaeological materials, it has many advantages. In this work Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) used in analysis of ancient Egyptian glazed ceramic from 10th to the 16th centuries (Fatimid and Mamluk periods). Glazed ceramic samples from Al-Fustat Excavation store have been chosen to represent different colours (green, blue, brown, black …etc), the colours of glaze depend on many factors such as oxides present in the glaze layer, fluxes and the conditions in which objects had been manufactured in the past. Ion Beam allows the identification of elemental composition of the glaze layer i.e., the information about colorants used in glaze, which is of great importance for compositional data play a key role in solving questions concerning dating, provenance, technology, use and the relationship between ancient cultures with the environment.

RESTORATION AND PRESERVATION OF THE WOODEN CEILING OF AL-ASHRAF QAYTBAY MADRESSA, CAIRO – EGYPT

The painted ceilings of Qaitbay's madrassa is one of the Egypt's great monuments and among theoldest in the Islamic civilization, dating back to the Garkssy Mamluk period (879 AH/1474 AD). Itrepresents an exceptional example of the quality and extent of medieval woodworking in Egypt. Thewooden ceiling of Qaitbay's madrassa had been affected by an extensive deterioration due to manyfactors, such as loss of colors, cracking, soot deposition, and losses of materials/units, insects' holes,and fungi growth, in addition to formation of corrosion products of its metallic parts. The main aim ofthe present paper is the characterization and investigation of the different components employed inthe decorated ceiling of Madrassa of Qaytbay as wood units, painting ground, pigments, gilding,binding media and products of deterioration. Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with EDXanalysis, Optical Light Microscope, X-ray diffraction and Infrared analysis were applied forinvestigation. Biological study was done. We present the results of identifying the wood species andinsects of the ceiling of the Qaitbay's madrassa, which the aim of the providing information not onlyof the benefit to restoration but also to the historical- artistic background of the artifacts. Also thispaper includes the present of its state of conservation for preservation the study will include thedocumentation, investigation, and analysis before the intervention process. The treatment steps weredocumented before, during and after the restoration. Preservation of the wood ceiling was carried outincluding the following: cleaning (mechanical and chemical cleaning), treatment of fungi infection,consolidation and restoration.

The Phenomenon of the “Disappearing” Villages of Late Medieval Jordan, as Reflected in Archaeological and Economic Sources

The settlement decline of the late Mamluk period is one of the most important phenomena in the cultural history of southern Bilād al-Šām and particularly for the Transjordan, as there is a growing belief that the settlement and ecological patterns that developed then laid the foundations for many aspects of modern Jordanian society. It is an issue, moreover, that has for the last twenty years dominated debates on the archaeology of late medieval Jordan. While settlement fluctuations in this period transformed Jordan in important ways, there has been little systematic study of the issue in order to determine to what degree population levels dropped from the 14th century, how many settlements “disappeared”, and what was the long-term legacy of this phenomenon.This essay revisits the problem of settlement decline through a reanalysis of archaeological data within the larger context of the challenges facing the Mamluk state in the post-plague era. Detailed study of documentary sources for the period suggests that restructuring of the empire’s economy, along with changes in local land tenure, contributed to the dispersal of populations from settlement centers.

European technological innovation that surpassed Muslim technology in the Middle Ages: An example during the Circassian Mamluk period

Industry played an important role in the economy of Egypt during the Mamluk period. There were many kinds of industries which operated at the time, such as textiles, sugar, paper, glasswork and metalwork. Nevertheless, the period under discussion witnessed the changes in industries some of which were in a situation of malaise and were less busy. One of the important factors that has been identified as affecting industry during the time was the lack of technological innovation. This led to competition from Europe where technological innovation in many industrial sectors had been in progress from the end of 14th century.

Craftsmen, upstarts and Sufis in the late Mamluk period

AbstractThis article explores the careers of craftsmen and other commoners, who succeeded in joining the bureaucratic system and occupying high positions in the Mamluk administrative establishment, eventually acquiring great power and even political authority. At the same time Sufi shaykhs, also men of common origin and beneficiaries of Mamluk philanthropy, emerged as mighty and authoritative figures, venerated equally by the aristocracy and the populace. The newly privileged groups also figure as founders of Friday mosques following a flexible new attitude on the part of the authorities. This social fluidity, often criticized by historians of the period, was the result of the pious patronage of the Mamluk aristocracy, which brought academic education to the reach of a large part of the populace. Towards the end of the Mamluk period, the structure of religious institutions had itself been levelled: the Friday mosque with Sufi service replaced the earlier madrasas and khanqāhs. The article also discusses how the visual arts of the period mirror the social changes with new aspects of artistic patronage.

Dreams in the Islamic ‘Merits Literature’ of Palestine and Syria and Local Patriotism: Mamluk and Ottoman Texts

Dreams in the classical period of Islam played an important role in the representation of Islamic thought and knowledge. This article distinguishes between the official view in Islam, whose approach was based on the Quran and hadith, and local currents. It examines the nature and phenomenon of dreams (ruyas, visions) as reported in books and manuscripts composed in Mamluk and Ottoman times, belonging to the genre known as ‘Fadail al-Sham’ (‘Praises or Merits of al-Sham’/Palestine and Syria 1 1 The expressions ‘al-Sham’ and ‘Holy Land’ in the Middle Ages and during the Ottoman period referred to either Palestine and Syria, or just Syria, or even just Damascus. For studies on Fadail al-Sham literature see, Anabseh (2006 ; (2007). For studies on the topic of Islamic dreams, see Lane (1944 : 189); Goldziher (1912 : 503–6); Von Grünebaum (1966: 10, 3–21); Kister (1974 : 67–103); Kinberg (1993 : 279–300; 1999: 79–85; 1985: 47–79; 1977: 2–166; Meri 2002: 181–4; 2002: 524–9; 1999: 34–40; 1999: 263–86; Al-Wardi (1986: 45–80). ). The article will argue that some of the traditions were put down in writing by prominent clerics of the time, while others have their origin in local folklore. The article also explores why these popular traditions emerged in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. In addition to the religious motivation behind reports on sacred shrines, there were also political, regional and patriotic reasons for disseminating these traditions, due both to the struggle between Muslims and European Christians over the Holy Land as well as to competition of a popular local character.

Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal's Book of Renunciation

Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal's book al-Zuhd (‘renunciation’) is one of the largest extant collections of renunciant sayings from the first two Islamic centuries. It was assembled by his son ʽAbd Allāh, who contributed about half the sayings in it independently of his father. The extant text is only half or a third of the version available to Ibn Ḥajar in the Mamluk period. Some of what is missing can be recovered from quotations in Abū Nuʽaym, Ḥilyat al-awliyā ʼ. It is notably dominated by data from Basra. Its contents are highly miscellaneous, but rejection of worldly goods appears to be the theme that comes up most often.