Storia dellEgitto Mamelucco

Alla morte dell'ultimo sultano ayyubide, al-Slih Ayyb, ucciso dai suoi stessi Mamelucchi, il capo di
questi ultimi, Al-Muizz Izz ad-Dn Aybak, assunse il potere, prima come atabeg (tutore) dell'erede alMu'azzam Turnshh ancora impubere, poi direttamente attraverso il matrimonio con
la vedova Shajar al-Durr, instaurando cos una nuova epoca nel governo dell'Egitto.
Il sultanato mamelucco inizi presto un conflitto con la Siria, ma dovettero presto assistere alla
crescente minaccia costituita dai Mongoli: Baybars e il sultano Qutuzriuscirono a sconfiggere
nel 1260 l'armata del Khan Hulagu nella battaglia di Ayn Jlt, conquistando l'intera Siria, ad
esclusione dei residui degli Stati crociati. La distruzione di Baghdad da parte dei Mongoli, inoltre,
consent ai Mamelucchi di mettere le mani sul califfato abbaside: da quel momento, infatti, i califfi,
rifugiatisi al Cairo, rimasero sotto il controllo dei Sultani d'Egitto, conferendo a questi ultimi un
enorme prestigio nel mondo islamico.
Nel 1291 Khalil prese Acri, l'ultima delle citt crociate, mentre sotto il sultanato della dinastia Bahri Il
Cairo si trasformava da misera cittadina in una delle maggioricapitali del mondo islamico.
Nel 1347, tuttavia, l'incredibile sviluppo economico e politico venne bruscamente arrestato dal
diffondersi in Egitto della Morte Nera.
Nel 1377, poi una rivolta partita dalla Siria port al potere la dinastia circassa del Burji, che presero
definitivamente Il Cairo nel 1390.
I nuovi signori dell'Egitto passarono quindi a scontrarsi con il potente impero di Tamerlano,
procedendo poi nella conquista di Cipro.
Le epidemie di peste bubbonica continuarono tuttavia a piagare a ondate l'Egitto sino agli inizi
del Cinquecento, minandone le capacit, definitivamente colpite sul finire del Quattrocento dalla crisi
dei commerci provocata dalla scoperta delle nuove rotte circumafricane aperte dai portoghesi che,
intercettando direttamente inIndia ed Arabia le preziose spezie e sete orientali, inaridirono gli empori
mediterranei ed in particolare Alessandria d'Egitto, con gravi ripercussioni sui commerci con
le repubbliche marinare italiane.
Il 20 gennaio 1517 gli Ottomani di Selim I sconfissero i Mamelucchi, conquistando e sottomettendo Il
Cairo e l'Egitto ed assumendo il califfato.
Tuttavia i Mamelucchi rimasero la classe dirigente dell'Egitto anche sotto i nuovi dominatori,
rimanendo al potere in qualit di vassalli dell'Impero Ottomano.

Origin[edit]
Al-Salih Ayyub (124049), the last of the Ayyubid sultans, imported a vast number of slave boys from
Central Asia and Caucasus, those who became known as Mamluks.[11] Mamluks, the title which
translates to "owned slaves" distinguished this group from garya and ghulam, which referred to
household slaves. After thorough training in various fields such as martial arts, court etiquette and
Islamic sciences, these slaves were freed. However, they were still expected to remain loyal to their
master and serve his household. The Mamluks, who continued to be called freedmen, were
equipped with the most advance Eastern military technology. Such technology included stirrups and
the Turkish re-curved composite bow, which were used to defeat lumbering crusader knights. [11]

Rise to power[edit]
Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of the Egyptian military under the Ayyubid Dynasty.
Each sultan, and high-ranking emir had his private corps, and the Sultan as-Salih Ayyub (r. 1240
1249) had especially relied on this means to maintaining power. His mamluks, numbering between
800 and 1,000 horsemen, were called the Bahris, after the Arabic word bahr (), meaning sea or
large river, because their barracks were located on the island of Rawda in the Nile. They were mostly
drawn from among the Cumans-Kipchaks who controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea,
[12]

and Circassians and Georgians of the Caucasus region. Mamluks in the empire retained a

particularly strong sense of Cuman identity, to the degree that the biography of
Sultan Baibars focused on his birth and early years in Desht-i-Kipchak ("Steppe of the
Kipchaks"/Cumania). The historian Dimitri Korobeinikov relates how Baibars story sums up the
tragic fate of many Cumans after the Battle of Kalka River and the Mongol invasion of Europe.
Roman Kovalev states that this story can further be seen as a mechanism for the preservation of a
collective memory broadly reflecting a sense of Cuman identity in the Mamluk Sultanate.[13]
In 1249 Louis IX of France led a crusade on an invasion of Egypt, capturing Damietta and then
proceeding slowly southward. As they advanced, as-Salih Ayyub died and was succeeded by his
son al-Muazzam Turanshah, but before Turanshah could arrive at the front, the Bahri mamluks
defeated the crusaders at the Battle of Al Mansurah and captured Louis, effectively ending the
crusade. Turanshah proceeded to place his own entourage and especially his own mamluks, called
Mu`azzamis, in positions of authority to the detriment of Bahri interests. Four weeks after Louis'
capture, on May 2, 1250, a group of Bahris assassinated Turanshah. [14]

Wars with Mongols and Crusaders[edit]

Main article: Mongol invasions of Syria
Following the death of Turanshah a ten-year period of political instability in Egypt and Syria ensued
as various factions competed for control. In 1254, when a rival faction under the leadership
of Qutuz became powerful, most of the Bahris fled Cairo and took service with Ayyubid amirs in

Syria. Meanwhile, the Mongols under the command of Hulagu invaded the Middle East in force.
They sacked Baghdad in 1258 and proceeded westward, capturing Aleppo, and Damascus. Qutuz
and the Bahris agreed to put aside their differences to face the common threat. They met a
contingent of Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut and defeated them. With the Mongol threat
temporarily over, rivalries among the mamluks revived, and Baibars, a leading Bahri, assassinated
Qutuz and claimed the sultanate.

Change in regime[edit]
Main article: Burji dynasty
By the late fourteenth century, Circassians from the North Caucasus region had become the majority
in the Mamluk ranks.[15] In 1377 a revolt broke out in Syria which spread to Egypt, and the
government was taken over by the Circassians Barakah and Barquq; In 1382 the last Bahri
Sultan Al-Salih Hajji was dethroned, thus ending the Bahri dynasty, and Barquq was proclaimed
sultan. Barquq was expelled in 1389 but recaptured Cairo in 1390. Permanently in power he founded
what came to be called the Burji dynasty.[16]