Contemporary research on state violence by political anthropologists suggests that local society, and particularly communities located on “the frontiers”, may act as a more accurate reflection of the potentials, idiosyncrasies, and ultimate character of state systems than the centers of political power. Accordingly, the state consciously engages with local society in a process of give-and-take that results naturally from the dialectical relations between the two bodies. Did the Mamluk state evolve as an imperial body in a similar fashion, nurturing relations with rural communities that were simultaneously coercive and responsive? What can the evolving rule of the Mamluks at the most local level of operation tell us about the Sultanate’s imperial image and operation? We are here concerned with what Mamluk rule “on the ground” can tell us about the kind of imperial system that ultimately emerged and how it functioned on a daily basis. This paper turns to rural society to evaluate the ways the official representatives of Mamluk power normally engaged local communities. It compares the Mamluks’ methods of rule and legitimization in village and non-village tribal communities on its southern, eastern, and northern frontiers, with those closer to the center of imperial power, Cairo, in an effort to identify regional patterns and distinguish between “normative” policies and those “exceptional” ones that may have developed on the frontier. A handful of village and sub-village settlements, identified from textual sources and from on-going archaeological field work, serve as the geographical focus of this study of state-local relations and the imperial mission. The emphasis is the lowest level of administration, where officials met peasants and “Bedu” leaders on a regular basis. A range of sources will be culled for this purpose. Investiture documents and commentaries on local administrators, as pulled from chronicles, will provide a contrast between the ideals of local administration and the reality of it. The chroniclers’ accounts of the rewarding of and retaliation against villages and tribes illustrate the complexities of state objectives in rural areas. A combination of court documents, waqfiyyat, and recent environmental studies suggest ways in which Mamluk imperial methods changed over time, particularly in regards to demographic practices, land management and tenure, and control over natural resources. Finally, a spatial analysis of regional administrative centers and their physical and functional relationships with nearby villages provide a window on the ways Mamluk officials regularly interacted with village communities.