The use of religious texts or formulae within the context of rulership can be observed in the entire corpus of Mamluk epigraphy. In most cases the set of inscriptions on a prestigious public building forms a complex individual program related to the function of the building and its principal. The inscriptions on these buildings are part of an “imperial projection” and form a language of propaganda. Therefore the epigraphy serves not only as an exclusive code of the ruling elite but as a direct medium of communication between the rulers and their subjects. The information contained in the inscriptions can, however, not be gathered merely by studying its textual content, as it has often been done by philologists as well as art historians. For a comprehensive analysis of the inscriptions their contents and the use of different genres as well the placement of each inscription within the overall layout of the building, the spatial relations between the inscriptions, the calligraphy and its function as an aesthetic means of expression within the architectural framework and finally the architecture itself have to be included in the investigation. The results of such a complex analysis will be illustrated mainly on the basis of selected examples of Mamluk architecture in Egypt. It will be demonstrated that in each case more complex epigraphic programs - going beyond the mere content of the single inscription - can be recognized. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the inscriptions link to construct a specific past that connects to the self image of the Mamluk sultans as independent rulers and that they are used as a politically motivated demonstration of power. It will further discuss how the citation of quranic verses as well as the non-quranic textual parts within the inscriptions were directed mainly to a public audience and how for the Muslim community they served as mnemonic links to a collectively experienced religiously founded ideological world and to an idealized past or an epitome of it. In this sense the inscriptions visualize a historical background as part of the complex legitimation strategy with which the Mamluk sultans tried to integrate.