The Figuration of Elites during the Mamluk Period: Fresh Approaches
Panel 263, 2019 Annual Meeting
On Sunday, November 17 at 11:00 am
Panel Description
Scholarly perceptions of social order during the Mamluk period have been guided largely by emic concepts of society and social segmentation. The social models represented in historiographies from the period depict Mamluk society as rather static; social groups are clearly delineated and meet different functions in society. This panel challenges this static concept of social order. It takes as a premise that societies are constantly under figuration (Norbert Elias) and change, made up of overlapping and open-ended processes.
The panelists aim to trace the constant figuration and fluidity of social groups and networks, focusing on the figuration of elites, who had the power to influence political decision-making and the normative basis of society in various ways. To make these processes visible, the papers discuss both individual and group-related modes of agency that helped actors of different social backgrounds to enter elite circles and thus to gain influence.
The first paper examines the ways and means of agency that allowed the sons of the Mamluks (awlad an-nas) to reach elite positions. The social models from historiographical sources of the time suggest the sons of Mamluks should not have had any access to the ruling (military) elite. Nevertheless, these descendants of the first to third generations had numerous opportunities to gain influential positions in various fields.
The second paper sheds light on the development of learned interests within the Mamluk military elite across time. Thus, it questions the picture of Mamluks as foreign slave soldiers uninterested in Arabic learning. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that there was a structural need for educated members of the military elite in the Mamluk system of rule.
The third paper points out the importance of social networks of scholars (ulama) that form communities of certain intellectual orientations and interests competing with each other over intellectual dominance and material resources. It highlights that the struggle between competing communities is often interfered by the political elite. Intellectual and institutional dominance is therefore dependent on the frequently shifting political patronage in the Mamluk period.
The fourth paper turns back to the awlad an-nas. Several of the most important historiographical sources from the Mamluk times are authored by awlad an-nas. Focusing on the historiographer Ibn Iyas, it explores how his social status may have influenced his approach to writing and explaining history.
This paper focuses on the sons of the Mamluks (awlad al-nas) and their social role in the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo (1250–1517). The awlad al-nas have been often neglected in recent scholarship, in part because of a restrictive conception of Mamluk society. Based on accounts of the well-known historians of the Mamluk Sultanate, such as al-Maqrizi, al-Qalqashandi, al-Sakhawi and others, modern interpretations have suggested that it was a static system that allowed only limited social mobility, and that it renewed its political and military elite exclusively by the purchase, training and subsequent manumission of military slaves born outside the Islamic world. This perception has endured in western research in part because, as a formally not dynastically organized system, this version of the Mamluk social structure offers a tempting contrast not only to other Islamic systems of rule, but also to pre-modern European ones. In this version of Mamluk society, the awlad al-nas had no chance of obtaining any influential positions in administration or military.
However, a survey of the biographical dictionaries of the age (e.g. al-Maqrizi, al-Safadi, al-Sakhawi and Ibn Taghribirdi) indicate that the awlad al-nas could in fact hold influential positions. Skimming through the rich biographical literature of the age enables us to follow careers of scholars or commanders in detail for the entire Mamluk period. These texts show that – in practice – it was possible for the awlad al-nas to hold influential positions in society, as well as in the ruling system in various ways. Their short biographies reveal that several of the awlad al-nas held positions in the military, acted in leading administrative roles or helped to shape society as judges, religious scholars or Sufis. As such, they often acted as mediators between the ruling elite and the local population.
This paper will explore the careers of some of these awlad al-nas. Referring to these case studies, this paper examines how they gained access to the elitist, and thus the ruling and influential, classes of the Mamluk Sultanate. Which careers could they pursue? What agency did they possess? How could they influence a ruler – or even become Sultans themselves?
For a long time historians have disputed that the so called Mamluks who as foreign former slave soldiers ruled over large parts of the Middle East during the late middle period had any interest in Arabo-Islamic scholarship at all. In the last years there has been a growing awareness of the fact that a significant share of the foreign slave soldiers who ruled Egypt and Syria in late medieval times occupied themselves with intellectual matters both during their initial training and their adult lives as members of the military elite. Moreover, several cases have been documented in which military slaves embarked on veritable intellectual careers in various fields of knowledge. However, key aspects of the phenomenon of Mamluk involvement in scholarship such as the chronological development of the interests of member of the Mamluk military and the motivations behind their intellectual activities are still largely unknown. Based on the analysis of a large corpus of biographies of Mamluk soldiers and officers, the paper sheds light on the development of learned interests within the Mamluk military elite across time. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that there was indeed a structural need for highly educated members of the military elite in the Mamluk system of rule.
The Muqaddima of Ibn al-Salah (d. 643/1245), a treatise on the hadith science, owes much of its “canonical” status to its reception history and the high number of commentaries that have been devoted to it. With 43 texts written by 34 authors that show a direct reference to the Muqaddima or are said to be commentaries, abridgements and versifications of the original, this treatise received apparently high scholarly attention. Moreover, the fact that most of the commentarial literature was produced during the Mamluk period (1250–1517) in either Damascus or Cairo emphasizes the regional concentration of its reception.
By analyzing the scholarly networks in which the Muqaddima was read, taught, and commented on, the paper will argue that its reception in Damascus, though, was limited to a group of traditionalist Shafi‘i scholars. The text, therefore, represented a specific intellectual orientation and was bound to a certain social group. At the same time, an analysis of the appointment strategy of the Damascene schools and Dur al-Hadith show that there was a political support of those traditionalist Shafi‘i s. As a result, many Damascene schools and Dur al-Hadith were dominated by the traditionalist Shafi‘i s for a period of about 70 years. This dramatically changed during the 740s, when Mamluk officials dismissed many of the traditionalist Shafi‘i scholars and replaced them with rationalist ones. As a result, the Muqaddima of Ibn al-Salah lost its significance among the Damascene scholarly elite and the production of commentaries as well as, assumingly, the reception of the text decreased. The paper will give an insight in how the reception of and the production of commentaries on the Muqaddima increased and decreased with the rise and fall of the traditionalist Shafi‘i scene in Damascus and show the close connection between intellectual networks and political interests and patronage.
Ibn Iyas (852/1448 – ca. 930/1524) is one of the most cited historians of the Mamluk period; his report on the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in particular has strongly influenced our knowledge about this time. However, we still have very little information on Ibn Iyas’ person and life as a writer. Except for the scanty words he offers about himself in his Bada’i’ az-Zuhur, no contemporary or later biography is known. The few mentions of him in later bibliographic dictionaries do not substantially supplement the data from Bada’i’ az-Zuhur. Ibn Iyas, the highly trusted eyewitness to the Ottoman conquest, clearly tried to hide from the eyes of his reader. Or were his contemporaries simply too indifferent towards his writings and person to include him into the ‘who’s who’ of important men?
This paper proposes a fresh look at Ibn Iyas’ self-representation, taking into account his status as a son of the Mamluks (walad an-nas). It will discuss the author’s interest in highlighting his Mamluk descent and explore how his social status may have influenced his approach to writing and explaining history. To this end, the paper will put a focus on Ibn Iyas’ narratives on transitions of power, in which awlad an-nas, or more precisely asyad (the sons of Sultans), played an important role.
