While coins are primarily economic in nature in that they were minted to facilitate trade and commerce, they are also documents. As is well known, their two sides provide small billboards for the conveyance of information. Since the right of sikka was a royal prerogative, it is not unusual to find names, claims, and titles on coins which supported a ruler’s claim/right to rule. This paper examines the surviving corpus of Mamluk coins for such features and identifies and analyzes the patterns which emerge. A initial caveat must be provided. We have know surviving mint manual or similar document from the Mamluk era that provides us insight as to what sultans or their mint supervisors thought they were doing or why they did, let alone how the coins were made. Moreover, while the Mamluk-era historians frequently mention coins, they do not shed direct light on why Mamluk coins bear the legends that they do. The only surviving evidence is the coins themselves. To date there has been no systematic examination of this numismatic evidence for these topics. Two variables are found to be of importance in this analysis. One is a question of audience. While exact boundaries between variables are not seen, this paper suggests that some of the epigraphic legends which appear on these coins were aimed primarily at an internal audience (such as the use of titular kunyas such as “abu al-fath” which do not refer to actual sons), others toward external audiences of primarily Muslim rivals (titles such as “qasim amir al-mu’minin”), and some towards both (the presence of extended genealogies). The second variable is one of chronology. This paper argues that the use of these titles and claims are linked to chronological developments. In particular, the epigraphic content aimed at external audiences is found primarily in the first half of the sultanate, while internally directed coin legends dominate the second have. Reasons both ideological and pragmatic are discussed as to why this is so. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of two examples where it seems quite evident that the Mamluks minted specific coins to celebrate victories over the Franks of the Latin East.

Diplomatic exchange in the late medieval Muslim world was a complex process whose every step bears great significance for understanding relationships among powers. Medieval scholars themselves grasped the importance of such exchanges and wrote treatises intended for envoys and emissaries. The importance of embassies is also well-attested through the many accounts reported in chronicles that detail meticulously the arrival, the reception of embassies that came to a ruler to discuss business matters. If these matters were the most tangible motives of diplomatic exchanges, they were in fact only a minor part of a more complicated interaction. Indeed, the exchange of embassies was above all a pretext for a game of power in which rulers intended to show their supremacy over each other, but through such means, they also projected their own image and ambitions to their correspondents. This design was hidden within a highly nuanced nonverbal display attached to the letter the embassy brought. Beyond the written word was yet another message borne through a series of external and internal characteristics. In this paper, I will analyze a series of rules that belonged to the sphere of Mamluk diplomatics: these rules can help us read between the lines of Mamluk epistolary production. I will then show how Mamluk sultans pictured both world and themselves and how they intended to project their imperial ambitions to their correspondents. Examining extant administrative literature, I will first concentrate my study on those parts of these works which are dedicated to description of the world: the mas?lik wa’l-mam?lik. I will show how it established an original way of dividing and organizing the world. This initial analysis will thus present an accurate picture of that world, especially the Muslim world, as known and recognized by the Mamluks. In the second part of the presentation, I will then study how this theoretical knowledge was used in chancery practice. Knowing the addressees’ status was an essential condition for not only writing letters but also determing patterns of diplomatic exchange. I will demonstrate how and why these patterns were established by the Mamluk chancery and how they can help us draw a map of hierarchical distribution among the correspondents within the Muslim world. Finally, I will focus my attention on Mamluk self-representation and ambitions as displayed through these rules.

The vast majority of studies examining madrasahs focus on larger institutions built by sultans or other high-ranking state officials. These studies mostly explore the relationships formed between the ruling elite, the ?ulam??, and the common people, with madrasahs acting as instruments of influence among the elite that helped control the distribution of wealth, power, and knowledge. In this year’s MESA conference, I would like to present the story of a far more humble madrasah, established in the mid-fourteenth century by a relatively unknown figure from Mamluk history, S?kir b. Ghuzayyil, known as Ibn al-Baqar?. Ibn al-Baqar? immigrated to Cairo from the Egyptian village Baqar. He entered the Mamluk administrative service, rising through the ranks until he became one of the most trusted officials working under the Sultan al-Hasan (r. 1347-1351, 1354-1361), overseeing the sultan’s treasure and munitions, personal wealth, and the state waqf properties. During his time in Cairo, Ibn al-Baqar? converted from Coptic Christianity to Islam and devoted a portion of his wealth to establishing a madrasah dedicated to the instruction of Sh?fi?? law. The Baqariyyah, as the madrasah came to be called, has not received attention in modern scholarly literature. However, by studying information on its history and appointments in Maqr?z?’s Khi???, along with information about the figures who worked in the madrasah from al-Sakh?w?’s and other biographical dictionaries, a picture of the madrasah’s function and the networks of relationships in which Ibn al-Baqar? moved become clear. I will argue that Ibn al-Baqar? founded his madrasah not as an instrument of control, but as a means of social integration, an outsider’s attempt to enter or establish himself among a variety of communities in Cairo. Ibn al-Baqar? appointed his Sufi shaykh, one of the most prominent Sh?fi?? law professors of his age, and one of the most popular prayer leaders in Cairo to work in his madrasah. These connections helped Ibn al-Baqar? build relationships among Sufis, Sh?fi?? jurists, and the neighborhood residents that might attend prayer at the madrasah. In keeping with the theme of the conference, I will also highlight the social and ideological tensions that existed among these communities, and I will consider the changes that were occurring in fourteenth century Cairo that eased the boundaries between scholars of law and Sufis, as well as the social rifts that continued to separate the Coptic community.

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.