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Mamluk Literature

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lightbulbAbout this topic
Mamluk Literature refers to the body of written works produced during the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517) in Egypt and the Levant, characterized by its diverse genres, including poetry, historical chronicles, and religious texts, reflecting the cultural, social, and political dynamics of the Mamluk era.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Mamluk Literature refers to the body of written works produced during the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517) in Egypt and the Levant, characterized by its diverse genres, including poetry, historical chronicles, and religious texts, reflecting the cultural, social, and political dynamics of the Mamluk era.

Key research themes

1. How did Mamluk scribes contribute to the preservation and transmission of Qurʾānic recitation sciences?

This research area investigates the scribal practices in Mamluk Qurʾān manuscripts, focusing on how scribes recorded technical knowledge related to variant readings (qirāʾāt) and phonetic recitation rules (taǧwīd). It matters because these scribal appendices provide rare explicit documentation of oral traditions internalized by scribes, revealing the transmission and codification of Qurʾānic recitation during the Mamluk period, contributing to understanding the textual and religious culture of the era.

Key finding: Witkam and Van Putten's study presents and analyzes scribal appendices in three Mamluk-era Qurʾān manuscripts that explicitly document variant readings of ʾAbū ʿAmr b. al-ʿAlāʾ al-Baṣrī's transmission and teaching on qirāʾāt... Read more

2. What roles did literary and scholarly patronage networks play in shaping the social and intellectual history of the Mamluk elite, especially the ʿulamāʾ?

This research theme centers on the use of literary genres such as taqārīẓ (scholarly endorsements or critiques) and panegyric biographies to investigate the socio-political dynamics within Mamluk learned elites (ʿulamāʾ). It examines how these texts served as tools of social recognition, inclusion/exclusion, and commentary amid political transitions, highlighting the complex strategies employed by scholars to maintain status and navigate shifting power relations during regime changes.

Key finding: The article reveals that taqārīẓ functioned in the Mamluk Sultanate as both instruments of academic recognition and potent satirical devices within ʿulamāʾ patronage networks. Through analysis of taqārīẓ collected for Ibn... Read more
Key finding: The volume analyzed by Masarwa and Özkan highlights 15th-century Cairo’s literary culture centered on intense patronage competition among scholars, poets, and intellectuals. Through studies on al-Nawājī and contemporaries, it... Read more
Key finding: Özkan's paper examines the intense personal and professional rivalries among high-ranking chancery poets such as An-Nawāǧī and Ibn Ḥiǧǧah, showing how literary polemics, including treatises accusing peers of plagiarism,... Read more

3. How did Mamluk rulers and elites engage with religious authority and scholarly traditions to legitimize and exercise power?

This research area explores the intersection of political power and religious authority in the Mamluk period, challenging earlier views that Mamluk rulers were indifferent to religious affairs. It focuses on rulers’ active participation in religious scholarship, engagement with hadith studies, Quranic exegesis, and the cultivation of scholarly alliances to reinforce their legitimacy. This theme is critical to understanding the intellectual and political strategies that shaped Mamluk governance and identity.

Key finding: The study reveals that Sultan Qāniṣawh al-Ġawrī actively engaged in religious scholarship by hosting learned maǧālis and participated in the transmission of prophetic traditions and Quranic interpretation to cultivate a Sunni... Read more
Key finding: This article documents how Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Muqaddima (1245) instigated a cultural revolution in hadith sciences during the Mamluk period by systematizing hadith theory and methodology. The work’s widespread dissemination,... Read more
Key finding: The research highlights Sultan Baybars’ implementation of an assertive religious policy aligning governance with Quranic principles and Sunnī tradition. Despite his slave origins and initial estrangement from Islamic... Read more

All papers in Mamluk Literature

Memlük Devleti, 1250 yılında Mısır merkezli kurulmuş en büyük Türk İslam Devletlerinden biridir. Memlükler, Sultan Kutuz döneminde (1259-1260) Moğol/İlhanlıları Aynicâlût (1260) savaşında yenerek tüm dikkatleri üzerine çekmiş ve... more
This study examines a little-known bullayqaa playful variant of the zaǧalby Ibn Nubāta al-Miṣrī (d. 768/1366), preserved solely in two draft manuscripts (muswadda) compiled by the famous ḥadīṯ-scholar Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449)... more
Journal of History School has the sole ownership of copyright to all published works. No part of this publication shall be produced in any form without the written consent of Journal of History School. It can be quoted as long as referred... more
International Journal of Social Sciences (TOBİDER) is an international peer-reviewed journal published four times a year. All responsibility for the language, scientific and legal aspects of all articles published in TOBİDER Journal... more
Memlûkler, 1250-1517 yılları arasında Kahire merkez olmak üzere Mısır, Suriye, kuzey Afrika ve Anadolu'nun güney kısımlarında hâkimiyet kurmuş bir Türk devletidir. 1 Bu devletin resmi dili de Türkçedir. Memluk Devleti ya da diğer kendi... more
by Mb. Lo
One of the most overlooked figures in African diaspora studies is Suḥaym ʿAbd Banī Ḥassḥās (Suḥaym, the slave of the Ḥassḥās clan). His neglect arises from several factors: the general neglect of critical archival research on the African... more
İlhanlı Devleti ile Memlûk Türk Devleti arasındaki diplomatik ilişkiler Suriye bölgesine inen Hülâgû'nun elçilerini Kahire'ye göndermesiyle başlamıştır. Daha sonra bu ilişkiler Baybars-Abâkâ, Kalavun-Ahmed Teküdâr ve Nâsır... more
A foreword to Sulaiman Adewale Alagunfon's book on the Maqāma in Yorubaland, Nigeria. I sought to highlight some of Dr. Alagunfon's unique contributions while emphasizing how this study might shed light on the study of Arabic literature... more
This paper focuses on a book list that was recorded by Ṣaḥḥāflarşeyḫizāde Esʿad Efendi, who occupied an important place as a scholar and as a chronicler in both cultural and political life of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century,... more
Abstract of paper presented in April 2025 at the American Oriental Society (now American Society for Premodern Asia), panel: Arabic Literature in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Periods
This article explores the theme of the journey in Abū Bakr b. Muḥsin Bā ʿAbbūd al-ʿAlawī's al-Maqāmāt al-hindiyyah (the Indian assemblies), completed in 1111/1715. Drawing from the concept of the palimpsest as used by Abdelfattah Kilito... more
Le sens du temps. Pages d'histoire du chronogramme arabe». Après des antécédents encore mal connus au VIIe/XIIIe siècle et au VIIIe/XIVe siècle, les chronogrammes «réguliers» sont bien attestés en arabe au IXe/XVe siècle; mais leur... more
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted various aspects of humanity. Like epidemics before it, it has not escaped the attention of the literary community. Poets have responded in different ways, releasing a variety of poems portraying... more
Scholarship on the intersection of Islamic mysticism and politics often focuses on the way Sufi authors preach their mystical teachings to rulers. This article draws attention to the role of court poetry composed by authors who are not... more
For the Mamluks, one of the most important issues in the almost half-century following their foundation in 1250 was the struggle against the Crusaders. Accordingly, a significant number of the sultans who came to power in the first... more
Bu çalışmada Türkiye Selçuklu Devleti ile Kilikya Ermenileri arasındaki siyasi ilişkiler incelendi: Türklerle Ermeniler arasındaki ilişkiler Selçukluların Anadolu’ya girişi ile başlar. Bizans yönetiminde baskı altında yaşayan Ermeniler,... more
The enduring and protracted suffering of Syrian people, due to dictatorship, revolution and civil conflict, has been reflected in numerous novels. This article reads Ismī Zayzafūn (2022) by Syrian writer Sawsan Ǧamīl Ḥasan as a recent... more
Wie wird an Menschen erinnert und was an ihnen und ihrem Leben erscheint erinnernswert? Antworten auf diese Fragen gibt ein mehr als 500 Jahre altes „frühes Wikipedia“ aus der Mamlukenzeit: Während der vom 13. bis 16. Jahrhundert in... more
كنت قد شَرفت بمشاركة الأستاذ الدكتور/ عمر عبد السلام تَدمري -حفظه الله- في تحقيق القطعة الموجودة من تاريخ ابن اللُّبُودي، ولأننا لم نقف على اسم الكتاب بسبب ضياع صفحة العنوان ومقدمة المؤلِّف من النُّسخة الخطية الوحيدة للكتاب، فأَسميناه:... more
The rajaz meter has always been folkloric, from its inception to this day. It is easy to compose verses in it, so that poets used it to express the concerns of their nation, especially following the consecutive political defeats which the... more
Dogu Roma Imparatorlugu’nun Ermenilere uyguladigi tehcir politikasi sonucu ortaya cikan Kilikya Ermeni Kralligi, Ermeni tarihinin en onemli parcalarindan birisidir. Kilikya’daki Ermeni hâkimiyeti daralip genislemekle birlikte yaklasik uc... more
Literary works of Nigerian Arabic authorship covers a vast range of subjects ranging from religious to secular spheres. Some of these works do not belong to the traditional religious sciences of Islam but pertain to the physical, medical... more
This paper investigates irony in selected verse and prose from Ibn Sūdūn's (1407-1464 AD) Nuzhat Al-Nufūs wa Muḍḥik Al-ʿabūs from a pragmatic perspective. It investigates what I have dubbed "ironic axioms," or IAS, as a new kind of... more
Doğu Akdeniz İslâm’ın buraya gelişinden itibaren tarihinde yeni bir mücadele safhasını yaşadı. Memlûkler Mısır ve Suriye’de hâkim olmalarıyla birlikte bölgelerinde yaşanan pek çok rekabet gibi Doğu Akdeniz mücadelesine de taraf oldular.... more
Kilikya olarak da isimlendirilen Çukurova, stratejik konumundan dolayı tarih boyunca önemli bir bölge oldu. Bu coğrafyaya hâkim olmak isteyen birçok devlet ve topluluğun içinde Ermeniler de vardı. Ermeniler, 1071 Malazgirt Savaşı'ndan... more
Doğu Roma İmparatorluğu'nun Ermenilere uyguladığı tehcir politikası sonucu ortaya çıkan Kilikya Ermeni Krallığı, Ermeni siyasi teşekküllerinin en önemlilerindendir. Kilikya'daki Ermeni hâkimiyet sahası siyasi ve askeri sebeplere bağlı... more
In some medieval anthologies of classical Arabic poetry we find a poem by the pre-Islamic poet Aʿshā Bāhila, who probably died in the beginning of the seventh century AD. This widely appreciated poem is a dirge in commemoration of his... more
Al-Mutannabi und die Literatur der Abbasiden-Epoche 2.1. Die abbasidische Epoche a) Politische Lage 1 Abū Eṭayyeb al-Mutanabbī gehört zu den Dichtern der dritten abbasidischen Epoche, 2 die laut Ğurğī Zīdān von 334 n.H. 3 bis 447 n.H.... more
A. Zu Herkunft und Leben Qudämas Qudäma b. Öa'far al-Kätib 2) entstammt einer kleineren unter jenen Familien, deren Angehörige seit Generationen das Sekretärsamt innehatten und die so zu einflußreichen Positionen in der Verwaltung des... more
In his work entitled Nasīm al-ṣabā (The Breeze of the East Wind), Ibn Ḥabīb al-Ḥalabī (d. 1377) dedicates a chapter to the description of a young man (ġulām). This chapter is characterized by the presence of two parts which differ from a... more
Le Kašf al-asrār est un ouvrage de littérature mystique attribué à l’auteur d’époque mamelouke Ibn Ġānim al-Maqdisī (m. 1279). L’œuvre se compose d’une introduction et de trente-sept chapitres, appelés išārāt, dans lesquels des éléments... more
Organisation: Alev Masarwa and Syrinx von Hees (Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Universität Münster)
I will leave to others the responsibility of speaking about Donald P. Little's career and the pivotal place he occupies in the field of Mamluk studies. As for me, perhaps the most appropriate way to pay tribute to him is to provide... more
Review of The Racecourse of Literature: An-Nawāǧī and His Contemporaries. Arabische Literatur und Rhetorik Elfhundert bis Achtzehnhundert. Edited by Alev Masarwa & Hakan Özkan. Würzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 2021.
Arabic letterforms of written texts, whether in poetry or prose, might uncover a unique means of expression that communicates with the eye and unlock a new channel towards human communication. This study, therefore, proposes a different... more
This presentation examines the late-Mamluk epic song Madīḥa ʿalā jabal Lubnān authored by the Maronite-Franciscan Jibrāyil Ibn al-Qilāʿī (d. ca. 1516). The Madīḥa draws on historical events to tell a semi-legendary story of the Christian... more
The chronography of al-Makīn Ibn al-ʿAmīd (1206–1293) is a major work in the Copto-Arabic historiographical tradition. Its importance is twofold: on the one hand, its author, a high-ranking official in the Ayyubid and Mamluk... more
The unique structure of the Mamluk political system presents an image that encourages power struggles. Therefore, the struggles for the throne have become the dominant characteristic of the history of the Mamluk State. An another feature... more
The leadership in the Islamic world is embodied in the caliphate. This maqam has also obtained a traditional and representative dimension over the years, and at some point, this traditional characteristic of the maqam has become more... more
Memlûkler 1250 senesinde Karadeniz'in kuzeyinde bulunan Deşt-i Kıpçak bölgesinden gelen köle memlûkler tarafından Mısır'da kurulmuş bir devlettir. Mısır, Suriye, Hicaz ve kısmi olsa da Anadolu'da hüküm sürmüştür. 1260 senesinde Baybars'ın... more
Women leadership in Muslim countries, particularly appointing women as the highest leader of the state, is something almost unheard of. This study discusses and analyses the leadership of Shajar Al-Durr, the highest leader of Egypt during... more
Zu den Besonderheiten von Literaturproduktion und-rezeption im Kaffeehaus Die Geschichte der literarischen Kommunikation seit dem Ende der Antike ist zugleich die ihrer fortschreitenden Mediatisierung. Mittel
Berge und Gebirgszüge sorgen im Relief der Erdoberfläche für landschaftliche Vielfalt und territoriale Untergliederungen. Gebirge waren schon immer An ziehungspunkte menschlicher Geschichte und Besiedlung, denn sie boten un erschöpfliche... more
Tarih boyunca devletlerarası ilişkilerde diplomasi daima belirleyici bir unsur olmuştur. Savaşlar ve barışlar da diplomatik gelişmelerin seyrine göre neticelenmiştir. Bu bağlamda tarihte devletlerin varlık mücadelesi ve amaçları gibi... more
Devleti'nde Memlûk nizâmından yetişmiş her emîr'e saltanat yolu açık olmuştur. Askeri, siyasi güç ve nüfuz sahibi her emîr şartlar oluştuğunda politik maharetini kullanarak saltanat makamına oturmuştur. Memlûk nizamından yetişen... more
Özet Depremler diğer doğal afetler gibi insanoğlunun tarih boyunca karşılaştığı ve savaşlar kadar olumsuz etkilendiği felâketlerdir. Şehirleri enkaz yığınına dönüştürürken gündelik hayatı sekteye uğratır. Sonuçta da yeni şehirler inşa... more
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