| History and Society During the Mamluk Period (1250-1517): Studies of the Annemarie Schimmel Research College I Contributor(s): Conermann, Stephan (Editor) |
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ISBN: 3847102281 ISBN-13: 9783847102281 Publisher: V&R Unipress OUR PRICE: $60.80 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Middle East - General - History | Europe - Medieval |
| Series: Mamluk Studies |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6.3" W x 9.2" (1.05 lbs) 229 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Middle East - Chronological Period - Medieval (500-1453) |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Once a person starts to study the 250-some years of the Mamluk Era in Egypt and Syria (12501517), one characteristic of that period stands out immediately the very unusual polarization of its society. A predominantly Arabic population was dominated by a purely Turkish-born elite of manu-mitted military slaves who sought to regenerate themselves continuously through a self-imposed fiat. The only person who could become a Mamluk was a Turk who had been born free outside the Islamic territories as a non-Muslim, then enslaved, brought to Egypt as a slave, converted to Islam, freed, and finally, trained as a warrior. Only those who met these prerequisites were members of the ruling stratum with all the concomitant political, military, and economic advantages. On this historically unique model of a society, Stephan Conermann has published a series of seminal articles. In this edited volume the reader gets an excellent introduction to some of the central issues of the ongoing research on the Mamluk history and society. |
