A36 - Approches plurielles de la servitude sous l’Égypte mamelouke

For more than two and a half centuries, the Mamluks reigned over part of the eastern Mediterranean and established themselves as one of the most powerful states in the region. Receiving military and religious training before being freed as adults, these slaves were imported from Asia Minor, then from Circassia. In 1250, the region passed into the hands of these soldiers who made Cairo the capital of their sultanate.
The accession of former slaves to the throne was an original experience of power, to which many literary productions (archive documents, chronicles, etc.) and visible monuments still bear witness today, as far as we are concerned, in the old Cairo city. However, slavery went far beyond the case of state servants: at all levels of society, its practices were extremely common.
Thus, this panel proposes to present four ongoing studies in medieval history and archeology related to a particular aspect of servitude under Mamluk Egypt. We will question the very term "mamlouk", will address the question of ḫuddām, that of buildings sponsored by one of these, and finally, we will have a legal source speak about a case of slaves at the lowest of the social ladder.

Responsible: Ouahhou Jamela,IREMAM/ CNRS, Aix-Marseille University

Discussant: Bouderbala Sobhi

Mamlūk (pl. mamālīk) is an Arabic term meaning "possessed thing". It refers to soldiers of servile origin who reigned between 1250 and 1517 over Egypt, al-Šām and part of the Arabian Peninsula. However, this name admitted today by most historians is not the one used by the chroniclers of the said period. The second ones preferred to call them "Turks", or even "Circassians" for the second dynasty. While emancipation intervened quite early in the life of a Mamluk soldier, we go through two chronicles of the end of the period, those of Ibn Iyās and Ibn Taġrī Birdī, to study the way in which the Mamluks were designated. Was their servile origin as important in the construction of their identity as the name now used by our contemporaries suggests?

From the 14th century, the power of Cairo's elites manifested itself on an urban scale through orders for monumental architecture. But several servants of the house of the sultans also marked the urban landscape of the city through their municipal initiatives.
In the al-Azhar mosque of Fatimid foundation, the patronage of the officers preceded the investment of the Mamluk sultans. Shortly after 1302, two emirate madrasas were added to its exterior wall. A century later, Ǧawhar al-Qunuqbāyī, treasurer and head of the sultan's eunuchs, also financed the construction of a madrasa and a mausoleum attached to the mosque.
The architecture thus provides a privileged point of observation around the strategies of self-representation and self-promotion. How do pre-existing buildings meet new visibility requirements? Is the question of the servile origin of certain sponsors fully significant?

The fatwā, or consultation of a point of law, applies in Islam to all matters of everyday life.

Any individual, whatever their social background and status, could thus seek the equally precise opinion of a Juris consult on a specific civil or religious subject.

In a context where slavery was legislated by rigorous legal texts and reasoning, we will present the particular case presented to the famous Hanbalis Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) of slaves who fled their master from the neighboring country to find refuge in Egypt. Was this allowed to them? Does the abuse they witness justify their behavior? What verdict does the Juris consult render on the subject of these slaves who justified flight as a last resort to lead a more “righteous” life? More broadly, what historical insights can this type of source shed on the living conditions of slaves?

In the Middle Ages, there were several slaves or ḫuddām in the service of the elites. The majority of them were black, originating from al-Nuba, Sudan or Ethiopia (bilād al-Ḥabaša), and are described in biographical literature as ḥabašī, zinjī or aswad. They often held executive or administrative positions of considerable importance in the Mamluk hierarchy. Many individuals were purchased as slaves for the households of Mamluk sultans, emirs and their wives or concubines. The vast majority of them were eunuchs: castrated before their arrival to ensure their ability to perform the various functions in the women's quarters or the harem (ḥarīm).

I will present the life of the eunuchs in the Mamluk era, their origins, their functions, the cause and the place of castration, wondering if the eunuchs only existed in the Islamic world or if there were also in other civilizations.