Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T20:45:20.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Factions in medieval Egypt*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Robert Irwin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

“If all you have to tell us is that one barbarian succeeded another barbarian on the banks of the Oxus or Jaxartes, what benefit have you conferred on the public?” Voltaire's question is an awkward one for anyone investigating the transmission and distribution of power in the XVth century Circassian Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria. Even so the question of factionalism and its role in succession crises and other crises in the history of the Islamic lands has to be tackled, for surely the prevalence of factions in the Near East and our lack of understanding of them does add a certain patina of dullness to much of Islamic history. Faction succeeds to faction as “Amurath to Amurath”, and though Macaulay could find the history of England and its latter part, the struggle of Whig and Tory, to be “emphatically the history of progress”, few people have felt similarly confident about the struggle of Ẓāhirī and Manṣūrī factions in medieval Egypt. It is hard to understand past events without imposing a pattern, and at the political level the gyrations of Egyptian factions do not lend themselves easily to the imposition of pattern.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 118 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 228 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ives, E. W.: Faction in Tudor England. (Historical Association pamphlet), London, 1979, p. 1.Google Scholar But, for a very different view of some of the same material, cf. Smith, L. B.: Treason in Tudor England: Politics and Paranoia, London, 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Shaban, M. A.: Islamic History A.D. 600–750 AH. 132. A New Interpretation, Cambridge, 1971, esp. pp. 120f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Bulliet, R. W.: The Patricians of Nishapur: A Study in Medieval Islamic Social History, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972.Google Scholar

4 Lapidus, I. M.: Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967.Google Scholar

5 Mottahedeh, R. P.: Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society, Princeton, 1980.Google Scholar

6 Apart from Ibn Taghrībirdī (see below), the chief Arabic sources in print on this period include al-Maqrīzī: Kitāb al-Sulūk, III–IV, ed. Ashour, A. F., Cairo, 1970–1974;Google ScholarIbnḤajar, : Inbā' al-Ghumr, II–III, ed. Ḥ. , Cairo, 1969;Google Scholaral-Sakhāwī, : Al-Ḍaw' al-Lāmī, I–XII, Cairo, 1934–1936;Google Scholaridem: Al-Ṭibr al-Masbūk, Cairo, 1896;Google Scholaral-Ṣayrafī, al-Jawharī b.: Nuzhat al-Nufūs, II–III, ed. Ḥabashī, Ḥ., Cairo, 1971–1974;Google ScholarAnonymous: Ḥawliyāt Dimashqiyya, ed. Ḥabashī, Ḥ., Cairo, 1968;Google ScholarIbnIyās, : Badā'ī al-Zuhūr, I–III, Cairo, 1893–1895;Google Scholaridem: Badā'ī al-Zuhūr, I–V, eds. Kahle, P. and Mostafa, M., Istanbul and Wiesbaden, 1931–1975.Google Scholar It should be noted that there are very substantial differences between the two editions of the Badā'ī. Whether either or both texts is entirely the work of Ibn Iyās remains to be determined.

7 Piloti, : Traité d'Emmanuel Piloti sur le Passage en Terre Sainte, ed. Dopp, P. H., Louvain, 1958.Google Scholar

8 On Ibn Taghrībirdī's life, see W. Popper s.v. “Abū'l Mahāsin” in EI 2, and the literature cited there; Petry, C.: The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages, Princeton, 1981, pp. 7, 10.Google Scholar

9 IbnTaghrībirdī, : Al-Nujūm al-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa'l-Qāhira, ed. and tr. Popper, W.Google ScholarUniversity of California Publications in Semitic Philology, V–VII, XIII, XIV, XVII–XIX, XXII, Berkeley, 1915–1960.Google Scholar Those sections of his other chronicle Ḥawādith al-Duhūr which contain additional material to the Nujūm have been edited by Popper, W. in University of California Publications in Semitic Philology, VIII, Berkeley, 1930–1931.Google Scholar The greater part of Ibn Taghrībirdī's biographical dictionary, the Manhal, is unpublished, but see Taghrībirdī, Ibn: Al-Manhal al-Safi, I–II, ed. Amīn, M. M., Cairo, 1984–1985Google Scholar. Wiet, M.. “Les Biographies du Manhal Safi”, Mémoires présentées à l'Institut d'Egypte, XIX, 1932Google Scholar, is a summary analysis of the contents of the entire work. The Manhal was completed before the Nujūm and its obituaries of mamluk emirs only occasionally provide information not found in the Nujūm for this period.

10 Nujūm, VII, pp. 291–4.Google Scholar

11 Nujūm, 687, 760;Google ScholarḤawādith, p. 657.Google Scholar

12 Nujūm, VII, p. 408.Google Scholar

13 Nujūm, VII, pp. 674–5.Google Scholar

14 On Commynes's views on the rise and fall of princes, see in particular Dufournet, J.: La Destruction des mythes dans les Mémoires de Ph. de Commynes, Geneva, 1966.Google Scholar

15 On Shaykh's career as Emir, then Sultan, see Nujūm VI pp. 322–431,Google Scholar especially pp. 322–3, 427–31; al-Sakhāwī, : Ḍaw', pp. 308–11;Google Scholaral-'Aynī, : Al-Sayf al-muhannad fī sīrat al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad, ed. Shaltūt, M., Cairo, 1967;Google ScholarHolt, P. M., The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517, London, 1986, pp. 179–183.Google Scholar

16 J. Wansbrough s.v. “Faradj” in EI 2.

17 Unless otherwise noted below, observations on the careers of Mu'ayyadī emirs are based on their obituary notices given in Ibn Taghrībirdī's chronicle or in al-Sakhāwī's biographical dictionary, the Ḍaw’. al-'Ajamī, 'Alī Bay (Nujūm, VII, p. 572;Google ScholarḌaw', V, p. 151Google Scholar). 'Alī Bay min 'Alam Shaykh (Nujūm, VI, p. 506;Google ScholarḌaw', V, p. 151Google Scholar). ‘Allān (Nujūm, VII, pp. 632–3;Google ScholarḌaw', V, p. 150Google Scholar). al-Marqabī, Alṭunbughā (Nujūm, VII, 272;Google ScholarḌaw', V, 351Google Scholar). Āqbay, (Nujūm, VI, pp. 374–5;Google ScholarḌaw', III, p. 314Google Scholar). Āqbirdī, (Ḍaw' II, p. 312Google Scholar). Arikmās, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 377–8;Google ScholarḌaw', II, p. 268Google Scholar). Aytamish, (Nujūm, VII, p. 310Google Scholar). Barsbay, (Nujūm, VII, p. 375;Google ScholarḌaw' III, p. 10.Google ScholarBayghūt, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 570–1Google Scholar). Dawlatbay, (Nujūm, VII, p. 567;Google ScholarḌaw', III, pp. 220–1Google Scholar). Jakam, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 600–1;Google ScholarḌaw' III, p. 76.Google ScholarShaykh, Jānibak (Ḍaw' III, p. 60Google Scholar). Jānibak, (Ḍam', III, p. 60Google Scholar). al-Qawwāmi, Jānibak (Nujūm, VII, p. 275Google Scholar). al-Tājī, Jānibak (Nujūm, VII, p. 791Google Scholar). al-Shamsī, Jānibak (Nujūm, VII, p. 587;Google ScholarḌxam', III, p. 57Google Scholar). al-Maḥmūdī, Jānibak (Nujūm, VII, p. 591;Google ScholarḌaw', III, p. 60Google Scholar). al-Zaynī, Jānibak (Ḍaw' III, p. 56Google Scholar). Ḥarāmī Shakl, Jānim (Nujūm, VII, p. 805Google Scholar). Jānim, (Nujūm, VII, p. 592;Google Scholar (Ḍaw', III, p. 65Google Scholar). Julbān, (Ḍam', III. p. 78Google Scholar). Kasbāy, (Ḍaw' VI, p. 229Google Scholar). al-Shishmānī, Kasbāy (Nujūm, VII, pp. 809–10;Google ScholarḌaw' VI, pp. 228–9Google Scholar). al-Ajrūd, Khayrbak (Nujūm, VII, pp. 582–3;Google ScholarḌam', III, pp. 209–10Google Scholar). al-Ashqar, Khayrbak (Nujūm, VII, p. 625;Google ScholarḌaw' III, p. 210Google Scholar). Khushqadam, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 687–9;Google Scholar (Ḍaw', III, pp. 175–6Google Scholar). Māmish, (Ḍaw' VI, p. 235Google Scholar). Mughulbāy, (Ḍam', X, p. 164Google Scholar). al-Ḥamzāwī, Qānībāy (Nujūm, VII, pp. 619–20;Google Scholar (Ḍam', VI, p. 195Google Scholar). al-Ḥasanī, Qānībāy (Ḍam'.VI, p. 195Google Scholar). al-Maḥmūdī, Qānībāy (Ḍam' VI, p. 198Google Scholar). Saqal, Qānībāy Qarā (Nujūm, VII, p. 627;Google Scholar (Ḍam', VI, pp. 196–7Google Scholar). Qānim, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 814–6;Google Scholar (Ḍam', VI, pp. 200–1Google Scholar). Shādhbak, (Ḍam', III, p. 290Google Scholar). al-Faqih, Sūdūn (Nujūm, VII, p. 811;Google Scholar (Ḍam' III, p. 276Google Scholar). al-Abūbakrī, Sūdūn (Nujūm, VII, p. 767;Google ScholarḌam', III, p. 276Google Scholar). Qash, Sūdūn Qarā (Nujūm, VII, p. 763;Google ScholarḌam' III, pp. 276–7Google Scholar). al-Atmakjī, Sūdūn (Nujūm, VII, p. 338;Google Scholar (Ḍaw', III, p. 286Google Scholar). Taghrībirdī, (Nujūm, VI, pp. 785–6;Google Scholar (Ḍaw', III, pp. 29–30).Google ScholarTanam, (Ḍaw' III, p. 45).Google Scholaral-Faqīh, Tanam (Ḍaw' III. p. 45).Google ScholarAbd al-Razzāq, Tanam min (Nujūm, VII, p. 788–9;Google ScholarḌaw' VI, p. 168).Google ScholarTimrāz, Ḍaw' III, p. 38).Google ScholarTimrāz, (Nujūm, VI, p. 849).Google Scholaral-Musāri, Timrāz' (Nujūm, VII, p. 363;Google ScholarḌaw', III, pp. 35–6).Google ScholarṬūghān, (Ḍaw', IV, p. 13).Google ScholarṬūkh, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 296–7;Google ScholarḌaw' IV, p. 10).Google ScholarUzbak, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 601–2;Google ScholarḌaw', II, p. 273).Google ScholarYakhshibāy, (Nujūm, VII, p. 259).Google ScholarYalbāy, (Nujūum, VII, pp. 824–5, 839;Google ScholarḌaw' X, pp. 287–8).Google ScholarYalbughā, (Ḍaw' X, p. 290).Google ScholarYarshbāy, (Nujūm, VII, pp. 640–1).Google ScholarYashbak, (Nujūm, VII, p. 641;Google ScholarḌaw', X, 279).Google Scholaral-Ṣūfī, Yashbak (Nujūm, VII, pp. 617–8;Google ScholarḌaw', X, p. 270).Google Scholaral-Inālī, yashbak (Nujūm, VI, p. 506).Google ScholarQulaq, Yashbak Āsh (Ḍaw', X, p. 275).Google Scholaral-Yūsufī, Yashbak (Nujūm, VI, p. 546).Google Scholaral-Faqīh, Yashbak (Ḍaw', X, pp. 270–2).Google Scholar This is not, of course, by any means an exhaustive list of all the Mu'ayyadi emirs who received notices in Mamluk chronicles or biographical dictionaries.

18 Nujūm, VI, pp. 789–90.Google Scholar

19 Nujūm, VI, pp. 551–2.Google Scholar

20 On the career of Emir, later Sultan, Ṭaṭār al-ຒāhirī, Nujūm, VI, pp. 508–9;Google ScholarḌaw' IV, pp. 7–8;Google Scholaral-Jawharī, : Nuzha, II, pp. 513–4.Google Scholar

21 Nujūm, VI, p. 807.Google Scholar

22 Nujūm, VI, pp. 780–1.Google Scholar

23 Nujūm, VI, pp. 442–3.Google Scholar Nawrūz had over 1000 mamluks in Syria. Wiet's index to Ibn Taghrībirdī's Manhal lists sixteen emirs with his nisba.

24 Nujūm, VI, pp. 312–3.Google Scholar

25 Ayalon, D.. “Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army. III”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XVI, 1954, p. 69.Google Scholar For an example of a Council of Emirs, summoned to discuss the Dulghadirid threat in 840/1436–7, see Jawharī, : Nuzha, III, p. 383.Google Scholar

26 Jawharī, : Nuzha, III, p. 485.Google Scholar

27 Nujūm, VI, p. 430.Google Scholar

28 Nujūm, VI, pp. 477–508.Google Scholar

29 Nujūm, VI, p. 478.Google Scholar

30 Ayalon, . “Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army. I”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XV, 1953, pp. 225, 227.Google Scholar It should be noted that this was the number he purchased. He inherited or acquired by confiscation hundreds, perhaps thousands more.

31 Ayalon, , op. cit., pp. 213–6;Google ScholarIrwin, R., The Middle East in the middle ages. The early Mamluk Sultanate 1250–1382, London, 1986, pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

32 Nujūm, VI, pp. 429–30.Google Scholar

33 Nujūm, VI, p. 507.Google Scholar

34 Nujūm, VI, p. 425.Google Scholar

35 For the reign of Ṭaṭār and his more or less co-extensive purge of the Mu'ayyadīs, see Nujūm, pp. 508–20.Google Scholar

36 On Barsbāy, see Darrag, A.: L'Egypte sous le règne de Barsbay, Damascus, 1961.Google Scholar

37 Nujūm, VII, pp. 14, 18, 29, 30.Google Scholar

38 Nujūm, VII, pp. 32–253;Google ScholarḌaw’ III, pp. 71–4;Google ScholarSobernheim, M. s.v. “Čakmak” in EI 2.Google Scholar

39 In almost every case promotion to an emirate of ten was from the ranks of the Khāṣṣakiyya and in many cases the promotion was coupled with appointment to an office as one of the junior ra‘s nawbas. The ra‘s nawbas seem to have commanded royal mamluks on guard patrol.

40 Besides Sakhāwī's obituary of this minor figure, he also receives an obituary in IbnTaghrībirdī, : Ḥawādith, p. 716.Google Scholar

41 IbnTaghrībirdī, : Ḥawādith, p. 441.Google Scholar

42 Nujūm, VII, pp. 237–9.Google Scholar

43 On factional strife during the reign of al-Manṣūr 'Uthmān (really an interregnum), see Nujūm, VII, pp. 392–418.Google Scholar

44 M. C. S. Tekindag s.v. “Ināl” in EI 2.

45 Nujūm, pp. 662–80.Google Scholar

46 On this Sultan, in addition to the obituary notices in listed in n. 17 above, see P. M. Holt s.v. “Khushḳadam” in EI 2.

47 Nujūm, VII, pp. 716–9, 775–7.Google Scholar

48 IbnTaghrībirdī, : Ḥawādith, p. 442.Google Scholar

49 On the reign of Yalbāy, see IbnTaghrībirdī, : Ḥawādith, 718–9;Google ScholarNujūm, VII, pp. 824–39.Google Scholar

50 Anonymous: Ta'rīkh Qāytbāy al-Tarjama al-Sharīfa al-Ashrafiyya, B. M. MS Or. 3028, f. 6b, 8b.

51 IbnTaghrībirdī, : Ḥawādith, pp. 660, 718.Google Scholar

52 Al-'Aynī, : Al-Sayf al-Muhannad;Google Scholaridem: (Al-Rawḍ al-zāhir fī sīrat al-Malik al-ຒāhir), ed. Ernst, H., Cairo, 1962;Google ScholarIbnArabshāh, : Al-Ta'līf al-ṭāhir fī shiyam al-Malik al-ຒāhir,Google Scholar B. M. MS. Or. 3026.

53 Al-Asadī, : Al-Taysīr wa'l-ítibār wa'l-taḥrīr wa'l-ikhtiyār, ed. Ṭulaymāt, A. A., Cairo, 1967.Google Scholar

54 al-ຒāhirī, Khalīl: Zubda Kashf al-Mamālik, ed. Ravaisse, P., Paris, 1894.Google Scholar

55 Nujūm, VI, p. 518.Google Scholar

56 Mishima, Yukio: Mishima on Hagakure, London, 1977.Google Scholar

57 On the strength of the oath bond in Buyid society, see Mottahedeh, : Loyalty and Leadership, pp. 41–62.Google Scholar

58 Nujūm, VI, pp. 420, 516, 770–1, VII, 379.Google Scholar

59 Nujūm, VII, p. 644.Google Scholar

60 Nujūm, VII, p. 692.Google Scholar

61 Nujūm, VI, pp. 336–9, 562.Google Scholar

62 Varley, H. P.: The Samurai, London, 1970, pp. 123–5.Google Scholar

63 Al-'Aynī, : Al-Rawḍ al-Zāhir, p. 6.Google Scholar

64 Nujūm, VI, p. 688.Google Scholar

65 For this phenomenon in the Baḥrī Mamluk period, see Irwin, , The Middle East in the middle ages, pp. 153–4.Google Scholar However not all general observations on the operation of faction in the Baḥrī period apply to the Circassian period, or vice-versa.

66 Nujūm, VII, p. 46.Google Scholar

67 Nujūm, VII, pp. 58–60,Google Scholar 63, 65–8.

68 IbnṢaṣrā, : A Chronicle of Damascus, I, p. 115Google Scholar indicates that the citizens of the Ṣalāḥiyya district of Damascus fought for the Emir Minṭāsh only because his troops were quartered there, and, in general, Ibn Ṣaṣrā makes it plain that he and most of his fellow citizens regarded Minṭāsh and his following of 'urbān, (nomadic tribesmen) and Barqūq and his rival following of 'ushrān (settled or semi-nomadic tribesmen) with equal dread.

69 On Qays and Kalb partisanship in the strife of the 1390s, see Lapidus, : Muslim Cities, pp. 87–90, 165–7.Google Scholar But Lapidus has been misled by the fact that the Banū Kilāb quarter of Damascus backed Barqūq and deduced from this that Barqūq's following were Kalbīs. In fact the Banu Kilāb were by tradition a part of the Qaysī moiety and, as Qaysīs, backed Barqūq. See IbnṢaṣra, : Chronicle, p. 53Google Scholar and n.

70 Jawharī, : Nuzha, III, p. 411.Google Scholar

71 von Harff, Arnold: The Pilgrimage of Arnold von Harff. 1496–1499, ed. Letts, M., London, 1946, p. 104.Google Scholar

72 Africanus, Leo: Description de l'Afrique, tr. Schefer, C., Paris, 1948, p. 376.Google Scholar

73 In the reign of Barsbāy there were between 5000 and 6000 mamluks lodged in the Citadel at any one time, while 700–800 graduated every year and were sent to find lodgings in the city according to Piloti: Passage, pp. 54–5.

74 Lapidus, : Muslim Cities, pp. 171–2;Google ScholarLewis, B.: Race and Color in Islam, New York, 1971, pp. 74–6.Google Scholar

75 Ayalon, D.. “Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army. II”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XV, 1953, pp. 467–71.Google Scholar

76 Piloti, : Passage, p. 54.Google Scholar

77 Nujūm, VI, pp. 789–90,Google Scholar VII, pp. 347–50; Ḍaw,' III, pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

78 IbnIyās, : Badā'i', (Cairo ed.), II, pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

79 IbnIyās, : Badā'i', (Cairo ed.), II. p. 35.Google Scholar

80 Nujūm, VII, pp. 149, 161–2.Google Scholar

81 Nujūm, VII, p. 791;Google ScholarAnonymous: Ḥawliyāt, pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

82 Nujūm, VI, pp. 510, 517, 519–20.Google Scholar

83 Nujūm, VI, pp. 330, 779.Google Scholar

84 Nujūm, VI, p. 500.Google Scholar

85 Nujūm, VI, p. 519.Google Scholar

86 For examples, see James, B. G.: Business Wargames, Tunbridge Wells, 1984;Google ScholarRinger, R. J.: Winning Through Intimidation, Los Angeles, 1973.Google Scholar See also the Japanese manual on swordsmanship and strategy, said to be consulted by Wall Street executives— Musashi, Miyatomo: A Book of Five Rings, London, 1974.Google Scholar