MAMLUK PERIOD IN EGYPT AND SYRIA (1250–1517)

1250                   Mamluks rise to power in Egypt

1260–1382         Bahri Mamluk dynasty (originally mostly Kipchak Turks; the name stems from the location of their original settlement on Al-Rodah Island in the Nile – Nahr al-Nil in Arabic). During the Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century, Cairo and Damascus represented safe havens not only for ordinary residents, but also for craftsmen from important artisan centres in Iran and Iraq. As a result, the strong influence of Mosul craftsman can be seen in Mamluk arts and crafts; some objects also bear the artists’ signatures. The arts enjoyed generous and substantial sponsorship from the ruling classes through the first century of Bahri rule and up until the first of the great plagues arrived in the mid-fourteenth century

1258                   Baghdad is conquered by the Mongols

1260                   Battle of Ain Jalut; the Mongols lose and Syria is gradually won by the Mamluks

1382–1517         Burji Mamluk dynasty (of Circassian origin; their name means “from the tower”, so named because they ruled from the Citadel or “tower” of Cairo). The period of Burji Mamluk rule was marked by civil wars and very few periods of peace. There were also frequent conflicts with other powers – wars with the Ottoman empire, the Portuguese, or Timur’s attack of Syria and the sack of Damascus (1400), from which he took many of the city’s skilled craftsmen with him. As a consequence of the conflicts, copper and silver imports were in limited supply, leading to a fall in the production of luxury goods. Numerous epidemics had a devastating effect on the region, causing a dramatic drop in the population. The resurrection of the Sultan’s patronage of the arts came with the reign of Sultan Qaitbay in the second half of the fifteenth century, but only at a small scale (inlaid metals were likely produced almost exclusively for the sultanate), and in the early sixteenth century during the reign of Sultan al-Ghuri

1517                   Defeat by Selim I; Egypt becomes a province of Ottoman Turkey under Mamluk administration (JMl)