The present volume contains seventeen essays on the Mamluk Sultanate, an Islamic Empire of slaves whose capital was in Cairo between the 13th and the 16th centuries, written by leading historians of this period. It discusses topics as varied as social and cultural issues, women in Mamluk society, literary and poetical genres, the politics of material culture, and regional and local politics. The volume presents state of the art scholarship in the field of Mamluk studies as well as an in-depth review of recent developments. Mamluk studies have expanded considerably in recent years and today interests hundreds of active researchers worldwide who write in numerous languages and constitute a vivid and strong community of researchers, some of whose best research is presented in this volume. With contributions by Reuven Amitai; Frederic Bauden; Yuval Ben-Bassat; Joseph Drory; Elise Franssen; Yehoshua Frenkel; Li Guo; Daisuke Igarashi; Yaacov Lev; Bernadette Martel-Thoumian; Carl Petry; Warren Schultz; Boaz Shoshan; Hana Taragan; Bethany J. Walker; Michael Winter; Koby Yosef; Limor Yungman.

A Note on Transliteration List of Pictures and Illustrations Acknowledgments Professor Amalia Levanoni's Contribution to the Field of Mamluk Studies Michael Winter Introduction Yuval Ben-Bassat A. Social and Cultural Issues 1. Carl Petry "Already Rich? Yet 'Greed Deranged Him': Elite Status and Criminal Complicity in the Mamluk Sultanate" 2. Koby Yosef "Usages of Kinship Terminology during the Mamluk Sultanate and the Notion of the 'Mamluk Family'" 3. Limor Yungman "Medieval Middle Eastern Court Taste: The Mamluk Case" 4. Bernadette Martel-Thoumian "DU SANG ET DES LARMES: LE DESTIN TRAGIQUE D'ASALBAY AL-JARKASIYYA (m. en 1509)" 5. Daisuke Igarashi "The Office of the Ustadar al-'Aliya in the Circassian Mamluk Era" B. Women in Mamluk Society 6. Yaakov Lev "Women in the Urban Space of Medieval Muslim Cities" 7. Yehoshua Frenkel "Slave Girls and Learned Teachers: Women in Mamluk Sources" 8. Boaz Shoshan "On Marriage in Damascus, 1480-1500" C. Literary and Poetical Genres 9. Li Guo "Songs, Poetry, and Storytelling: Ibn Taghribirdi on the Yalbugha Affair" 10. Frederic Bauden "Maqriziana XIII: An Exchange of Correspondence Between al-Maqrizi and al-Qalqashandi" 11. Michael Winter "Sultan Selim's Obsession with Mamluk Egypt according to Evliya elebi's Seyahatname" D. The Politics of Material Culture 12. Warren Schultz "Mamluk Coins, Mamluk Politics and the Limits of the Numismatic Evidence" 13. Hana Taragan "Mamluk Patronage, Crusader Spolia: Turbat al-Kubakiyya in the Mamilla Cemetery, Jerusalem (688/1289)" 14. Bethany J. Walker "The Struggle over Water: Evaluating the 'Water Culture' of Syrian Peasants under Mamluk Rule" 15. Elise Franssen "What was there in a Mamluk Amir's Library? Evidence from a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript" E. Regional and Local Politics 16. Reuven Amitai "Post-Crusader Acre in Light of a Mamluk Inscription and a Fatwa Document from Damascus" 17. Joseph Drory "Favored by the Sultan, Disfavored by his Son: Some Glimpses into the Career of Tashtamur Hummus Akhdar" Bibliography Index