# Military of the Mamluk Sultanate

The Military of the Mamluk Sultanate (Egyptian Arabic: جيش السلطنة المملوكية, Coptic: Ⲛⲉⲛⲁⲗⲁⲥⲱϯ ⲛ̀ⲙⲉⲧⲟⲩⲣⲟ ⲛ̀ⲙⲉⲙⲗⲟⲩⲕⲓ), officially known as Al-Asakir al-Masria (Egyptian Arabic: العساكر المصرية, lit. 'Egyptian troops', Coptic: Ⲛⲉⲛⲁⲗⲁⲥⲱϯ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛⲕⲏⲙⲓ) or Al-Askar al-Masri (Egyptian Arabic: العسكر المصري, lit. 'Egyptian troops') or Al-Jund al-Masri (Egyptian Arabic: الجند المصري, lit. 'Egyptian soldiers') or Al-Asakir al-Mansoura (Egyptian Arabic: العساكر المنصورة, lit. 'Victorious troops'), was the official armed forces of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate.

## History

The Mamluk Army was established in 1250 by the first Mamluk Sultan Aybak of Egypt, but it was reformed in 1260 by Sultan Baybars.
The entire army did not have an official census, but as a percentage and proportion, the Egyptians were the vast majority of the army, and this is clear from the division of the army. If we were to suffice with comparing the Volunteer corps alone with all the Mamluks (the Volunteer corps, which was larger than the entire regular army, we would also say that the vast majority were Egyptians) the English traveler Sir John Mandeville mentioned in Mandeville's Travels that the Sultan was able to leave Egypt with 200,000 soldiers, and the Egyptian historian Ibn Iyas mentioned that the number of the Egyptian army in the battle of Marj al-Saffar, known as Shaqhab, was 200,000 soldiers, and the Mamluks at their maximum number did not complete 24,000 people, so the remaining 175,000 soldiers were Egyptians or the vast majority were Egyptians.
A lot of senior Egyptian commanders appeared in the army at that time, the most famous of whom were Emir Saad al-Din bin Ghurab, Emir Izz al-Din al-Kawrani, Emir Alaa el-Din bin el-Emam, Emir Salah al-Din Khalil bin Aram, Emir Alaa al-Din al-Tablawi, Emir Ahmad al-Taylouni bin al-Muhandis, Emir Fakhr al-Din Iyas al-Jarjawi, Ibn bint el-Aqsarayi, Emir Hamo Lajin, Emir Fakhr al-Din al-Qibti and others.
The native Egyptian element was known to be the most faithful and loyal element of the army, and this became clear in many situations, the most important of which was when Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban bin Qalawun was putting down a rebellion against him in Cairo and all of his Mamluks deserted him and fled. What remained beside him were the Egyptian soldiers who defended him and defeated the rebels in the Battle of Cairo in late 1367. One of the most important policies of Sultan El-Ashraf Sha'ban was to increase the number of indigenous Egyptians in the regular military corps.
The army was disbanded by the Ottomans following the Capture of Cairo in 1517.

## Factions

The Mamluk Army can be divided to two factions, which are the Egyptian Army and the Levantine Army.

### Egyptian Army

The Egyptian army which was officially called Al-Asakir al-Masria or Al-Askar al-Masri or Al-Jund al-Masri or Al-Asakir al-Mansoura, was the army of Egypt and was made up mostly of native Egyptians.
The army was divided throughout the Mamluk era, or with different periods, so there were 9 categories that made up the army, which are:

#### Royal Mamluks

The Royal or Sultanic Mamluks (المماليك السلطانية) were all Mamluks and were similar to the modern-day Republican Guard with extra authority. They were under the direct authority of the Sultan and they were usually about 1,000 Mamluks.
It consisted of three squads:
* Khasski or al-Khasskia (الخاصكية): These corps were the main component of the Royal Mamluks and sometimes refers to the term Royal Mamluks as a whole. It was also possible for a non-Mamluk to take command of it, such as Ibrahim bin Shaddad, who took command of it during the reign of Sultan al-Nasir Mahammad bin Qalawun.
* Al-Tabaq (الطباق): These corps were composed of intellectuals.
* Al-Jalban (الجلبان): These corps were composed of senior Mamluks.

#### Halqa

The Ajnad al-Halqa (أجناد الحلقة) or simply the Halqa were made up of both Egyptians and Awlad al-Nas (children of the Mamluks). On this basis, they were the army of the state that did not change with the change of the Sultan. They were usually present in camps on the borders of Cairo, and many camps in Sharqia, Alexandria, Damietta, Suez, Faiyum, Asyut, and the ports of the Red Sea. They also had camps in the cities of the Hejaz and the cities of the Levant, such as Damascus, Aleppo, Baalbek, Homs, and Diyarbakır. Every thousand of them were supervised by one of the Emirs. He was required to be familiar with their homes and place of residence in order to gather them upon request. This Emir had no authority over them except during war. The Halqa was considered the striking force of the army and its soldiers occupied the first positions of honor in all the various official ceremonies, and their names were side by side with the names of the Emirs in the official ceremonies, especially the oath ceremony upon the Sultan's accession to the throne of the Sultanate, and were under the direct command of the sultan, there was a faction within the Halqa called the Arbab al-Heraf (أرباب الحرف) which was made up of Egyptians only and was similar to modern-day engineering corps.
Halqa troops were the heart and backbone of the Egyptian army.

#### Summoned forces (Al-Radif)

The Summoned forces or Al-Radif (قوات الإستدعاء أو الرديف) were made up of both Egyptians and Mamluks and were Summoned in times of war and some of them are part of the Halqa troops.

#### Wafidiyya

The wāfidiyya (الوافدية) were troops of various ethnic backgrounds who came into the military service of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate in exchange for asylum. The term is a collective noun formed from the singular wāfid, meaning "one who comes, makes his way, in a delegation or group".
The wāfidiyya were predominantly Mongols, Kurds, Khwarazmians and other Turkics. The Mamlūks, themselves mostly Turkic, regarded the Mongols as co-ethnics. Large numbers of Kurds and Khwarazmians fled the Mongol conquest of Khwarazmia and took refuge in Egyptian Syria. This preceded the first major influx of Mongol wāfidiyya that took place in the aftermath of the first Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260, during the reign of Sultan Baybars (1260–77). The bulk of the wāfidiyya were settled in the devastated parts of Syria and Palestine, while only their leaders were allowed to settle in Egypt. Another large influx of 10–18,000 Mongol wāfidiyya from the Ilkhanate took place under Sultan al-ʿĀdil Kitbughā (1295–97), himself an Oirat Mongol.
Baybars was purportedly frightened by the sudden influx of soldiers seeking asylum and sought to disperse ethnic Mongols throughout the army. He did allow some to join the elite Baḥriyya regiment. He was said to have appointed wāfidiyya up to the rank of "emir of a hundred" (amīr miʾa), but only one Khwarazmian wāfid, related to Baybars by marriage, is known to have attained this rank. There were between 113 and 300 leaders among those who sought asylum from Kitbughā in 1296. Their supreme leader, Ṭurghāy, received the rank of "emir of forty" (amīr arbaʿīn), perhaps because he was a son-in-law of the Ilkhan Hülegü.
Kitbughā favoured the Oirat wāfidiyya and this led in part to his downfall. The Oirats remained politically important at the start of the reign of al-Nasir Mahammad bin Qalawun (1309–41), but by 1333 some had been reduced servants (atbāʿ) of the Mamlūks. This represented a complete inversion of their original statuses. The Sultan Kitbughā and the regent Sayf al-Din Salar, both Oirats, had entered Egypt as slaves and risen through the Mamlūk ranks to the highest positions, whereas the Oirat wāfidiyya had entered Egypt as free men and been reduced to servile status within a generation or two.

#### Arab Knights

The Arab Knights (فرسان العربان) were the Bedouin Arab tribes that inhabited Egypt, and they were distinguished by their agility and speed of attack and flight.

#### Volunteer (Al-Mutawa/Al-Mutatawi'a)

The Volunteer forces (المتطوعة, المطوعة) were made up of Egyptians only, and they were the ones to whom mobilization calls were directed before any war, and their number alone was often greater than the number of the entire army, according to the testimony of the historian Ibn Taghribirdi:
   "And the commoners (Volunteer forces) are more than the troops in service."

#### Emirs and their Mamluks

The Emirs and their Mamluks (الأمراء ومماليكهم) were Mamluk soldiers, Egyptian leaders, and Mamluk leaders.
Every Emir had a group of Mamluks to accompany him on his departure and travel and to be with him on the battlefields. They were usually camped outside Cairo, and the number of Emirs’ soldiers was limited, as new Mamluks always replaced those who had become obsolete.
The soldiers of the emirs were directly commanded by the emirs, but could be mobilized by the sultan when needed.

#### Al-Ghozah/Al-Ghaz/Al-Zuer

The Al-Ghozah or Al-Ghaz or Al-Zuer (الغزاة أو الغز أو الزعر) were made up of Egyptians only, who were trained in their own camps. After completing their training, they were distributed among the Al-Ghozah brigades in the Egyptian army, and each of them receives a fixed salary from the army office. The salary of an Egyptian soldier in the Al-Ghozah during the era of Sultan Barsbay of Egypt was 20 dinars. The Al-Ghozah soldiers were the largest faction in the Egyptian army that participated in the conquest of Cyprus in the year 1426. This is in addition to their major achievements in the conquest of Tripoli in the Levant and the first and second Mamluk-Ottoman wars.

#### Al-Ajnad al-Bataalyn

The Al-Ajnad al-Bataalyn (الأجناد البطالين) was made up of Egyptians only, it was the Egyptian technician corps.

#### Al-Harafish

The al-Harafish were made up of Egyptians only, composed of the lowest of the general class and therefore of the lowest social classes in general. They are united by want and poverty, although some of them were owners of a craft or profession, or fled from rural areas due to the spread of diseases, poverty, hunger, and epidemics. Thus, the individual among them moved to cities and urban areas in the hope of changing their situation. And when they were unable to achieve their goals, they resort to the Harfshah to escape from their failure to change their conditions. Among them were those who were notable and became poor, and found in the life of the Harfshah a means of escaping and forgetting their reality, such as Ibn al-Sahib Alam al-Din Ahmad bin Yusuf bin Abdullah bin Shukr.
They were mentioned for the first time in the Fatimid era, and some of them were distinguished by their steadfastness and strength due to the professions in which they worked, including workers, sewage cleaners, mud cleaners, and wrestlers. Therefore, the government realized the extent of the popular strength of the Harafish group and thus followed a balanced policy towards them, characterized by the use of the least possible means of violence, and taking advantage of them in military campaigns, civil wars, and internal strife.
In the Ayyubid era, the Harafish were famous for their great courage and their bravery in battles since the Ayyubid era. They were among those who fought in the Battle of Mansoura, and they were the ones who carried out raids on the camps of the Crusaders during the Seventh Crusade. They were the heroes of most of the wars of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate, and they were famous for their leadership and insistence on the conquest of Acre, their conquest of Antioch, and their pursuit of the Mongol Ilkhanids in the Battle of Marj al-Saffar and other battles.
Most of the sultans of Egypt relied on the al-Harafish brigades in Egypt's wars and also to stabilize their rule. The most famous of them were the sultans of the Qalawunid dynasty, to whom the al-Harafish brigades were completely loyal.
During the siege of Acre, the al-Harafish led a major demonstration in front of the tent of the Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil bin Qalawun, demanding the continuation of the siege and the absence of peace with the Crusaders. Sultan Khalil immediately agreed to their demands. Khalil bin Qalawun was famous for his love for the Egyptian soldiers in general and considering himself part of them, so he used to share holidays, food, and training with them.
The al-Harafish were known for their support for Sultan al-Nasir Mahammad bin Qalawun in returning to power, and they led a major rebellion against Emir Baybars al-Jashnkir, who deposed al-Nasir Mahammad. Al-Harafish stoned him in the streets of Cairo. Al-Nasir Mahammad became famous for relying on al-Harafish so much that he was nicknamed al-Harfush. Al-Harafish also supported Sultan Al-Nasir Hasan bin Qalawun to return to power.

#### Navy

The naval fleet (الأسطول البحري) was made up of Egyptian leaders and soldiers only, it was originally established in the Tulunid era and improved in the Fatimid era.
Every now and then, the entire Egyptian fleet would be filled with men and weapons of all kinds, and the Egyptian fleet, raising the yellow Egyptian flag, would approach the coasts of the European countries on the Mediterranean, to display its strength and spread fear and panic in the hearts of the European population and the military garrisons in the southern European cities.
This policy has left coastal countries such as Cyprus, Rhodes, the Crusader state of Acre, and others living in a state of constant fear of any Egyptian attack. Acre was conquered in 1291 after the Crusaders of Acre killed Egyptian merchants there, and Cyprus was conquered in 1426 after the Cypriots stole the goods of the Egyptian merchant Ahmad bin el-Humaim. Rhodes was entered in 1444 after it carried out a raid on the Egyptian coast.
Emir Alaa el-Din bin el-Emam brought about a qualitative shift in the Egyptian Navy during the Mamluk era. It is mentioned that he asked Sultan al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri not to import ships from European Venetians and to suffice with importing wood that did not exist in Egypt, and to build Egyptian ships with pure Egyptian hands in the Egyptian port of Rosetta, so Emir Alaa el-Din built an Egyptian fleet from scratch and on the latest models. With the Portuguese threatening Egypt, Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri commissioned Emir Alaa el-Din bin el-Emam with a major mission, which was to build an Egyptian naval arsenal capable of confronting the Portuguese. Alaa el-Din gave orders to build dozens of galleons, which were the most advanced warships of the Middle Ages, making Egypt's Portuguese rivals fearful of Egypt's new power.
Emir Alaa el-Din came up with a smart plan, which was not to build ships in the Red Sea ports because they were under surveillance by the Portuguese. He would build ships in Port Rosetta on the Mediterranean in complete secrecy, and he would make the ships easy to dismantle and assemble. He would dismantle the ships and cross them the Nile Delta lands on large horse carriages, then reassembled them in the port of Suez and drove them himself to the port of Jeddah in the Hejaz, from which the Egyptian forces attacking the Portuguese would launch, this plan succeeded in surprising the Portuguese and the fleet was able to reach India without any confrontation with the Portuguese. In 1507, Prince Alaa el-Din bin el-Emam was appointed commander of the Egyptian fleet heading to the port of Jeddah to fight the Portuguese. The ships built by him were able to defeat the Portuguese in the Naval Battle of Chaul.

### Levantine Army

The Levantine Army or officially known as Al-Asakir al-Shamia (العساكر الشامية, lit. Levantine troops) was the army of the Levant. It was made up of Mamluks, Levantines, Bedouins, Kurds and Turkomen. In addition to the soldiers of the Halqa who were present in the camps of the Levant and Hejaz to maintain security and stabilize the Sultanate's influence.
Not much is known about the Levantine Army but it participated in the conquest of Malatya alongside the Egyptian Army under the Na'ib al-Sham (Viceroy of Syria), Tankiz and battles of the Mongol invasions of the Levant and battles of the Fall of Outremer.

## Army animals and stores

* Horses: Horses, naturally, were very important to the army because they were the vehicles of the knights, and for this reason they cared about horses in Egypt. One of the tricks that the Egyptian army used in battles to fight the enemy's horses was the drum, and the second trick was to release the horses’ spurs so that the males of the enemy's horses would run after them and shake the lines of enemy knights. Egypt in the Mamluk era faced armies containing Crusader knights, Mongolian knights, and others. They were very skilled knights. They needed great training and preparations and had high-level horses. The Mamluk knights were superior, and one of their tactics was to besiege the enemy knights in a circle in order to eliminate them. Not all of Egypt's knights were Mamluks. Ajnad al-Halqa had high-level knights among them who participated in battles. The person in charge of the royal/sultanic stable was called “Amir Akhur (أمير آخور).” Saddles, bridles, and all the tools of the horses were kept in warehouses called “Bayt al-Rakab (بيت الركاب)” and the person in charge of it was called “Muhtar al-Rakab Khanah (مهتار الركاب خاناه).”
* Camels: Camels played a role in wars as a means of transporting war equipment, food, and a pot of water. Large numbers of camels would go out with the army, sometimes reaching a thousand. They were distributed among the Mamluks and the troops before leaving Egypt. Usually, each Mamluk would take two camels, and the non-Mamluk soldiers each two of them take three camels. Camels also participated in battles, and large drums were placed on them, and the “al-Dubandaria الدبنداريه” was beaten strongly during sieges or during battle, to influence the enemy morally and intimidate their horses and riders, because they were usually not trained or accustomed to hearing the beats of the drums. During the siege of Acre in the year 1291, al-Ashraf Khalil used 300 camels with drums mounted on their backs to terrorize the resistance inside Acre. During peacetime, drums, trumpets, cymbals, and other things were kept in warehouses called “al-Tablakhana (الطبلخاناه)”, and a prince who supervised these instruments was called “Amir Alam (أمير علم)”. He was a prince from the Ishrat Order, and the one who supervised the warehouses was called “Muhtar al-Tablakhana (مهتار الطبلخاناه)”.
* Homing pigeons: Homing pigeons were also one of the animals of the Egyptian army. They were called “air mail (البريد الجوي)”. They would quickly transmit messages about the movements of enemy armies to the command centers and orders to the commanders, and good news of victory for the Egyptians inside Egypt. When the army was victorious, it would quickly send the pigeons to the Cairo Citadel in Cairo, making the castle ring good news and people rejoice and decorate Cairo and wait for the return of the victorious Egyptian army with prisoners. Al-Zahir Baybars was the first sultan to be interested in the topic of homing pigeons, and he built many stations in Egypt and the Levant.

## Notable commanders

* Fakhr al-Din ibn Sheikh al-Shaykh: Atabek al-Asakir during the reign of Shajar al-Durr and one of the commanders of the Egyptian army in the Battle of Mansoura (1250)
* Faris al-Din Aktay: Leader of the Bahri Mamluks in Egypt and did well in the Battle of Mansurah
* Sultan al-Muzaffar Sayf al-Din Qutuz: Sultan of Egypt and the hero of the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260)
* Sultan al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari al-Salihi: Sultan of Egypt and the actual founder of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate as well as restructuring the army
* Zayn al-Din Ahmad bin Hanna: One of the army commanders in the Battle of Elbistan (1277)
* Sultan al-Malik al-Mansur Sayf al-Din Qalawun al-Alafi al-Ala’i al-Salihi: Founder of the Qalawuni dynasty and was the Atabek al-Asakir during the reign of al-Adil Badr al-Din Solamish
* Izz al-Din al-Kawrani: One of the leaders of the campaign to invade Makuria in 1287
* Siraj al-Din Dhabyan: One of the leaders of the last attack against the Crusaders in the Siege of Acre (1291) and commander of the al-Harafish brigades
* Sayf al-Din Tankiz: Na'ib al-Saltana in the Levant and the conqueror of Malatya in 1315.
* Ibrahim bin Shaddad: Muqadam al-Dawla during the reign of al-Nasir Mahammad bin Qalawun
* Saad al-Din bin Ghurab: nicknamed Aziz Masr and was the Amir al-Umara, Ustadar and the de facto Sultan and took part in the campaigns of Sultan al-Zahir Barquq against Timur in Iraq.
* Fakhr al-Din Iyas bin Abdullah al-Jarjawi: Na'ib al-Saltana in Tripoli
* Al-Sarim Ibrahim: Son of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh al-Mahmoudi and conqueror of the Karamanid beylik in 1419.
* Ibn bint al-Aqsarayi: Commander of the volunteer corps in the conquest of Cyprus in 1426
* Sultan Abu al-Nasr Sayf ad-Din al-Ashraf Qaitbay: Sultan of Egypt and managed to defeat the Ottomans in the Levant
* Sayf al-Din Uzbek: Atabek al-Asakir during the reign of Sultan Qaitbay and defeated the Ottomans in Adana campaign
* Alaa el-Din bin el-Emam: fought against the Portuguese in the Red Sea, crushed the Arab tribes rebellion in Hejaz and restructured the naval fleet

## Legacy

In the era of the Mamluk era, the Egyptian army was able to defeat the Mongols in the first fateful battle and stop the Mongol expansion after the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. It was also able to liberate the Levant and its coast from the Crusaders and annex it, with the conquest of southern and central Anatolia, including the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and the Sultanate of Rum during the reign of Baybars. This is in addition to defeating the Mongols in many battles, including first and second battles of Homs, the Battle of Marj al-Saffar, the Battle of Birecik, the Battle of Harran, and others. And the conquest of the Kingdom of Makuria, the Hejaz and Yemen more than once. Turning the Hafsid dynasty in Tripoli and Tunisia into a vassal state from 1311 to 1317 and conquering the Kingdom of Cyprus in 1426, and ending the Nizari Ismaili state in the Levant after assassinating many leaders of the Seljuk, Abbasid, Fatimid, and Crusaders states and attempting to assassinate the Sultan of Egypt, Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi.
The United States of America adopted the Mamluk sword as the insignia of its marine forces.