Battle of Marj Dabiq
Before Ottoman rule, Safed was the capital of its own "mamlaka" (province) of the Cairo-based Mamluk Sultanate. Administrative information about Mamlakat Safad derives mainly from two sources: the "qadi" (Islamic head judge) of Safed in the 1370s, Shams al-Din al-Uthmani, and the Mamluk historian al-Qalqashandi, who based much of his material about Mamlakat Safad on al-Uthmani's work. Most of the information about the "mamlaka" covers the period between 1260 and 1418, while little is known for the last century of Mamluk rule before the Ottoman conquest following the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516. Travelers' accounts from the 15th century describe a general decline of the region around Safed precipitated by a famine, plagues, natural disasters and political chaos, and the flight of peasants from their villages to the main towns or their adoption of nomadism.