Editing Mamluk (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Ottoman Mamluk horseman circa 1550.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mail and plate armour]] with full [[horse armor]] of an [[Ottoman army in the 15th–19th centuries|Ottoman]] Mamluk horseman (circa 1550), [[Musée de l'Armée]], Paris]]
[[File:Dupre-Mameluk.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Greek Muslims|Muslim Greek]] Mamluk portrayed by [[Louis Dupré (painter)|Louis Dupré]] (oil on canvas, 1825)]]
[[File:A Mamluk from Aleppo.jpg|thumb|upright|A Mamluk nobleman from [[Aleppo]] ([[Ottoman Syria]], 19th century)]]

Daniel Pipes argued that the first indication of the Mamluk military class was rooted in the practice of early [[Muslim]]s such as [[Zubayr ibn al-Awwam]] and [[Uthman|Uthman ibn Affan]] who, before Islam, owned many slaves and practiced [[Mawla]] (Islamic manumission of slaves).<ref name="Slave Soldiers and Islam The Genesis of a Military System2" /> The [[Zubayrids]] army under [[Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr]], son of Zubayr, used these freed slave retainers during the second civil war.<ref name="Slave Soldiers and Islam The Genesis of a Military System2">{{harvnb|Pipes |first1=Danie|1981|pp=117–121}}</ref>

Meanwhile, historians agree that the massive implementation of a slave military class such as the Mamluks appears to have developed in [[Muslim world|Islamic societies]] beginning with the 9th-century [[Abbasid Caliphate]] based in [[Baghdad]], under the Abbasid caliph [[Al-Mu'tasim|al-Muʿtaṣim]].<ref name="Britannica"/> Until the 1990s, it was widely believed that the earliest Mamluks were known as ''[[Ghilman]]'' or ''Ghulam''<ref name="Freamon 2019"/> (another broadly synonymous term for slaves){{#tag:ref|[[David Ayalon]] uses the term "Mamluk" to refer to military slaves in [[Egypt]] and [[Syria]], and "Ghulam" (sing. of "Ghilman") to refer to military slaves elsewhere in the [[Muslim world]]. For further informations, see:
* {{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Sourdel |author-first=Dominique |author-link=Dominique Sourdel |year=2012 |orig-date=1965 |title=G̲h̲ulām |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Heinrichs |editor3-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |editor4-last=Lewis |editor4-first=B. |editor4-link=Bernard Lewis |editor5-last=Pellat |editor5-first=Ch. |editor5-link=Charles Pellat |editor6-last=Schacht |editor6-first=J. |editor6-link=Joseph Schacht |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam]]|edition =2nd |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=2 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0237 |isbn=978-90-04-07026-4}}
{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Ayalon |author-first=David |author-link=David Ayalon |year=2012 |orig-date=1991 |title=Mamlūk |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Heinrichs |editor3-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |editor4-last=Lewis |editor4-first=B. |editor4-link=Bernard Lewis |editor5-last=Pellat |editor5-first=Ch. |editor5-link=Charles Pellat |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=6 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0657 |isbn=978-90-04-08112-3}}|group=Note}} and were bought by the Abbasid caliphs, especially al-Muʿtaṣim (833–842).

By the end of the 9th century, such slave warriors had become the dominant element in the military. Conflict between the Ghilman and the population of Baghdad prompted the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim to move his capital to the city of [[Samarra]], but this did not succeed in calming tensions. The caliph [[al-Mutawakkil]] was assassinated by some of these slave soldiers in 861 (see [[Anarchy at Samarra]]).<ref>D. Sourdel. "Ghulam" in the ''Encyclopedia of Islam''.</ref>

Since the early 21st century, historians have suggested that there was a distinction between the Mamluk system and the (earlier) Ghilman system, in [[Samarra]], which did not have specialized training and was based on pre-existing Central Asian hierarchies. Adult slaves and freemen both served as warriors in the Ghilman system. The Mamluk system developed later, after the return of the caliphate to Baghdad in the 870s. It included the systematic training of young slaves in military and martial skills.<ref>See E. de la Vaissière, ''Samarcande et Samarra'', 2007, and also M. Gordon, ''The Breaking of a Thousand Swords'', 2001.</ref> The Mamluk system is considered to have been a small-scale experiment of [[al-Muwaffaq]], to combine the slaves' efficiency as warriors with improved reliability. This recent interpretation seems to have been accepted.<ref>See for instance the review in ''Der Islam'' 2012 of de la Vaissière's book by Christopher Melchert: 'Still, de la Vaissière's dating of the Mamluk phenomenon herewith becomes the conventional wisdom'</ref>

After the fragmentation of the Abbasid Empire, military slaves, known as either Mamluks or Ghilman, were used throughout the Islamic world as the basis of military power. The [[Fatimid Caliphate]] (909–1171) of Egypt had forcibly taken adolescent male Armenians, [[Turkic peoples|Turks]], Sudanese, and [[Copts]] from their families to be trained as slave soldiers. They formed the bulk of their military, and the rulers selected prized slaves to serve in their administration.<ref name="Walker, Paul E. 2002"/> The powerful vizier [[Badr al-Jamali]], for example, was a Mamluk from [[Armenia]]. In Iran and Iraq, the [[Buyid dynasty]] used [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] slaves throughout their empire. The rebel [[al-Basasiri]] was a Mamluk who eventually ushered in [[Seljuq dynasty|Seljuq dynastic rule]] in Baghdad after attempting a failed rebellion.<!-- If the rebellion failed, how did he usher in Seljuq rule? --> When the later Abbasids regained military control over Iraq, they also relied on the Ghilman as their warriors.<ref>Eric Hanne.  ''Putting the Caliph in His Place''.</ref>

Under [[Saladin]] and the Ayyubids of Egypt, the power of the Mamluks increased and they claimed the sultanate in 1250, ruling as the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk Sultanate]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Throughout the Islamic world, rulers continued to use enslaved warriors until the 19th century. The [[Ottoman Empire]]'s [[devşirme]], or "gathering" of young slaves for the [[Janissaries]], lasted until the 17th century. Regimes based on Mamluk power thrived in such Ottoman provinces as the Levant and Egypt until the 19th century.