Editing History of Israel (section)

==Mamluk period==
{{Further|Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)}}
{{See also|Kingdom of Semien|History of the Jews in India}}
[[File:Bahri Dynasty 1250 - 1382 (AD).PNG|thumb|The Bahri Mamluk dynasty 1250–1382]]
Between 1258 and 1291, the area was the [[Mongol raids into Palestine|frontier between Mongol invaders]] ([[Franco-Mongol alliance|occasional Crusader allies]]) and the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluks]] of Egypt. The conflict impoverished the country and severely reduced the population.
In Egypt a caste of warrior slaves, known as the [[Mamluk]]s, gradually took control of the kingdom. The Mamluks were mostly of [[Turkic peoples|Turkish origin]], and were bought as children and then trained in warfare. They were highly prized warriors, who gave rulers independence of the native aristocracy. In Egypt they took control of the kingdom following a failed invasion by the Crusaders ([[Seventh Crusade]]). The first Mamluk Sultan, [[Qutuz]] of Egypt, defeated the Mongols in the [[Battle of Ain Jalut]] ("Goliath's spring" near [[Ein Harod]]), ending the Mongol advances. He was assassinated by one of his Generals, [[Baibars]], who went on to eliminate most of the Crusader outposts. The [[Mamluk]]s ruled Palestine until 1516, regarding it as part of [[Bilad a-Sham|Syria]]. In [[Hebron]], Jews were banned from worshipping at the [[Cave of the Patriarchs]] (the second-holiest site in Judaism); they were only allowed to enter 7 steps inside the site<ref>Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim Word, by Martin Jacobs, University of Pennsylvania 2014, page 101: "Subterranean Hebron: Religious Access Rights"</ref> and the ban remained in place until Israel assumed control of the West Bank in the [[Six Days War]].<ref>''International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa'' by Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda, pp. 336–339</ref>{{undue weight inline|date=April 2023|reason=Editorializing segue from the history at hand.}} The Egyptian Mamluk sultan [[Al-Ashraf Khalil]] conquered the last outpost of Crusader rule in [[Siege of Acre (1291)|1291]].

The Mamluks, continuing the policy of the Ayyubids, made the strategic decision to destroy the coastal area and to bring desolation to many of its cities, from [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] in the north to Gaza in the south. Ports were destroyed and various materials were dumped to make them inoperable. The goal was to prevent attacks from the sea, given the fear of the return of the Crusaders. This had a long-term effect on those areas, which remained sparsely populated for centuries. The activity in that time concentrated more inland.<ref>Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, ''Between Cairo and Damascus: Rural Life and Urban Economics in the Holy Land During the Ayyuid, Maluk and Ottoman Periods'' in ''The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land'' edited Thomas Evan Levy, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998</ref>

With the 1492 [[expulsion of Jews from Spain]] and 1497 [[persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal]], many Jews moved eastward, with some deciding to settle in the Mamluk Palestine. As a consequence, the local Jewish community underwent significant rejuvenation. The influx of [[Sephardic Jews]] began under Mamluk rule in the 15th century, and continued throughout the 16th century and especially after the Ottoman conquest. As city-dwellers, the majority of Sephardic Jews preferred to settle in urban areas, mainly in [[Safed]] but also in [[Jerusalem]], while the [[Musta'arabi Jews|Musta'arbi community]] comprised the majority of the villagers' Jews.<ref name="Abraham-1999">{{Cite book |last=Abraham |first=David |url= |title=To Come to the Land : Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel. |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8173-5643-9 |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |pages=1–5 |oclc=847471027}}</ref>