Editing Playing card (section)

=== Egypt ===
[[File:Mamluk kanjifah cards.png|right|thumb|upright=1.5|Four Mamluk playing cards]]
By the 11th century, playing cards were spreading throughout the Asian continent and later came into Egypt.{{sfn|Needham|Tsien|1985|p=[https://archive.org/stream/ScienceAndCivilisationInChina/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_5-1_Chemistry_and_Chemical_Technology_Paper_and_Printing#page/n165/mode/2up/search/Egypt 307]}} The oldest surviving cards in the world are four fragments found in the [[Keir Collection]] and one in the [[Benaki Museum]].{{efn|The designation of "oldest surviving cards" is complicated by the forms of the historical objects: Some may be less "card-like" and more akin to scaps of parchment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nosowitz |first1=Dan |title=Playing Cards Around the World and Through the Ages |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-playing-cards |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en |date=13 July 2020}}</ref>}} They are dated to the 12th and 13th centuries (late [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]], [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]], and early [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]] periods).{{sfn|Dummett|1980|p=41}}

A near complete pack of Mamluk playing cards dating to the 15th century, and of similar appearance to the fragments above, was discovered by [[Leo Aryeh Mayer]] in the [[Topkapı Palace]], [[Istanbul]], in 1939.<ref name="bifao38">{{Citation|title=Le Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale|last=Mayer|first=Leo Ary|url=http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/38/|year=1939|volume=38|pages=113–118|access-date=2008-09-08|postscript=.}}</ref> It is not a complete set and is actually composed of three different packs, probably to replace missing cards.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berry |first=John |title=Mamluk Problems |journal=The Playing-Card |publisher=The International Playing-Card Society |publication-date=December 2001 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=139 |issn=0305-2133}}</ref>  The Topkapı pack originally contained 52 cards comprising four suits: polo-sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten pip cards and three court cards, called ''malik'' (king), ''nā'ib malik'' (viceroy or deputy king), and ''thānī nā'ib'' (second or under-deputy). The ''thānī nā'ib'' is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. In fact, the word "Kanjifah" appears in Arabic on the king of swords and is still used in parts of the Middle East to describe modern playing cards. Influence from further east can explain why the Mamluks, most of whom were Central Asian Turkic [[Kipchaks]], called their cups ''[[Tumen (unit)|tuman]]'', which means [[:wikt:myriad|"myriad"]] (10,000) in the Turkic, Mongolian, and [[Jurchen language|Jurchen]] languages.<ref>Pollett, Andrea "The Playing-Card", Vol. 31, No 1 pp. 34–41.</ref> Wilkinson postulated that the cups may have been derived from inverting the Chinese and Jurchen ideogram for "myriad", {{lang|zh|{{linktext|万}}}}, which was pronounced as something like ''man'' in [[Middle Chinese]].

The Mamluk court cards showed abstract designs or calligraphy not depicting persons possibly due to [[Aniconism in Islam|religious proscription in Sunni Islam]], though they did bear the ranks on the cards. ''Nā'ib'' would be borrowed into French (''nahipi''), Italian (''naibi''), and Spanish (''naipes''), the latter word still in common usage. Panels on the pip cards in two suits show they had a reverse ranking, a feature found in [[madiao]], [[Ganjifa#Games|ganjifa]], and old European card games like [[ombre]], [[tarot card games|tarot]], and [[Spoil Five|maw]].<ref>[http://cards.old.no/1500-mamluk/ Mamluk cards]. Cards.old.no. Retrieved on 2015-05-10.</ref> A fragment of two uncut sheets of [[Moorish]]-styled cards of a similar was found in Spain and dated to the early 15th century.<ref>Wintle, Simon. [http://www.wopc.co.uk/spain/moorish/index Moorish playing cards] at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 22 July 2015.</ref>

Export of these cards (from Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus), ceased after the fall of the Mamluks in the 16th century.<ref>[http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards64.htm The Mamluk Cards]. L-pollett.tripod.com. Retrieved on 2015-05-10.</ref> The rules to play these games are lost but they are believed to be [[trick-taking game|plain trick games]] without [[trump (card games)|trump]]s.<ref>[http://www.pagat.com/notrump/ No trump trick-taking games] at [[pagat.com]]</ref>