Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Jonathan E. Brockopp, Early Maliki 

Law: Ibn ’Abd al-Hakam and His Major Compendium of 

Jurisprudence (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000); Joseph Kenny, 

The Risala: Treatise on Maliki Law of Abdallah Ibn Abi 

Zayd Al-Qayrawani (922–996) (Islamic Edition Trust, 

1992); Malik ibn Anas, Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik Ibn 

Anas: The First Formulation of Islamic Law. Translated 

and edited by Aisha Abdurrahmann Bewley. (The 

Islamic Classical Library Series, Kegan Paul Intl., 1989); 

Maliki Legal School

  

455  J

---

Mansour H. Mansour, The Maliki School of Law: Spread 

and Domination in North and West Africa 8th to 14th Cen-

turies 

c

.

e

. (Bethesda, Md.: Austin and Winfield, 1995).

mamluk

Mamluk means “thing possessed” in Arabic and is 

usually used to refer to a military slave. Mamluks

were introduced into the Islamic lands by the 

Abbasid caliphs al-Mamun and al-Mutasim in the 

early ninth century 

c

.

e

. Al-Mamun (r. 813–833) 

seized the throne after a civil war and, feeling he 

could not rely on the loyalty of the traditional 

army, he turned instead to slave troops. His 

younger brother, al-Mutasim (r. 833–842), spear-

headed this project of acquiring slave soldiers, 

and he continued the process when he became 

caliph

 upon al-Mamun’s death. Reliance upon a 

mamluk military elite is one of the unique char-

acteristics of medieval and early modern Islamic 

government. It continued under the Ottoman 

sultans until the end of the 19th century.

Mamluks usually came from Central Asia or 

eastern Europe, where they were purchased as 

young boys who were either prisoners of war or 

sold into 

slavery

 by their families who knew the 

potential for power and prestige that awaited them 

as  mamluks. Upon their purchase the mamluks 

were converted to Islam, placed in a dormitory 

with fellow mamluks, and launched on an 

edU

-

cation

 that included some religious instruction 

but focused primarily on the military sciences, 

in particular the cavalry. Upon “graduating” from 

this program the mamluk was manumitted, but 

he remained in a close bond of loyalty to his pur-

chaser, a caliph, 

sUltan

, prince, or high mamluk

officer. This bond was considered comparable to 

the relationship between father and son.

The strength and appeal of the mamluk system 

lay in the high military acumen of the mamluks

and their complete loyalty and devotion to the 

ruler who had purchased and trained them. That 

this loyalty was essentially personal constituted 

the system’s chief drawback. It therefore strength-

ened the rule of one caliph or sultan, but loyalty 

was not necessarily or easily transferred to his 

successor. With this in mind, hopefuls often spent 

their time as princes purchasing and training 

their own mamluk troops. The ability to pull off 

a smooth transition of power, however, depended 

not only on the strength of the prince’s mamluks

vis-à-vis his predecessor’s but also on his ability 

to convince at least a few of these latter mamluks

to swear an oath of loyalty to him. Thus a system 

initiated to strengthen the military and preserve 

the empire also brought with it real risks. Under 

the Abbasids, the mamluk Turkish commanders 

accrued more and more authority, on occasion 

even killing the caliph. Although this state of 

affairs was denounced by the 

Ulama

 and political 

theoreticians, no ruler could circumvent his own 

need for mamluks.

Reflecting the overall strength and appeal of 

this system, in e

gypt

 and s

yria

 mamluks ruled in 

their own right from 1250 to 1517, making their 

regime, rather aptly named the Mamluks, one of 

the longest and most durable Islamic regimes of 

the medieval period. The very nature of the sys-

tem ensured that only the most capable rose to the 

highest positions of power, a characteristic that 

served all sides for many centuries.

See also  a

bbasid

  c

aliphate

;  d

elhi

  s

Ultanate

; 

J

anissary

.

Heather N. Keaney