IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 330: Political Traditions and State Formation in Mamluk Egypt and Syria (1250-1517), II

Monday 9 July 2012, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
Organiser:	Jo Van Steenbergen, Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies / Department of Languages & Cultures: The Near East & the Islamic World, Universiteit Gent
Moderator/Chair:	Jo Van Steenbergen, Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies / Department of Languages & Cultures: The Near East & the Islamic World, Universiteit Gent
Paper 330-a	Writing Royal Image: Historiography and the Legitimization of Mamluk Rule, 1260-1277 (Language: English) Willem Flinterman, Instituut voor Cultuur en Geschiedenis, Universiteit van Amsterdam / Instituut voor Geschiedenis, Universiteit Leiden Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 330-b	Al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad and Ibn Taymiyya, 1310-1328: The Rise of the Rule Maker and the Fall of the Rule Breaker (Language: English) Jeroen Vanwymeersch, Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Gent / Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO), Vlaanderen
Paper 330-c	Ritual Politics: The Mamluk Sultanate (1412-1468) - A Prosopographical Data Analysis (Language: English) Yasser Daoudi, Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Gent Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 330-d	Fixed Rules to a Changing Game: Ottoman-Mamluk Diplomatic Letters in the Light of Administrative Manuals (Language: English) Kristof D'Hulster, Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Gent Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract	The political history of the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517) has been neglected for a long time, except from an institutional point of view, because of the chaotic succession of events, civil wars, and quarrels that the chroniclers describe in their annals. Nevertheless, the Mamluk political culture as well as the practice of the political quarrel shows that unwritten rules are respected as some practices are often repeated and ritualized within the context of conflict or allegiance interactions. In fact, unwritten rules are often respected: betrayal, non-respect of rules or assertion of the non-respect of rules punctuate the political life of the sultanate and are used as tools in the struggle for power by the sultan and the amirs who involve the question of legitimacy to promote their personal interests.