Land Tenure, Fiscal Policy and Imperial Power in Medieval Syro-Egypt

by Daisuke Igarashi

Book cover: Land Tenure, Fiscal Policy and Imperial Power in Medieval Syro-Egypt

Extent: 264 pages

Publisher: Middle East Documentation Center

Subjects: Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: Chicago Studies on the Middle East

Series volume number: 10

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(December 2014)

ISBN: 9780970819994

Price: $70.00

In stock

This book aims to examine the structural changes in the state and society in Mamluk Egypt and Syria after the middle of the eighth/fourteenth century. Between 648/1250 and 922/1517, the Mamluk sultanate ruled Egypt, Syria, and the Hijaz, the central Middle East.


This book aims to examine the structural changes in the state and society in Mamluk Egypt and Syria after the middle of the eighth/fourteenth century. Between 648/1250 and 922/1517, the Mamluk sultanate ruled Egypt, Syria, and the Hijaz, the central Middle East. During this period, the sultanate expanded its authority over the medieval Islamic world by defending Muslim society against the Mongols and the Crusades, protecting the two Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and reinstalling the Abbasid caliphate in Cairo, which had once been rendered extinct by the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 656/1258. The Mamluk sultanate reached the height of prosperity under the third reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun. The scope of the present book is from 741/1341 to 922/1517, that is, the period from the death of Sultan al-Nasir to the year of the sultanate’s downfall after the Ottoman conquest of the area, respectively. This has previously been considered to be the “declining period” of the Mamluk sultanate, which suffered acutely from political disturbance and economic struggle . However, the author believes that the period after the middle of the eighth/fourteenth century was an important epoch not only for the historical development of the Mamluk sultanate but also in terms of medieval Islamic history as a whole.

Introduction I. The Political System in the Post al-Nasir Muhammad Era: The Formation Process of the Circassian Mamluk Sultanate II. The Establishment and Development of al-Diwan al-Mufrad Table 1. Egyptian Nahiyahs assigned to al-Diwan al-Mufrad in the reigns of Qaytbay and Barquq Table 2. Financial difficulties in al-Diwan al-Mufrad (1) Table 3. Financial difficulties in al-Diwan al-Mufrad (2) III. Sultanic Private Property and Diwan al-Amlak Table 4. Assets Listed in Waqf Deeds Issued by Barquq Table 5. Geographic distribution of assets Table 6. Types of assets Table 7. Barquq's Waqf Lands Listed in Tuhfah Table 8. Situations in which Barquq acquired property or endowed waqfs Table 9. Barquq's Agent (wakil) IV. The Evolution of the Sultanic Fisc and al-Dhakhirah Table 10. People appointed as sultan's private financier and their titles V. The Fiscal System in the Late Mamluk Period VI. Religious Endowments and Changes in the Landholding System Table 13. Military offices that customarily held additional posts as administrators of waqf-financed institutions Conclusion Appendix: Sultans and Atabaks in the Late Bahri Mamluk Period Bibliography

  • By (author) Daisuke Igarashi