Patronage and Commerce at the Twilight of Mamluk Rule

Two New Fifteenth Century Inscriptions from the Amuq Plain, Turkey

Authors

  • Asa Eger University of North Carolina at Greensboro

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.v1i1.55

Keywords:

Mamluk, trade route, khan, inscription, Qa'itbay, Inal, Amuq

Abstract

In the last fifty years of Mamluk rule, sultans actively engaged in commerce, warfare, and diplomacy in their northern regions of Syria and Anatolia with the Ottomans, Aqquyunlu, and Dulgadir and Qaraman beyliks. However, scholarship in general neglects the thirty-year period between Barsbay and Qa’itbay (1438–1468) or charts it as a period of decline. Further, aside from textual accounts, there is little material evidence pointing to the nature of interaction: commercial, military, or otherwise. This paper will present two unpublished inscriptions and argue that there is some evidence for Mamluk development and patronage on the frontier. The inscriptions, found in a village or small town in the Amuq Plain near Antakya in the Hatay Province of Turkey, bear the name of two fifteenth-century Mamluk sultans. The inscriptions’ words, location, and context introduce wider evidence of Mamluk sultans as patrons in developing commercial routes and khans and encouraging movement in general across northern Syria. This patronage occurred at a time when the dynamics of political power were fluctuating in surrounding southern Anatolia as they were in Egypt.

Author Biography

  • Asa Eger, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

    Asa Eger is Assistant Professor of Early Islamic History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. An archaeologist and historian, he has published numerous articles and two books. He has fifteen years field experience in the eastern Mediterranean, most recently completing excavations in Turkey at Tüpraş Field, identified as the eighth to twelfth century frontier site of Ḥiṣn al-Tinat. He has excavated and surveyed in the regions of Cilicia, Antioch, and Mar’ash in Turkey, and in Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. He has also worked on ceramic analysis from these and older museum collections. His books include the recently published The Spaces Between the Teeth: A Gazetteer of Towns on the Islamic Byzantine Frontier and the forthcoming monograph The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: Interaction and Exchange Among Muslim and Christian Communities. Eger’s work follows themes of frontiers, landscape and settlement archaeology, environmental history, and GIS mainly in the central Islamic lands (Anatolia, Syro-Palestine, and northern Mesopotamia/al-Jazira) from the Byzantine transition until the start of the Middle Islamic period (sixth through twelfth centuries).

References

Abu al-Fida’. 1840 Kitab taqwim al-buldan. In Géographie d’Aboulfeda: Texte Arabe publié d’après les manuscrits de Paris et de Leyde aux frais de la Société Asiatique, by M. Reinaud and M. le Baron MacGuckin de Slane. Paris: Imprimerie Royale.

Ainsworth, W.F. 1842 Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Armenia. Vol. 2. London: John W. Parker.

Appélaniz, F. J. 2009 Pouvoir et Finance en Méditeranée pré-Moderne: le deuxième État mamelouk et le commerce des épices. Anuario des Estudios Medievales, Anejo 66. Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: Institucíon Milá y Fontanals. Departamento de Estudios Medievales.

Ashtor, E. 1983 Levant Trade in the Later Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Barker, Edward B.B. 1872 “Vice-Consul Barker to Early Granville.” In Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, vol. 45. London: Parliament, House of Commons.

Behrens-Abouseif, D. 1985 “Change in Function and Form of Mamluk Religious Institutions.” Annales Islamologiques 21: 73–93

Islamic Architecture in Cairo. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of the Architecture and its Culture. New York: I. B. Tauris.

al-Biqa‘i. 1992 Izhar al-‘asr li-asrar ahl al-‘asr: ta’rikh al-Biqa‘i. Vols 1–3. al-Muhandisin, Jizah: Hajar l’il-Tiba‘ah wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawzi‘ wa al-I‘lan.

Braidwood, R. 1937 Mounds in the Plain of Antioch. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Cahen, C. 1940 La Syrie du Nord. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Pual Geuthner.

Çetin, A. 2009 Memlûk devleti’nin Kuzey Siniri. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi.

Clermont-Ganneau, C. S. 1900 “La relation du voyage du sultan Qâit-bay en Syrie.” Recueil d’archéologie orientale 3: 248–259. Paris: Ernest Leroux.

Cytryn-Silverman, K. 2010 The Road Inns (khans) in Bilad al-Sham. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Devonshire, R. L. 1921 “Relation d’un voyage du sultan Qâitbây en Palestine et en Syrie.” Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 20: 1–43.

Dussaud, R. 1921 “Relation d’un voyage du sultan Qâitbay en Palestine et en Syrie by R. L. Devonshire.” Review. Syria 2(3): 261–262.

Topographie Historique de la Syrie Antique et Medievale. Paris: P. Geuthner.

Eger, A. 2012 The Spaces Between the Teeth: A Gazetteer of Towns on the Islamic-Byzantine Frontier. Istanbul: Ege Yayinlari.

The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: Interaction and Exchange Among Muslim and Christian Communities. London: I. B. Tauris, forthcoming.

Garcin, J.-C. 1998 “The regime of the Circassian Mamluks.” In The Cambridge History of Egypt I: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517, edited by C.F. Petry, 290–317. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

de Giorgi, A. 2007 “Formation of a Roman Landscape: The Case of Antioch.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 20: 283–299.

Glubb, W. 1896 The Mameluke; or Slave Dynasty of Egypt. A.D. 1260–1517. London: Smith, Elder.

Har-El, S. 1995 Struggle for Domination in the Middle East: The Ottoman-Mamluk War 1485–1491. Leiden: Brill.

Ibn al-Athir. 1966 al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh. Vol. 11. Beirut: Dar Sadir.

The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, Part 2: The Years 541–589/1146–1193 The Age of Nur al-Din and Saladin. Translated by D. S. Richard. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Ibn Iyas. 1945 Histoire des Mamlouks Circassiens. Tome II (872–906). Translated by G. Wiet. Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.

Ibn al-Ji‘an, Abu al-Baqa Muhammad b. Yahya. 1878 al-Qawl al-mustazraf fi safar mawlana al-Malik al-Ashraf. In Viaggio in Palestina e Soria di Kaid Ba.R. V. Lanzone. Turin.

al-Qawl as-mustazraf fi safar mawlana al-Malik al-Ashraf, aw, Rihlat Qa’itbay ila bilad al-Sham. (Damascus?): Jarrus-Bris.

Ibn Taghribirdi. 1960 History of Egypt 1382–1469 A.D. (Nujum al-zahirah fi muluk Misr wa al-Qahirah). Part VI, 1453-1461 A.D. Translated by W. Popper. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ismail, H. 2000 “The Qaysariyya of Sultan al-Ashraf Inal according to Waqf Documents.” In The Cairo Heritage: Essays in Honor of Laila Ali Ibrahim, edited by D. Behrens-Abouseif, 183–190. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press.

Jastrow, M. 2006 Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

Jacquot, P. 1931 Antioche centre de tourisme, tourisme. Paris: Comité de tourisme d’Antioche.

Jarrar, S., A. Riedlmayer, and J. B. Spurr. 1994. Resources for the Study of Islamic Architecture. Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. http://archnet.org/library/documents/one-document.tcl?document_id=6053. Entry 4.175

Mayer, L. 1933 Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Mecerian, J. and R. Mouterde. 1942-43 “Inscriptions de l’Amanus et de Seleucie.” Melanges de l’Universite Saint Joseph 25(5): 87–101.

Meinecke, M. 1992 Die Mamlukische Architektur in Ägypen und Syrien (648/1250 bis 923/1517). Glückstadt: Verlag J. J. Augustin GMBH.

Mortel, R. 1998 “’Ribats’ in Mecca during the Medieval Period: A Descriptive Study Based on Literary Sources.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 61(1): 29–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00015743

Newhall, A.W. 1987 “The Patronage of the Mamluk Sultan Qa’it Bay, 872–901/1468–1496,” PhD dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Popper, W. 1951 Systematic Notes to Ibn Taghribirdi’s History of Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Raymond, A. 2000 Cairo. Translated by W. Wood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Reinfandt, L. 2001 “Was geschah in der Zeit zwischen Barsbay und Qaytbay? Überlegungen zu einer Neubewertung des späten Mamlukensultanats.” In Norm und Abweichung, Akten des 27. Deutschen Orientalistentages, Bonn, 28 September-2 October 1998, edited by S. Wild and H. Schild, 269–278. Warzburg: Ergon Verlag.

Sadek, M. M. 1991 Die Mamlukishe Architekture Der Stadt Gaza. Berlin: Klaus Shwarz.

Sauvaget, J. 1940 “Caravansérails Syriens du Moyen-Âge. II: Caravansérails Mamelouks.” Ars Islamica 7(1): 1–19.

Sehabeddin Tekindag, M.C. “Inal (or Aynal) al-Adjrud.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.

Sobernheim, M. 1967 “Inschriftliche Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungs-Verordnungen der Mamluken-Sultane aus der Omajjaden-Moschee von Damaskus.” In Festschrift Max Freiherrn von Oppenheim. Osnabrück, edited by E. Weidner, 108–126. Osnabrück: Biblio-Verlag.

Sokoloff, M. 2002 Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic in the of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Talbert, R. 2000 Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, Map 67, C4, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Tavernari, C. 2010 “Medieval Road Caravansaries in Syria: An Archaeological Approach.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 5–10 May, 2009, “Sapienza” — Università di Roma, Volume 3, Islamic Session, edited by P. Matthiae, F. Pinnock, L. Nigro and N. Marchetti, 191–205. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Van Berchem, M. 1903 Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire. Part 1, Tome 1 (Tome 19, Fasc. 4 Le Caire); Part 1, Tome 2 (Le Caire) by G. Wiet (1930). Paris: E. Leroux.

Venzke, M. 2000 “The Case of a Dulgadir-Mamluk Iqta': A Re-Assessment of the Dulgadir Principality and Its Position within the Ottoman-Mamluk Rivalry.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 43(3): 399–474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852000511349

Wirth, E. 1990 “Alep et les courants commerciaux entre l’Europe et l’Asie du XIIe au XVIi siècles.” Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Mediteranée 55: 44–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/remmm.1990.2333

Woods, J. 1999 The Aqqoyunlu. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Published

2014-08-18

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Eger, A. (2014). Patronage and Commerce at the Twilight of Mamluk Rule: Two New Fifteenth Century Inscriptions from the Amuq Plain, Turkey. Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 1(1), 55-73. https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.v1i1.55

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>