Mamluk means ‘owned’ in Arabic, and the sultans who ruled Syria, Egypt and Palestine from AD 1250-1500 had their origins in the slave-soldiers of the previous dynasty, the Abbasids (1171-1250). Trained in all forms of war and horsemanship, they were recruited from the Turkish tribes of Central Asia.

Conventionally the Mamluks are divided into two dynasties. The Bahri Mamluks were Qipchaq Turks from South Russia, who first took power in Egypt in 1249 and established the Mamluk Sultanate. Following the reign of the last Bahri sultan, there were power struggles amongst the Mamluk commanders. In 1382, Barquq, a Circassian Mamluk from north of the Black Sea, usurped the throne, beginning the line of Burji Mamluks.

The Mamluk army was extremely powerful and in 1260, successfully repelled the Mongol invaders who had swept through most of central and western Asia. They then embarked on a campaign to reconquer lands taken by European Crusaders. By 1277 they had retaken Aleppo, Damascus, Nazereth, Caeserea, Arsur, Antioch, Jaffa, and the great Crusader fortresses of Montfort (Israel), Chastel Blanc and Krak de Chevaliers (Syria).

The last Mamluk sultans were unable to withstand the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. In 1516 Sultan Tuman Bay, captured by Ottoman Sultan Selim the Grim, was hanged at the Zuwayla Gate in Cairo.