Massacre in the citadel

Al Ahram Weekly (Mohammed El-Hebeishy)

The Massacre of the Mamelukes -- a banquet for the elite, a lavishness of all sorts, a spring night breeze and a killer by the door, a walk under a moonless sky and a downpour of death. Mohamed El-Hebeishy went where it happened

It all started in the Abbasid court around the ninth century when the caliphates feared their own armies. Tribalism superseded nationalism and each ruler had grown wary his own soldiers would turn against him if the mother tribe was ill-treated one way or another. Hence, the decision came to go for mercenaries. Some 11 centuries back in time the definition had a different term -- Mameluke. They were slaves, war trophies or sultans' gifts sent to Baghdad. Strong courageous warriors, they jumped the ranks and became leaders, grew in number and in no time became their own rulers. The Ayyubid Dynasty spiralled downward after the death of their phenomenal leader and founder Saladin. One Ayyubid sultan after the other, the struggle prolonged and the dynasty's power faded into oblivion. The death of their last sultan, Al-Salih Ayyub in 1250, marked the birth of the Mameluke Sultanate.

For over two and a half centuries, they ruled the country during a period that can be best described as an era of instability with one plot after the other, one coup after the other, one sultan after the other. As an expected result, Egypt, as a country, became weak, a prey awaiting the next conqueror, and indeed he came -- Sultan Selim I. Though history marks 1517 AD as the end of the Mameluke Sultanate with the Ottoman invasion led by Selim I himself, the Mamelukes remained powerful, yet dormant.

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798, beating its army of Mamelukes in the Battle of the Pyramids. The Ottomans needed to react, and did.

See the above page for the full story.