(b) Towns
Among important towns of the Mamluk period were Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, Aswan, Aidhab, Gaza, Damascus, Aleppo, Baalbak and Tripoli. The famous traveller, Ibn Baṭṭūṭali (d. 1377) has given a fine description of their economic and social conditions, indicating their importance, in his book Tuḥfah al-Nuẓẓār.32 He also mentions the doctors and scholars whom he visited in these cities. He reports having listened to Ibn Taimīyah delivering the Friday sermon in the mosque of Damascus,33 though some writers reject this on the ground that he was never known to deliver the Friday sermon; moreover, at the time Ibn Baṭṭūṭah visited Damascus in 1326, Ibn Taimīyah was imprisoned in the Damascus fort.34
(c) Impact of the crusades
The crusades deeply influenced the social and intellectual life of Muslims and Christians. Herbert Heaton writes in his book Economic History of Europe ‘that ‘the crusades came as a heaven-sent opportunity to establish firmer footholds in the meeting place of East and West’.35 As the period of peace was longer than that of war, Muslims and Christians mixed freely on social, Economic and academic levels, to their mutual advantage.
2. Intellectual and educational background
Egypt and Syria became the centres of learning during the Mamluk period. A number of educational institutes (madrasahs) were established by the Sultan in different cities of the kingdom.36 There were specialized teachers for each subject, who awarded certificates to their students on completion of their studies. The value of these certificates depended on the personal fame of the teacher himself.37 The Mamluk Sultans took a lively interest in the collection of books and establishment of libraries. Almost every madrasah and mosque had a valuable library, and there were also private libraries. Sultan Qalāwūn enriched his collection with many books of commentary on the Qur’ān, traditions of the Prophet, jurisprudence, language, medicine, literature, and poetry.38
Speaking of the intellectual climate of the age, P. K. Hitti remarks: ‘Viewed intellectually the entire Ayyubid-Mamluk period was one of compilation rather than of origination. Nevertheless, Damascus and Cairo, especially after the destruction of Baghdad and the disintegration of Moslem Spain, remained the educational and intellectual centres of the Arab world. The schools founded and richly endowed in these two cities served to conserve and transmit Arab science and learning.’39
Translation of Greek ideas and philosophy in the earlier phases of Islamic civilization generated a struggle among original Muslim thinkers that was to endure for centuries. The struggle between the rationalist tendency of Greek philosophy and the comprehensive, unitive and intuitive quality of Islamic thought continued in the Mamluk period. In Sufism and philosophy certain significant developments took place. Aleppo was the centre of the doctrine of illumination (ishrāq). The famous saint Ibn ‘Arabī (1164–1240) spent his last days in Syria. Saint worship became a common practice during these times, and Ibn Taimīyah wrote many volumes condemning it. He also criticized Greek philosophy and logic.
In the field of geography, a number of valuable books were written in this period, the most important being Taqwīm al-Buldān (Tables of the Countries) by Abu’l Fidā’ (1237–1332) in which he argues that the earth is round and that, if a person travels around it he will experience a gain or loss of one day. In the words of P. K. Hitti, ‘this Syrian author was perhaps to be considered the greatest historiographer of the period irrespective of nationality or religion.’40 Another contemporary of Abu’l Fidā’, Shams al-Dīn Dimashqī (d. 1326) produced a cosmographical treatise, Nukhbah al-Dahr fī ‘Ajā’ib al-Barr wa’l-Baḥr (Selections from All Times Relating the Marvels of Land and Sea), which is not so good as Taqwīm from the mathematical point of view, but richer in its physical, mineral and ethnic information. Yāqūt’s (d. 1229) Mu’jam al-Buldān is a geographical dictionary, a supplement to which was written by Ṣafdī (1296–1363).
Biographical books written in this period are of great importance even today. The foremost among all Muslim biographers, Ibn Khallikān (d. 1282), lived in Syria. He published the first dictionary of national biography in Arabic, Wafayāt al-A‘yān wa Anbā’ ahl al-Zamān (Obituary of Eminent Men and Sketches of Leading Contemporaries). Al-Kutubī (d. 1363) of Aleppo produced the supplement to this book under the title Fawāt al-Wafayāt.
Closely related to biography is history. Among the outstanding historians of the period are Abu’l Fidā’ (d. 1332), Nuwairī (d. 1332), al-Jazarī (d. 1339), al-Yūnīnī (d. 1326), and Ibn al-Fawaṭī (d. 1323). Abu’l Fidā”s work on history is a condensation and continuation of the voluminous history of Ibn al-Athīr (d. 1234). So popular was his history that it was continued, summarized and abridged by later writers.41 Ibn Kathīr’s (d. 1373) al-Bidāyah wa’l Nihāyah is a valuable reference work on Islamic history. Its fourteenth volume relates to the period we are concerned with. Ibn Kathīr is famed also for his commentary on the Qur’ān. Nuwairī (1279–1332), who held many posts in the Mamluk Sultanate, wrote Nihāyah al-Arab fī funūn al-Adab in thirty volumes. Part of it is connected with administrative activities, especially the eighth volume, which is important for any research on the financial system of Egypt in that period.
Muhammad bin Ibrāhīm al-Jazarī (1339), author of Ta’rīkh al-Jazarī; Mūsā bin Muḥammad al-Yūnīnī, author of Dhail Mir’āt al-Zamān in two volumes; ‘Abd al-Razzāq bin Aḥmad Ibn al-Fawaṭī (d. 1323), author of al-Hawādith al-Jāmi‘ah, are also representative of this period. The prolific writer Maqrīzī (1364–1442), whose valuable book al-Khiṭaṭ is repeatedly quoted in the following pages, belonged to the last years of the Mamluk Sultanate.
In the fields of language and theological literature too, this period made a distinguished contribution. The most authentic and the greatest Arabic dictionary, Lisān al-‘Arab, in twenty huge volumes, was prepared by Ibn Manẓūr (1311). The famous Arabic grammarian, Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī lived in this age. Theological experts like al-Dhahabī, al-Nawawī, ‘Izz al-Dīn bin ‘Abd al-Salām, al-Subkī and Ibn al-Qayyim all belong to this period.
Commenting on the economic life of the period, Lane-Poole observes: ‘It was an age of extraordinary brilliance in almost every aspect. In spite of the occasional records of scarcity and high prices, the wealth of the country, whether from its fertile soil or from the ever-increasing trade with Europe and the East, was immense, if the fortunes of individuate are any test.’42
The Mamluks knew that the stability and the success of their rule depended on the strength of the economy, alongside the strength of the army. Indeed, the latter’s strength was based on the former. It was for this reason that they tried to exploit fully the sources of wealth, and develop agriculture, trade and industry to enrich the country and the government.
Agriculture received first priority in that age, as it was considered the main source of wealth. It was well understood that the living of the inhabitants depended on agricultural produce. Industry and trade were also tied to the extent of agricultural production.
The Mamluks ordered the measurement of the Nile and survey of land; and redistribution of land was carried out by the two Mamluk Sultans Ḥusām al-Dīn Lājīn and Nāṣir Muḥammad bin Qalāwūn.43 In the time of Nāṣir, a number of big and small dams were erected and many sizeable canals dug.44 Arrangements were also made for the supply of better quality seeds.45 Since, in most cases, production exceeded the country’s needs, the Sultan helped Syria and Ḥijāz with huge quantities