Recently, the series "Kingdoms of Fire", which sparked a controversy in which the Ottoman Empire was portrayed as a demonic kingdom aimed at occupying Arab countries, destroying their national capabilities, and making them in a form of absolute dependence, was shown by a sinister, loving and bloodied since his childhood was Sultan Selim Shah I This was with the Mamluks depicting the rulers of Egypt with the noble patriotic elements who defended their homeland with their blood, so the last sultan Tuman Bey II (d. 923 AH / 1517 AD) was in her eyes the symbol of Egyptian liberation from the oppressive occupiers of the Ottomans.
Thus, the goal of the series, on which $ 40 million was spent [1], was in only 14 episodes, with a global filming crew headed by British director Peter Weber, starring the Egyptian actor Khaled Al Nabawi, and funded and produced by the Emirati Genomedia company, despite direct projection on current political events in The region, and the political and regional blocs between Turkey on the one hand and the Emirates on the other hand, the attempt to root the hostility between the Egyptian and Turkish people was clear in all scenes of the series that was absent from providing a correct answer to several serious and original questions, regardless of the controversy that took place about the distinction between What is artistic and dra J and what is historical, it takes us away to return to the Mamluk and Islamic dates to answer several questions.
Were the Mamluk Turks, Circassians, or Native Egyptians? And if we consider the Mamluks as Egyptians, why not call the Mamluks who ruled the Levant at the same time as being a tongue, and like them who protected security in the Hijaz and the Two Holy Mosques? Was the concept of patriotism and nationalism manifested at the same time as our time? Or that the concepts of governance and politics were at a great and detailed degree of difference and separation? What is the point of view of the Egyptian historians in the Mamluk of their time? How did they see and write about them?
That is what we will see in our next lines.
The origin of the Mamluks and their system
The death of Sultan Al-Nasir Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyubi in the year 589 AH was the first beginning of internal rifts in the Ayyubid house between his sons first, then between the sons of his fair brother second, then the grandchildren of Al-Adil such as Al-Saleh Ayoub and Dawood bin Al-Muazzam Issa and Al-Adil II and other small princes who were divided over the property and provinces of the state The Ayyubids in Egypt, the Levant, and others, and it was natural that, in light of this fragmentation, the fierce competition that culminated in the help of the Crusaders increased again to strengthen the position of the complete Sultan Muhammad ibn al-Adil (d. 635 AH) at the expense of his two great brothers Isa (d. 624 AH) and Ashraf Musa (d. 635 AH). Then their children after him M and their relatives, the door was opened wide to bring the Mamluks into all their sects, bees, and races.
With the increase in the number of Mamluks in the armies of those rulers on the one hand, and their importance in Ayyubid political life on the other hand, their roles in the ruling circles in Egypt and the Levant increased steadily since the late sixth century / twelfth century AD, and at a time when military power had the greatest role in Resolving the fate of the rulers and the ruled, the Mamluk knights began to gradually advance until their presence became synonymous with military power and political ability [2].
Najm al-Din Ayyub decided to rely on a new element in his Ayyubid army. This new element was represented by the fleeing Turkmen from Central Asia
When the good Ayyubid Sultan Najm al-Din Ayyub (d. 647 AH) ascended the throne of Egypt, he decided to rely on a new element in his Ayyubid army consisting of Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs and the volunteer mercenary al-Khwarizmiyyah coming from Central Asia. This new element was represented by the Turkic descendants from the countries of the Caucasus in Central Asia. He commissioned a number of slave traders to buy them from that place of residence, and the appearance of the Mongols and their collision with the Khwarizmids since the year 616 AH caused a systematic migration of these Turks from east to west, as well as the occurrence of many of them in captivity and then offered them for sale and purchase in slave markets, which allowed the Ayyubids to Take away These people, and they depend on them in their frantic internal struggle since the death of Al-Adil Al-Kabeer (d. 615 AH), and who was more dependent on them is his good grandson Ayoub.
These Mamluk entered the Egyptian Ayyubid army and called them "marine Mamluk", because he had deposited them in military barracks on the island of Rawda near the Sea of the Nile at first, or because they were brought from overseas and were known to them, and soon they demonstrated great merit and skill in extracting the Levant and subjecting it to the benefit, Then the Crusaders were expelled from Jerusalem in the war of war in Gaza or what Western Latin sources called "La Forbouche" in the year 642 AH, then they reached the height of their glory in the seventh Crusade led by Louis IX on Damietta and Mansoura, as they were able to capture and humiliate the King of France, and at that crucial moment from The height of victory and pride Al-Saleh Ayoub died, and this Mamluk division in the Ayyubid army saw that it was entitled to jurisdiction, sovereignty and Sultanate, especially in light of the policy of the ferocious Sultan Turan Shah ibn Al-Saleh, who saw them as enemies and a threat to his king and his authority, he announced his intention to eliminate them, but the Mamluks were faster in hand and able to get rid of it ( 3]. Since the beginning of the year 648 AH / 1250 CE, the Mamluks began to lay the foundations for their new state, although they continued to lean on those old regimes that had taken root under the state of their Ayyubid masters, and if they added some things to it later.
The most important thing on which the new Mamluk state was based was the unique equestrian and military regime that was characterized by accuracy and order in most stages of the first and second Mamluks states, because the Mamluk state was a military country of the first order, and its first sultans relied on proving that fact through a military clash with the Mongols and the Crusaders. In the first half-century of this state’s life, their state needed a strict military regime, a strong administrative system, and uninterrupted supply of the infrastructure of the ruling Mamluk class, by securing the bringing of the Mamluks from the countries of the Caucasus and the Turks of Central Asia, and other white slaves in southern Roux. O Crimea and others.
The Mamluks, who were white slaves, came from Central Asia on an arduous journey to the Byzantine state or southern Anatolia through the slave traders who were often called the "Khawaja", and the Mamluk hands began to flock to buy them in the northern seam areas such as Malatya, Aleppo, Aantab, or even Deep in the Mamluk lands in Damascus, Cairo, and others. The next step after the purchase process developed according to the buyer, and if he was a Mamluk prince, he had to teach them the culture of the country in which they came down, then these Mamluks were ignorant of the Arabic language, so teaching them the Arabic language and some basic principles of the Islamic religion from the Qur’an, the Sunnah of the Prophet and some existing Sharia sciences On them was the first step, and then after that the process of learning martial and martial arts starts with hitting with a sword, spear stabbing, arrow shooting, horse riding, etc.
But if the Mamluks purchase was for the Mamluk Sultan, then this means their landing and placement in the "caste" of the citadel, and it is like "military colleges" in our time, and these have a strict educational and military system, as this cassette was initially established in the Iwan Square in the citadel of the mountain "Castle of Muhammad" Ali "in Cairo, which is the seat of government and the reception of senior ambassadors, guests, and so on. Each layer of this plate included housing for a thousand owners, where the owners remain" to draw the writing ", that is, to learn writing, so that those in charge of these dishes decide when it is valid for graduation, and who Then emancipation [4].
However, Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun (who died 741 AH) decided to place these plates in one place, so they numbered twelve layers, each of which was named after the existing “Tawashi” servant, or the prince, or “agha” [5]. The scholar Al-Maqrizi (who died 845 AH) reveals the methods and methods of raising Mamluks in the fortress (barracks) of the castle. The Mamluk system, especially in the era of marine Mamluks (648-784 AH), slave merchants were required to purchase only the young Mamluks, and then it began with it in what was custom known to call it the drawing of writing, which is to memorize portions of the Holy Qur’an, and for every juristic sect that brings to them all One day he takes in their teaching the Qur’an and calligraphy, the sciences of Sharia, prayers and dhikr, and if one of the Mamluks grows up, the jurist elevates him to teach them the fiqh and then reads his introductions. Graduation "emancipation" and integration into the ranks of the state Functions after Thzpt morals, and comminute expand Islam and its people in his heart, and has intensified helped him in the archery archer (bow), and striking that some of these Mamluk continued to study law sciences or experimental sciences, became of them jurist and writer, poet and accountant and other [6].
With regard to the graduation ceremony, it included first the "freeing" of the property to become free, then the state allocates horses and cloth to it "military clothing", so it falls into the category of "Royal Mamluk", and it obtains from the weapon all necessary weapons, including swords, bows, crossbow, spears and shields Other than that, and upon the military parade before the Sultan, this Mamluk gets a "leave" at the end of his education called "Ataka", because it indicates his emancipation, and that he has become a trained soldier capable of promotion in the Mamluk state and its army, and this offer in which the clerical is freed is called " “He graduated,” meaning the graduation, and there are no Mamluk sources that are between any Today, the length of the education stages of the written property is not clear to us today, as it is apparently unstable, and ranges from one year to two years to more than that or less, but the sultans of the second Mamluk state did not observe the duration of the education of their Mamlukes, but rather they were interested in graduating them one by one quickly. Not commendable [8].
If the Mamluks graduated, they rose in the political and military positions of the state, and a competitor in this field would not compete with them, some of whom would attain the rank of the Sultanate, and some of them would attain the rank of the great emirate and the rule of states, and some of them would remain the same in the category of agendas, and everyone would govern a financial and administrative system that had been established for some time Seljuk and Ayyubids before them.
However, those Mamluks who graduated from the citadel bowl and participated in the renaissance of the first "Maritime" Mamluk state and so-called "clerical" were completely different from the Mamluk of the second Mamluk state, the State of the Circassians (923-94 AH) who were called "galban" or "jilab" And, unlike the Mamluk Turks, the Maronites were attracted by ignorant adults, and they did not integrate into the culture and origins of the military and educational systems that the first state founded, and they were neglected in education and the military system, which caused instability and even the fall of the Circassian Mamluk state altogether later [7] .
This is briefly what we can describe as the Mamluk military and political system, the reason for bringing them, and the fundamental difference between the Mamluk Turks in the first country and the Circassian or Circassian Turks in the second Mamluk state that the Ottomans eliminated under the leadership of Sultan Selim I, and we have noticed that the elements of the population are from the people of the country in Egypt and the Levant never joined this military regime, except in times of volunteering for wars and jihad.
So did the Mameluk Turks, Circassians, and Wafdis insist "Mongols" throughout their rule, which approached the two and a half centuries, and how did the great Mamluk historians see them, such as the scholar Al-Maqrizi, Ibn Tigray Bardi, Ibn Habib, Ibn Hajar and others?
Egyptians and Shawam, or leave and Circassians ?!
Most of these contemporary historians of the Mamluk era agree that the Mamluks were ugly Turks, and that their state was a “Turkish” state, so the Maqrizi brand (d. 845 AH) put in his important encyclopedia “Sermons of Consideration by Mentioning Plans and Monuments” famous for “Makrizi’s Plans” a chapter titled “Male.” The armies, uniforms and customs of the Turkish state "dealt with the characteristics, advantages and traits of this country, which it has lived through and lived for several years for its parts, and he says:
“The armies of the Turkish state in the land of Egypt were divided into two parts, some of whom are in the presence of the Sultan, and some of them are in the countries of the kingdom and its countries, and desert inhabitants such as Arabs and Turkmen. A knight, and the offering of a thousand knights, and similarly, the great deputies (governors) would be "[9].
And when Al-Qalqashandi (who died 821 AH) in his important administrative encyclopedia dating to the corridors and systems of the Mamluk state "Subh al-Asha in the construction industry", he indicates that the systems of the Mamluk state that worked in their bureaus depend "from the beginning of the Turkish state and to our time at the head of the eight hundred, most of which is taken from The arrangement of the Ayyubid state, which is the origin of the Turkish state. ”[10]
| “Subh Al-Acha in the construction industry” (communication sites) |
And the historian al-Sham Ibn Habib al-Halabi puts his historical encyclopedia of the Mamluk state until his death in the year 779 AH, and he called it "Durrat Al-Wajis in the State of the Turks", and the historian Ibn al-Dawadari (d. Al-Durrar and Al-Ghurar Mosque. "The eighth part of it is devoted to the history of the Turkish Mamluk state, for which it was titled" Al-Durra Zaki in the Turkish State News. "
Contemporary historians have settled this issue for more than half a century, years ago, led by a pioneer of Mamluk studies, Professor Dr. Saeed Abdel-Fattah Ashour (1922-2009), who says:
It is known that the Mamluks did not usually try to mix with the Egyptians, and were not affected by their systems and their returns except in a few cases and with a limited installment. He helped this isolation and it was arranged that the Mameluke class increased their buying of slaves so that they would have a nervousness to rely on in governing the country. Most of them migrated from the country of the Mongols to Egypt, free trusters, not fellow owners, and so it happened in that era that the Mongols filled Egypt and spread their customs and methods, and it appeared from foods in Egypt that were not known before them and named them by the names of their language, and the eating of horse meat in tasks and weddings spread Parties, and people's passion Sports games, equestrian and acquisition of horses, bought and even earlier by some of the clergy "[11].
The influence of the Mamluks was significant in the clothing and culture of the age. Rather, “the matter reached that some judges and jurists spoke to their sultans in the Turkish language, so if the Sultan addressed one of them in Arabic, he caught his tongue, and if he spoke with him in Turkish an adult” as decided by Dr. Saeed Ashour [12].
On the other side, we see Dr. Hassan Al-Batawi, a professor of medieval history at the University of Assiut, decides at the height of the controversy surrounding the series "Kingdoms of Fire" that the "Mamluks are Egyptians" as their giving, life and death were on Egyptian soil and they were not an occupying state, then they They were not slaves in the inferior sense of the word, and were able to extract the ruling from their Ayyubid masters in Egypt and the Levant, in his post on the social networking platform "Facebook".
Although Dr. Al-Batawi’s opinion can be revealed to those who ruled Egypt before and after the time of the Mamluks as well, such as the Tulunids, Ikhshidis, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Ottomans, and others, as they can also be described as “Egyptians” according to his definition, we see a contradiction in his opinion if we return to the introduction to his important book “The People of the Turban in Egypt is the era of the Mamluk Sultans, "where we will find its clear statement that" the Mamluks, the rulers of the country, isolated themselves from the common people, and they continued to represent a distinct class "[13].
The truth is that most historians of the Mamluk era have almost unanimously agreed to settle this issue since the beginning of its recent history, as the Egyptian historian Muhammad Mustafa Ziyada (1900-1968 AD) asserts that the Mamluks were an oligarchic "minority rule" that had distinctive features and was keen to distinguish them throughout its rule of Egypt And the Levant for two and a half centuries, saying:
"As for the internal factors that enabled this state (the second Mamluk Circassians) to continue despite the failure of its sultans from the level of the sultans of the first state (the Turks), it is not clear that the first of these factors is that the Mamluks controlled all military and administrative functions as they controlled the functions of the Royal Court, then From the Sultan (at the top) to the newly brought up Mamluk (at the bottom of the class), they made sure to remain an excellent oligarchic (minority) class isolated from the rest of the people of Egypt, the Levant and other Mamluk states, and from this layer the classes of the only military apparatus in the country consisted of, And this layer realized the necessity of agglomeration and Walt Lusk between their parts, and knew how to limit the impact of internal conflicts in the Chambers Mameluke, and did not seek help in such disputes Egyptians or Bedouin territories, did not accept to interfere with its neighbors "[14].
Ruling on races from the perspective of modern nationalism
And while the issue of “Turkish” or “Circassian” Mamluks was settled a century ago in modern historical studies, and centuries ago by historians who lived in the time of the Mamluks and wrote about their daily incidents, politics, culture, and conditions in their historical sources as it was passed to us as “Turks” and “Circassians”, then The issue has another dimension that we must address, which is the question of the concept of "identity" or "nationalism", as bestowing descriptions of "Egyptian", "Syrian", "Lebanese" and others on a race, including those who lived centuries ago, such as the Turks and the Circassians in The shadow of states, sultans, kingdoms, disputes, and sultans did not lean in their internal structure, continuity, and external relations. Its definition of itself on the narrow concept of "patriotism", which has arisen and emerged in the shadow of the modern state, is the root of the problem and its clear root.
This is because the ambiguity that is intended intentionally or ignorantly in not differentiating between the concepts, contents, and philosophies of the modern state and pre-modern countries, only turns a blind eye to the nature of those countries and civilizations, which are states that have existed and have continued on the basis of a single universal identity since the state of Madinah founded by the Prophet - may God bless him Peace be upon him - which is only "religious" identity, whether in the Islamic world until the end of the Ottoman time in the year 1924 AD, or in the Christian world until the emergence of the concept of the modern nation-state after the famous Westphalian reconciliation in 1648 AD, which was the end of religious and national wars between European peoples who struggled to reach To that moment of birth State, with a big hinge difference between the Western and Islamic civilizations.
It is striking that the modern Arab nation-state from which the concept of nationalism, patriotism and one race emerged from within the borders drawn by the occupant for his own interests, was created after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the hands of foreign occupation, whether British, French, Spanish, Russian or otherwise, a matter that has become in the rule of It is necessarily known from history, then the issue of borders was not satisfied, but rather it was keen to create awareness of "imagined" in particular, and this historical and cultural dilemma is what led many people, especially the American historian and researcher Benedict Anderson (1936-2015) to address it with some excitement and excitement. Ge in his book "imaginary groups, Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism," which was released in 1983.
Nationalism, according to one of its scholars, such as Tom Nairn, is "the disease of modern evolutionary history. It is inevitable, as it is largely surrounded by the same essential thumb, and has the same basic ability to deteriorate and transform into a form of dementia whose roots weaken and deficit spread in most parts of the world. And who has no medication in general "[15].
Dramatic works such as "Kingdoms of Fire" are nothing more than historical fabrication, so drama is used to play history and its facts.
The "national nation" emerged in the western world after the decline of religious hegemony, which, according to Anderson, is a fictitious political group, and is intended to imagine that it is a group or group defined with features and shapes. From this definition, the writer returns to the cultural roots of the concept, where he sees that the idea of "imagining" the nation did not arise, in Europe, only after the retreat of the Latin language as a sacred language, in light of scientific discoveries and inventions, and in particular the invention of printing, and the collapse of these regions enables numbers of people From thinking about themselves, and connecting themselves with others through new ways, especially with the print that prepared the platform for the modern nation, as the number of books printed in 1500 reached nearly twenty million.And the publishing industry at that time formed the early form of the capitalist project, for its constant search for markets and the opening of press owners new branches throughout Europe, which contributed to the spread of local languages and uniting them among millions of people [16].
And if the idea of nationalism has arisen in the western world as a result of the explosion of its religious, linguistic and political contradictions, then it has never exploded in the Islamic world for the unity and root of religious, cultural and linguistic ties, the brilliant ability to transcend linguistic and anthropological contradictions to agree on religious rules and principles, and the clarity of the issue of "identity" since The emergence of the city of the Prophet’s city at the hands of the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - so the ruling race throughout Islamic history was not viewed from a “nationalist” perspective - despite the emergence of this issue at different times, such as the issue of populism at the time of the Abbasid caliphate between Arabs and Persians - but Q Suffered what has been overcome, we saw the Arab element governs the prophetic state time and the caliphate and the state of the Umayyad and Abbasid and others, and we saw the Turkish element governs the state Ghaznawids and Seljuk and Mamluk Turks, and we saw the Moroccan element governs the Fatimids and stationed and the Unitarian time and followed, and so on.
Hence, the awareness of the fundamental and clear difference between the pre-modern state and the modern state is the decisive criterion in ruling on Islamic history, including the Mamluks era, and that we cannot judge the pre-modern era by the standards and logic of the modern state and at the heart of it is the "national" perspective. The hadith, which is viewed according to Western historians and researchers, is fabricated and imagined at the origin of its origins, and that the judgment of the Mamluks as "Egyptians", including the significance of the modern "Egypt" culturally, politically and aware of the awareness and national identity that differs from the concept of "the Egyptian" in the pre-modern era, is Something very wrong is quite clear, as well as others Races that ruled Egypt, and from there the dramatic works such as "the kingdoms of the fire," no more than a mere historical fabrication Glen uses drama to play history and realities.