This talk discusses the power struggle between the Mamluks, Ottomans and Safavids in the Near East in the years 1450-1517 to understand why the Mamluk Empire vanished after several centuries of rule whereas the other Muslim states in the region staid on. Previous scholarship has emphasized Mamluk arrogance towards the adaptation of new military technologies such as firearms as a key cause for the downfall of the Mamluks but this study argues for the existence of a broader range of structural and geographic reasons which undermined the Mamluk Empire. It shows how the empire in the long term became the victim of its own initial success of establishing itself as the Muslim state that defeated the crusaders and failed to perceive early enough the potential challenge emerging from the Ottomans, which had turned themselves into an aggressive Muslim military land and sea power. The paper first describes the military conflict between the three powers, and then it assesses the impact of warfare on the three states, and finally it discusses the causes why the Mamluk Empire disappeared in 1517.
Albrecht Fuess | A Clash of Muslim Empires: The Struggle between Ottomans, Mamluks and Safavids in the Years 1470-1520
29.04.2024 | Material Migrations Online Lecture Series
Albrecht Fuess is professor for Islamic studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg. Having studied history and Islamic studies at the University of Cologne and at the University of Cairo, he holds a PhD from the University of Cologne (2000) with a thesis on the Syro-Palestinian coast during Mamluk times (1250-1517). His research has been supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) and by visiting research fellowships at the Orient-Institut Beirut (Max Weber Foundation) and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. After working as a freelance contributor in the foreign editorial department of ZDF in Mainz, he became a research assistant at the chair of Islamic studies at the University of Erfurt in 2002. From 2007 to 2009, he was a “Le Studium” Fellow at the Scientific College of the “Région Centre”, working on a research project comparing the systems of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mamluks in the 16th century with the Equipe Monde Arabe et Méditerranée (University of Tours). Since 2010, he has been teaching as a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Marburg. His research focuses on the history of the Middle East (13th-17th centuries), cultural and social history of the Mamluks, Islam in Europe, and contemporary Islamic youth cultures.
Registration Link here.
This talk is part of the online lecture series "Material Migrations" connected to the Gerda Henkel Foundation research project "Material Migrations: Mamluk Metalwork across Afro-Eurasia", directed by Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-Dzidzienyo and Vera-Simone Schulz.