Mamelukes

(Arabic, mamluk , a “slave”). The name given to the slaves of the beys, brought from the Caucasus, and who formed their armed forces. When Genghis Khan desolated a great part of Asia in the 13th century, and carried away a multitude of the inhabitants for slaves, the sultan of Egypt bought 12,000 of them, partly Mingrelians and Tartars, but mostly Turks, and formed them into a body of troops. But they soon found their own power so great that, in 1254, they made one of their own number sultan of Egypt, founding the dynasty of the Baharites, which gave place to another Mameluke dynasty in 1382. The Caucasian element predominated in the first dynasty, the Tartar element in the second. Selim I., who overthrew the Mameluke kingdom in 1517, was compelled to permit the continuance of the 24 Mameluke beys as governors of the provinces; but in the middle of the 18th century they regained such a preponderance of power in Egypt that the pasha named by the Porte was reduced to a nominal ruler. The number of them scattered throughout all Egypt was between 10,000 and 12,000 men. Their number was kept up chiefly by slaves brought from the Caucasus, from among whom the beys and other officers of state were exclusively chosen. Their last brilliant achievements were on the occasion of the French invasion of Egypt, and during the time immediately following the retirement of the French. At this time Murad Bey stood at their head. But in 1811 they were foully ma acred by Mehemet Ali.