Slaves turned sultans, the Mamluks were a force of nature. They crushed European Crusaders, fought off the Mongols and even captured French King Louis IX for ransom.
Yet, for all their military prowess, the warrior dynasty also had a refined and artistic side, a sensibility for cross-cultural exchange that is now being displayed in a new exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire has been developed in collaboration with the Louvre in Paris. The exhibition showed at the Parisian institution earlier this year before arriving to Abu Dhabi.
It brings together 270 artefacts and artworks that are drawn from collections worldwide, from regional lenders – such as Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art and the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh – to international institutions such as the British Museum and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The exhibition opened on Wednesday and will run until January 25. It is jointly curated by Souraya Noujaim, director of the Department of Islamic Arts at Musee du Louvre, and Carine Juvin, curator of the Medieval Near and Middle East collection at the same department. The curators are being supported by Fakhera Alkindi, senior curatorial assistant at Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The Mamluk dynasty ruled over a large part of the Islamic world between 1250 and 1517, stretching across Egypt, the Levant, as well as parts of Eastern Anatolia and Hejaz.
Their roots go back much further. In a system dating to the 9th century, children and adolescents were bought from the Kipchak steppes, or later the Caucasus, and trained as slave soldiers in Cairo and Damascus. They formed a vital part of the armies that defended Islamic lands, prized as elite corps and rising to enjoy exceptional favour with reigning sultans. In time, and after overthrowing the Ayyubids, they became rulers themselves.
The opening section of the exhibition delves into these beginnings. Rather than a direct and didactic presentation – which can be found on the wall text anyway – the story of the Mamluks is told through shadow puppetry, evoking the popular entertainment of their time while also setting the stage for the exhibition with apt theatrical flair.
“It is a story which is really told from the point of view of the Mamluks,” says Manuel Rabate, director of Louvre Abu Dhabi. “At the beginning of the show, you really understand who they were, sort of deconstructing the myth or the legend, because there really is a legend of the Mamluks, but then we move to the connections, the richness and diversity of this civilisation.”
The Mamluks flourished in the same period that Europe was moving from the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance. As Florence and Venice saw the rise of humanism and art, Cairo and Damascus thrived as centres of trade, science and craftsmanship.
“What they brought from the mid-13th century until the beginning of the 16th century was really a hub for exchanges, diplomatic relations, trade and art,” Noujaim says.
“These arts, the architecture and material culture, was nourished by all that diversity. In this part of the world, it was a first renaissance, a globalisation of sorts. Some scholars are exploring the fact that they may have paved the way for the Copernican revolution.”
The aesthetic sensibilities of the Mamluks were inventive and unmistakable. They often fused geometric precision together with vegetal motifs. Their architecture contained many contrasting rigorous and fluid designs, with angular stars that were enriched by floral arabesques. They were well aware of how design communicated identity, and their architecture relayed the dynasty’s dual character as warriors and patrons.
A section of the exhibition is specifically dedicated to the architecture of the Mamluks, highlighting elements from the Qalawun Complex in Cairo. Facade details are projected on to lofty screens that envelop the circular space, creating an experience that surrounds visitors with the monument’s grandeur.
The complex, built by Sultan Qalawun in the latter 13th century, contained a hospital, madrassa and mausoleum, as much a symbol of power as a civic centre.
While the Mamluks were not a dynastic power in the hereditary sense, building their right to rule through military valour and patronage, Sultan Qalawun’s son, al-Nasir Muhammad, nevertheless succeeded him, reigning three separate times and is often regarded as one of the most important rulers.
Several Mamluk rulers are highlighted throughout the exhibition, but al-Nasir Muhammad is one of the first, represented through a collection of objects that each bare his name. These include an incense burner that features his identifying calligraphic emblem, a chased copper alloy inlaid with gold, silver and black paste.
Al-Nasir Muhammad is also one of many Mamluk figures who is profiled on the exhibition wall texts. He is depicted in a portrait, beside a first-person account of his tumultuous reign, narrating how he was “overthrown twice by influential emirs before regaining power in 1310” and how his empire reached its “zenith” during his time. “My sons and grandsons succeeded me,” the text reads. “But none could surpass my greatness!”
These portraits and “testimonies”, scattered throughout the exhibition, offer an intimate account into life under the Mamluks, bringing the voices of rulers and courtiers into the gallery.
There are also several unexpected figures that highlight the influence and contributions of women during Mamluk rule. Among them is Shajar al-Durr, the only woman to reign as full sultan in the central Islamic world and whose brief rule in 1250 gave way for the dynasty itself.
“Up until the 1970s, little was known about the role and status of women in the Mamluk society,” Noujaim says. “But recently, the study the tabaqat (rulers’ biographies in Mamluk libraries) gives us an idea. They were living in separate areas of the palace but had a very active and social role.”
Several objects crafted under the patronage of leading women figures are featured. For instance, Khawand Fatima, wife of Sultan Qaytbay, is represented through a candlestick and ewer that are inscribed with her name. Objects dedicated to women are rare, but Khawand Fatima had seven objects made for her. She is also depicted as a profile within the exhibition.
“By skilfully managing my personal assets, I grew my wealth by buying buildings, storehouses and land,” her wall text reads. “A portion of my considerable fortune was confiscated after my husband's death, but my status was restored five years later when I married the new sultan, Tuman Bay.”
Another prominent women is Sitt Hadaq. One of al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun's slaves, she oversaw the education of the sultan’s children. However, she also used her influence to great affect, amassing a great fortune and establishing a mosque in Cairo that still exists today.
“She was a Sudanese slave who climbed the ladder of the society and became a businesswoman,” Noujaim says.
She is also the patron of one of the exhibition’s most impressive manuscripts: a large, magnificently illuminated Quran, created in 1340 with muhaqqaq script inscribed in ink, pigments and gold.
The exhibition then moves to display several impressive pieces from the Mamluk military history, showing how the battlefield was just as much a site of craftsmanship as combat. From blades and helmets engraved with floral and geometric designs to stunning chain mail fitted with golden panels to protect vulnerable parts of the body.
However, it is the last stretch of the exhibition that underscores the spirit of exchange and cross-cultural dialogue during this time. Textiles, ceramics and glassware all touch upon the varied influences and diplomatic ties of the dynasty, extending from Venetian encounters to relationships with China.
“The extent of the connection through the sultanate is extravagant,” Alkindi says. “It fed into the trade and prosperity of the sultanate.”
A porcelain trade stand shows this influence. In shape and decorations, it draws cues from the metal tray stands that Mamluks were known for. Yet, the porcelain stand was actually made in China, presumably with the Mamluks as a target audience.
Another porcelain piece, decorated with the French fleur-de-lis, reveals the inverse connection. “It was created in the Mamluk period with Chinese aesthetic of the blue and white for a third party, which is the European market,” AlKindi says. “It's really an interconnected story. It’s just a small aspect of how these bigger stories, how the cultural and tangible legacy, unfolded.”
The exhibition concludes strong with a mesmerising, and somewhat enigmatic artefact: a basin known as the Baptistere de Saint Louis.
Signed by Muhammad ibn al-Zayn and made in Syria or Egypt in the 14th century, the chased copper alloy basin is inlaid with silver and decorated with intricate hunting and courtly scenes. Its original recipient and commissioner is not known, but the basin ultimately reached France and was then used as a baptismal font for members of the French royal family.
It is a fitting finale, nodding towards the way that Mamluk influence continued to ripple beyond the borders of its empire, even after the dynasty crumbled following the Ottoman takeover of Egypt.
Their reputation as fierce and formidable warriors was still the stuff of legend when Napoleon’s troops – as narrated early on in the exhibition – encountered Mamluk horseman in 1798. Impressed by their prowess, he even formed a Mamluk corps within his Imperial Guard, embedding them in European myth as much as Middle Eastern history.
The Mamluks still offer troves of discovery for curators and scholars. Their story continues to unravel through the objects and texts they commissioned and the structures they built.
“It’s a living legacy,” Alkindi says. “Imagine all this was within two centuries. They were an important catalyst and an important active connector, diplomatically and trade-wise.
There is a craftsmanship that still lives today in Egypt and Syria, and you could see it in the objects there evidently. But then there is the influence that it has left beyond its territories, the glass making that moved to Venice in the 16th century and so forth.”
Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire is running at Louvre Abu Dhabi until January 25
