Review by Choice Review
From 1250 to 1517, the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt reached out into the Hijaz in one direction and across the Taurus in another to dominate the Near East until, in a single swift campaign, the Ottoman sultan Selim I swept it away. Petry (Northwestern Univ.) first addressed this problem of Mamluk decay in his Twilight of Majesty (CH, Jul'94). Now he covers the same period, but this time, thematically. After an introductory review of political events, he briefly surveys the Mamluks' relations with their turbulent tribal subjects and predatory neighbors. He then provides a splendid discussion of the Mamluk institution in the days of its decline, and addresses the regime's attitudes toward and impact on economic life. The last two chapters successively examine the ways in which the sultanate responded to crises, either by traditional techniques of "circumvention" and "manipulation" or by "innovation." Overall, this is an absorbing study of the systemic causes for collapse of one particularly long-lived Near Eastern regime. Of special interest to students of Egyptian history, and to those concerned with the perennial problem of dynasticism in Islamic history. Upper-division undergraduates and above. G. R. G. Hambly; University of Texas at Dallas
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review