Beginning on the eve of oceanic exploration, and the first European forays into the Indian Ocean and the Middle East, The Ottomans and the Mamluks traces the growth of the Ottoman Empire from a tiny Anatolian principality to a world power, and the relative decline of the Mamluks-historic defenders of Mecca and Medina and the rulers of Egypt and Syria. Cihan Yuksel Muslu traces the intertwined stories of these two dominant Sunni Muslim empires of the early modern world, setting out to question the view that Muslim rulers were historically concerned above all with the idea of Jihad against non-Muslim entities. Through analysis of the diplomatic anad military engagements around the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Muslu traces the interactions of these Islamic super-powers and their attitudes towards the wider world. This is the first detailed study of one of the most important political and cultural relationships in early-modern Islamic history.

Focusing on Near Eastern history in Mamluk and Ottoman times, this book, dedicated to Michael Winter, stresses elements of variety and continuity in the history of the Near East, an area of study which has traditionally attracted little attention from Islamists. Ranging over the period from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, the articles in this book look at the area from Istanbul down through Syria and Palestine to Arabia, the Yemen and the Sudan. The articles demonstrate the great wealth of the materials available, in a wide variety of languages, from archival documents to manuscripts and art works, as well as inscriptions and buildings, police records and divorce documentation. The topics covered are equally as varied and include Dufism, the festival of Nabi Musa, military organisations, doctors, and charity to name but a few.

This two-part volume offers a comprehensive account of the conflict between the Ottoman and Mamluk Empires. Part One explores Ottoman-Mamluk relations from their inception in the middle of the fourteenth century to the laying of the foundations of the conflict in the second half of the fifteenth century. Part Two offers a detailed description of the actual war of 1485-91, and analyzes it from various angles including military, economic, and diplomatic. Based largely on Ottoman, Mamluk and Italian primary sources - documentary and narrative - the volume helps to understand the second and final war between the Ottomans and Mamluks in 1516-17, which resulted in the downfall of the Mamluk Empire and the firm establishment of Ottoman power in the Middle East.

The articles compiled in Ottoman War & Peace. Studies in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan, honor the prolific career of a foremost scholar of the Ottoman Empire, and engage in redefining the boundaries of Ottoman historiography. Blending micro and macro approaches, the volume covers topics from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries related to the Ottoman military and warfare, biography and intellectual history, and inter-imperial and cross-cultural relations. Through these themes, this volume seeks to bring out and examine the institutional and socio-political complexity of the Ottoman Empire and its peoples. Contributors are Eleazar Birnbaum, Maurits van den Boogert, Palmira Brummett, Frank Castiglione, Linda Darling, Caroline Finkel, Molly Greene, Jane Hathaway, Colin Heywood, Douglas Howard, Christine Isom-Verhaaren, Dina Rizk Khoury, Ethan L. Menchinger, Victor Ostapchuk, Leslie Peirce, James A. Reilly, Will Smiley, Mark Stein, Kahraman Şakul, Veysel Şimşek, Feryal Tansuğ, Baki Tezcan, Fatih Yeşil, Aysel Yıldız.

Mamluk Cairo, a Crossroads for Embassies offers an up-to-date insight into the diplomacy and diplomatics of the Mamluk sultanate with Muslim and non-Muslim powers. This rich volume covers the whole chronological span of the sultanate as well as the various areas of the diplomatic relations established by (or with) the Mamluk sultanate. Twenty-six essays are divided in geographical sections that broadly respect the political division of the world as the Mamluk chancery perceived it. In addition, two introductory essays provide the present stage of research in the fields of, respectively, diplomatics and diplomacy. With contributions by Frédéric Bauden, Lotfi Ben Miled, Michele Bernardini, Bárbara Boloix Gallardo, Anne F. Broadbridge, Mounira Chapoutot-Remadi, Stephan Conermann, Nicholas Coureas, Malika Dekkiche, Rémi Dewière, Kristof D’hulster, Marie Favereau, Gladys Frantz-Murphy, Yehoshua Frenkel, Hend Gilli-Elewy, Ludvik Kalus, Anna Kollatz, Julien Loiseau, Maria Filomena Lopes de Barros, John L. Meloy, Pierre Moukarzel, Lucian Reinfandt, Alessandro Rizzo, Éric Vallet, Valentina Vezzoli and Patrick Wing.

In this volume, twelve essays by leading scholars of Mamluk history provide an informative reading and insightful analysis of the political, social and economic systems of Egypt and Syria under Mamluk rule (125-1517).

Beginning on the eve of Oceanic exploration, and the first European forays into the Indian Ocean and the Middle East, The Ottomans and the Mamluks traces the growth of the Ottoman Empire from a tiny Anatolian principality to a world power, and the relative decline of the Mamluks - historic defenders of Mecca and Medina and the rulers of Egypt and Syria. Cihan Yüksel Muslu traces the intertwined stories of these two dominant Sunni Muslim empires of the early modern world, setting out to question the view that Muslim rulers were historically concerned above all with the idea of Jihad against non-Muslim entities. Through analysis of the diplomatic and military engagements around the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Muslu traces the interactions of these Islamic super-powers and their attitudes towards the wider world. This is the first detailed study of one of the most important political and cultural relationships in early-modern Islamic history.