Mamluk Sultanate

The Mamluk Sultanate was a state that controlled Egypt, The Levant, and Hejaz from 1250 to 1517. The first sultans (kings) of the Mamluk Sultanate were "mamluks" (slave-soldiers) in the armies of the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mamluk Sultanate was the strongest military power in the central Muslim world. They fended off the Mongols and exterminated the Crusaders in the Holy Land (The Levant). The Mamluk sultans also controlled south-eastern Asia Minor and western Arabia. Most of the sultanate's "mamluks" were Turkic people or Circassians. The Arabic language was the state's and the government's most important language. Most of the sultans carried Arabic names and were heavily Arabized.