Mamluks

Talk story about a Metropolitan Museum exhibition of Mamluk art. The Mamluks were a remarkable military aristocracy of slaves and former slaves who ruled an enormous chunk of the Middle East in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. Mamluks were non-Arab slave children who were bought or captured in Central and Western Asia and put in a special school in Cairo, where they were trained to be warriors. Freed Mamluks were called Amire, and they themselves could own other Mamluks. Writer desdribes extent of the Mamluk empire, and some of its more notable sultans, information gleaned from the exhibit's catalogue. She spoke with Marilyn Jenkins, the assistant curator in charge of the exhibit. Miss Jenkins describes the characteristics of Mamluk art ("vigorous, masculine, and powerful") and the reasons for the downfall of their empire, which included the army's inability to respond to the military challenges of other nations. The show consists of 123 objects collected by the Smithsonian Institution, together with 89 objects from the Metropolitan and from private collections. The exhibit's pieces include ceramic bowls and plates, swords, a Koran, an astrolabe, and an elephant water clock, which she describes.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com