Mamluk
مملوكDefinition
Literally 'owned' — the military slave dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria during Ibn Battuta's travels, having defeated the Crusaders and halted the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut in 1260. The Mamluk state was one of the most powerful in the Muslim world and one of its most important centres of Islamic scholarship and architecture. Ibn Battuta's vivid descriptions of Mamluk Cairo — its mosques, madrasas, hospitals, scholars, and markets — provide invaluable historical testimony about a state that was simultaneously militaristic, patronising of learning, and deeply embedded in the Islamic scholarly tradition. The Mamluks treated him with the respect due to a visiting Moroccan jurist and opened their courts and institutions to him.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Battuta and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Mamluk.
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"If one finds it unacceptable for a slave to be a partner, how can one make partners for اللّٰه from His servants? Similarly, اللّٰه presents another example: "اللّٰه presents an example: a man owned by quarreling partners and another belonging exclusively to one man - are they equal in comparison? Praise be to اللّٰه! But most of them do not know." This illustrates the difference between a slave owned by disputing masters and one owned by a single master."
— Ibn al-Qayyim, Volume One
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"to call them to this practice. He was exceedingly wealthy. It is said that he blinded 20 camels, an expression indicating he owned 20,000 camels. Among the Arabs it was customary for those who owned a thousand camels to blind one eye of each camel to protect the others. Al-Azraqi and al-Suhayli mentioned that he possibly slaughtered 10,000 camels during the pilgrimage and clothed 10,000 in garments each year, feeding the Arabs and preparing dishes with butter and honey, mixing flour for them. His words and actions became like a law due to his nobility, esteemed position and generosity. Ibn Hisham reported that some scholars informed him that Amr ibn Luhai"
— Ibn Kathir, Volume 2 — From the Israelite Prophets to Pre-Islamic Arabia
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"According to them, there is no Lord and servant, no owner and owned, no merciful and the one receiving mercy, no worshipper and worshipped, no seeker of help and the one sought for help, no guide and guided, no benefactor and the one benefited, no angry and the one angered upon. Rather, the Lord is the very self and reality of the servant, the owner is the very essence of the owned, the merciful is the very essence of the one receiving mercy, and the worshipper is the very self of the worshipped."
— Ibn al-Qayyim, Volume One
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