IFAO

The third reign of sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad is usually seen as a turning point in the political history of the Mamluk sultanate. Coming back to power in 1310, al-Nāṣir Muḥammad found the opportunity to implement economic and institutional reforms enabling him to consolidate and expand his house and his private domain. While during his two previous reigns al-Nāṣir’s authority has been reduced and his power controlled by the leading emirs, from the beginning of his third reign, the sultan managed to establish new practices in the exercise of power, which layed the foundations of a real court society in which the favor of the prince was the main way to promote individual, militaries and civilians. Al-Nāṣir Muḥammad encouraged the lightning rise and the enrichment of powerful civil administrators of the Mamluk state. One of them, Karīm al-Dīn al-Kabīr, intendant of the mamluk domain of the sultan, appears to be a crucial cog of the wheel of al-Nāṣir Muḥammad’s new power. Studying his career, his prerogatives and his relations with the sultan and the Mamluk emirs, the aim of this paper is to enlight the reality of al-Nāṣir’s power, which is usually depicted as absolutist.

Keywords: Egypt – mamluk sultanate – administration – power networks – clientelism – al-Nāṣir Muḥammad b. Qalāwūn.

The article identifies and interprets significant changes in the designs, script and other visual elements on gold and occasionally silver Islamic coins stuck in Egypt and when appropriate Syria beginning with those minted from the Fatimid era to the end of Ottoman suzerainty in 1914 C.E. For each chronological period interpretations that, in most cases, are not dependent on the ability of the user of the coin to read the engraved text in Arabic script. In all these cases the market or monetary role of the currency was far more important, initially, then their specific political messages, which, while inscribed on the coins were not signaled by visual clues. Over time a new style of coinage in terms of its visual appearance was created by the ruling sultans and it became the new standard.

Keywords: ʿAzīz ʿUṯmān – Abbasid – Aḥmad III – al-ʿĀdil I – al-Malik al-Kāmil – al-Mu’ayyad Šayḫ – al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh – al-Mustaʿlī billāh –al-Qā’im bi-Amr Allāh – ašrafī – Barqūq – Barsbāy – Baybars – fatimid – ismāʿīlī – kufic – mamluk – Mehmet II Fātiḥ – Muṣṭafā II – nasḫ – Nūr al-Dīn – ottoman – Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) – sulṭānī.

Après le temps des califats, marqué par des pouvoirs où le leader politique et le chef religieux sont confondus dans la personne du Prince, et avant celui des réformes (les Tanzimat) et de la naissance des États modernes, l’ensemble du monde musulman a connu, entre le Xe et le XVe siècle, l’apparition d’un type de pouvoir particulier, qui, dans certaines contrées, a perduré jusqu’à nos jours : le sultanat. Cette appellation est encore en usage à l’époque moderne, voire contemporaine, ce qui est le signe qu’on ne s’attendra pas à ce que ce terme recouvre une réalité unique.

La recherche collective que nous présentons ici voudrait, par l’examen de l’exercice du pouvoir, questionner cette forme particulière de leadership. Particulière, mais non homogène d’un sultanat à l’autre et même au sein d’un même empire: il convient donc, par les quelques études de cas rassemblées ici, de dégager le commun et le différent à ces pouvoirs dont les leaders sont des sultans.