A Comparative Study of Perceptions and Attitudes Towards the Ottoman Conquest of Egypt and Syria

Abstract

This thesis examines the perspectives and attitudes of two Arabic-speaking, Mamluk-period chroniclers towards the Ottomans in the last few decades of the Mamluk period. This thesis shows how these chroniclers perceived and thought about the Ottomans, an imperial power based in Anatolia, whose foreign policy clashed with the sultans of Egypt and Syria who were the preeminent Sunni rulers in the region. The two authors used are Abu ‘l-Barakat Muhammad b. Ahmad Zayn (Shihab) al-Din al-Nasiri al-Jarkasi al-Hanafi (852-903/ 1448-1524), a member of the awlad al-nas who lived in Cairo and wrote Badaʾiʿ al-Zuhur fi Waqaʾiʿ al-Duhur, and Shams al-Din Muhammad b. ʿAli Ibn Tulun (881-955/ 1468-1548), a scholar who lived in Damascus and wrote Mufakahat al-Khillan fi Hadith al-Zaman. Both authors were eye-witnesses to the conquest and they wrote their chronicles in the years before the conquest and as it took place. Their differing views about the Ottomans are mostly determined by the degree of their identification with the Mamluk sultanate and their places of residence. Both men were representative of the educated elite in Mamluk society and their attitudes may reflect the range of attitudes people in the Arabic-speaking lands held about the Ottomans.