Rise of The Mamluks (1250–1517)
Citation
EL-MOURSI, Mohamed. "Rise of The Mamluks (1250–1517)". Great Events in Religion: an Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History: Volumes 1-3, (2016): 616-618.Abstract
The Arabic word mamluk (plural, mamalik) refers to “property”—
that is, a person who is owned by someone else. It
cannot be translated as “slave,” however, because the Arabic
word for that is abd. Scholars have therefore preferred a
“technical” translation: either “white slave” or, more importantly,
“military slave.” The latter refers to the practice of
purchasing a young (male) slave, who is then converted to
Islam and trained as a soldier under the supervision of the
slave owner.
