The ruling class of the Mamluk dynasty was also very special.

The use of military slaves as the main force of the country's army is not new. Around the 9th century, the Abbasid Empire, which was in decline, began to buy Turkic slaves on a large scale and form an army in order to fight against the Persian nobles and foreign enemies who were eyeing each other.

Most of these Turkic slaves came from the Central Asian steppes, and they were reduced to slavery due to various factors such as defeat in tribal conflicts, natural disasters, and bankruptcy of pastures. They have some basic military skills and are considered a good source of soldiers in the local area.

Moreover, both Mesopotamia and Central Asia are much richer than their homeland. The status of slaves also made them lack roots in the local area, and it was not easy to rebel in theory.

For the caliphate, it was a cheap and efficient armament. At its peak, more than 70,000 Turkic slave soldiers were in the service of the Baghdad court. They were called "ghulam", which means "trained slaves".

Despite their name as slaves, these men were trained to prepare for war all day long and were actually a professional soldier. Mixed up can become an officer and receive various rewards. In all wars, the performance of the Ghulam soldiers was also satisfactory, and they can be called an elite.

However, according to the understanding of the Purple Horde, this is to put it bluntly, isn't it a barbarian mercenary. It's just that there are some local characteristics in the specific implementation details.

And the results of the abuse of barbarian mercenaries, the Romans understood too well......

The development of events is not much different from what happened to Rome back then. The slave soldiers soon spiraled out of control, forming warlords on various sides. Together with the leaders of the Turkic tribes who like "Shangluo", they roam the hinterland of the Celestial Sect world.

The subsequent Persian and Turkic dynasties were not exempt from vulgarity. Slave soldiers standing on their own feet, rebelling, and even replacing the original regime were common events, which gave the Persians a good taste of what it was like to be in the last years of Western Rome.

Later, Saladin reformed the increasingly chaotic Ghulam military system and established a more rigorous, relatively scientific and systematic training program. These improved slave soldiers became known as "Mamluks".

However, the Mamluks gradually broke away from the control of the Ayyubids and eventually established their own power.

And this regime, it is difficult to give him an exact definition.

Since the conquest of Egypt by Persia and Macedonia, all the regimes here have basically pursued a policy, that is, not to allow Egyptian natives to join the army. The armed forces and the upper echelons of the government are almost always made up of outsiders.

However, it cannot be said that it was a colonial regime, because the Mamluks who ruled the country came from all over the world, including Kipchaks, Circassians, Mongols, and even Greeks. Most of them were sold to Egypt as slaves when they were young, and the entire regime did not have a mother country.

They were even different from the Turkic dynasties that came to dominate Persia. Because these people are not even hereditary dynasties, and there is no ruling family as a core. "Mamluk dynasty" is just a general term, every time the sultan changes, the Mamluks will adhere to the principle of "the strong soldier is the sultan", and carry out brutal infighting. It is a very unlikely event that the heir will succeed to the Sultan.

The first stable Mamluk sultan, Baibar, was a Kipchak; After his death, the son was soon overthrown by another emir, who passed for two generations and then by a Mongol Mamluk; The next sultan was a Greek Mamluk; After that, there were the Circassians...... In short, not to mention the transfer of power between families, even the ethnic groups from which they are born are likely to be different.

The Mamluks, who were the core of the dynastic army, were loyal to their masters personally. It is also for this reason that the Mamluks are basically "a son of heaven and a courtier".

After the death or overthrow of the old sultan, most of his cronies and slaves were deposed or even purged and replaced by the slaves of the new sultan. As a result, dynastic changes are often fraught with violence and chaos. The "old man" who is unwilling to lose his power and the "newcomer" who is anxious to take the position often fight.

The rise of Timur and the Purple Horde further deteriorated the internal form of the Mamluk regime.

The fresh blood of the Mamluks is all from and from other places. However, the expansion of the Purple Horde and the reform of the Northern Yabing affected the flow of slaves in the Kipchak steppe; Queen Helena's insistence on entering the Morea expelled local mercenary gangs and Italian merchants, leading to the depletion of Greek slaves; Finally, Timur invaded Western Asia and the Caucasus, and the source of the most popular Circassian slaves was cut off.

Although nominally slaves of no origin, the Mamluks had been fighting each other on the basis of origin. The source of slaves affects the balance between the various forces. And if all traditional sources are affected, then the entire Mamluk will be weakened.

Thus, for most of the previous period, the Mamluks had good relations with the Italian nations, the Eastern Romans, and the Golden Horde, and the Mamluks had been actively maintaining such diplomatic relations.

During the Latin Empire and the Palaiologos, Mamluk merchants had the privilege of free passage on the Black Sea, and could use Genoese ports for procurement and supplies; The Mongols were allowed to set up a slave warehouse in Alexandria; When the Mamluks attacked Acre in preparation for the end of the crusades, the Genoese promised them naval support. The cooperation between all parties was once very close.

As a result, all aspects of the trade route are very perfect, and even after-sales service can be provided - when Sultan Baibar was first sold to Syria, the buyer found that he had bad eyes, so he found a slave trader to return the goods. Later, Baibar was favored by the Ayyubid Sultan and went to Egypt.

However, during the period of the sudden rise of Timur and the Purple Horde, the Mamluks were on the wrong side. They habitually united their old allies, the Golden Horde and Genoa, against Timur, who coveted Syria. As a result, the Mamluks and the Purple Horde-Venetian Alliance, which had just been formed at the time, were unexpectedly on opposite sides.

At this time, the power of the Sultan was held by the Circassian slave-led Bulgi dynasty. They had just overthrown their predecessor, but it wasn't long before they were forced to face Timur's invasion.

Sultan Barkuk was at a loss, and when he heard that the Purple Horde and Timur had a close relationship, he had no choice but to pull Bayezid, the Ottoman Sultan of Asia Minor, to form an alliance. In this way, the "one vertical" of the Golden Horde, the Ottomans, and the Mamluks, and the "one vertical" of the Purple Horde, Timur, and later the French "one horizontal" formed a situation of direct confrontation.

However, before Timur could arrive, Barkuk died suddenly, leaving behind his 13-year-old son, Faraj. His prestige and ability, could not stand up to Timur. The Mamluks were eventually forced to abandon Syria.

Unfortunately, Egypt was hit by a rare plague and famine, and the estimated loss of two-thirds of its population left the dynasty in turmoil.

At critical moments, Faraj tried to maintain his authority through military victories. But he didn't have too much outstanding military talent, but because of his tyrannical character, he was annoyed by everyone.

The local emirs rebelled; His father's Mamluk veterans rejected him; In the end, even his own Mamluks abandoned him.

Faraj was eventually killed in a failed expedition to reclaim Syria, and the dynasty fell into a situation without a monarch. The emirs are not even willing to compete for the position of sultan, because the risks and responsibilities are too great at this time.

In the end, everyone came up with a solution: don't we still have a caliph, just let him go.

As a result, Caliph al-Mustain, who had been in charge of issuing certificates of appointment to the Sultan, was appointed by the emirs as the new Sultan.

Although it is not known whether it is in accordance with the celestial rites for the emir to appoint the caliph as sultan, they did so.

At the same time, the emirs also contacted the Purple Horde, saying that the previous fights were all accidents: the emirs and Mamluks below had good intentions, and they blamed the sultan above for making blind decisions. But this guy has been cut down by us, can we resume trade now?

(End of chapter)