Syria: A Short History/15

by Philip Khuri Hitti

AYYUBIDS AND MAMLUKS

When Saladin died in 1193, the sultanate built by him, extending from the Nile to the Tigris, was partitioned among his heirs, none of whom inherited his genius. His son al- Afdal succeeded to his father's throne in Damascus, but in 1 196 he was replaced by his uncle al-Adil of Egypt. In 1250 the Damascus branch was incorporated with that of Aleppo, only to be swept away after a decade by the Mongol ava- lanche of Hulagu. Saladin's second son, al-Aziz, followed his father on the Egyptian throne, but al-Aziz' son was sup- planted in 1 198 by the same al-Adil, who in both cases took advantage of the dissension among his nephews. It was these dynastic feuds which afforded the Franks an oppor- tunity to regain some of their lost territory. Saladin's third son, al-Zahir, succeeded his father at Aleppo. Other branches were founded at Hamah, Horns, Baalbek and al- Karak (Krak de Montreal) and in Mesopotamia and Yemen.

Of the many Ayyubid branches the Egyptian was the chief. Several of this line held both Cairo and Damascus. One of them was al-AdiPs grandson al-Salih Najm-al-Din, who died in 1249 leaving a widow Shajar-al-Durr (the tree of pearls). Formerly a Turkish or Armenian slave in the harem of the Abbasid caliph, Shajar had been freed by al- Salih after having borne him a son. For three months she kept the news of her husband's death a secret, pending the return from Mesopotamia of his son Turan-Shah, who soon lost the loyalty of his slaves (mamluks) and was murdered with the connivance of his stepmother. The daring and energetic woman thereupon proclaimed herself queen of the Moslems and for eighty days exercised sole sovereignty over the lands which had produced Zenobia and Cleopatra. She even had coins struck in her name and had herself mentioned in the Friday prayer.

Her former master the caliph addressed a scathing note to the amirs of Egypt: 'If you have no man to rule you, let us know and we will send you one'. They chose her Turkish commander-in-chief, Aybak, sultan and she salvaged a remnant of glory by marrying him. Aybak crushed the legitimist Ayyubid party of Syria, who considered themselves entitled to rule Egypt, and concentrated on eliminating potential rivals, but he overlooked Shajar-al-Durr. On hearing that Aybak (i 250-1 257) was contemplating another marriage, the queen had him murdered at his bath after a ball game. Her turn then came. Battered to death with wooden shoes by the slave women of her husband's first wife, her body was cast from a tower in the citadel of Cairo.

Aybak was the first of the Mamluk sultans. This unusual dynasty was drawn from the Ayyubids' slave bodyguard, a military oligarchy in an alien land. When one of them died, often it was not his son who succeeded him but a slave or a mercenary of his who had won distinction and eminence. Thus the bondman of yesterday would become the army commander of today and the sultan of tomorrow. For almost two and three-quarter centuries the slave sultans dominated by the sword one of the most turbulent areas of the world. Generally uncultured and brutal, they nevertheless endowed Cairo with some architectural monuments of which it still rightly boasts. Two other services to the cause of Islam were rendered by them: they cleared Syria of the remnant of the Crusaders and they definitely checked the redoubtable advance of the Mongol hordes of Hulagu and of Timur (Tamerlane). Had they failed to do so, the entire sub- sequent history of south-western Asia and Egypt might have been different.

Originally purchased in the slave markets of Moslem Russia and the Caucasus to form the personal bodyguard of the Ayyubid al-Salih, the first Mamluks started a series which is divided into two rather dissimilar dynasties, called Bahri (i 250-1 390) and Burji (1382-15 17). The Bahris received their name from the Nile (Bahr al-Nil), on an islet in which their barracks stood. They were mostly Turks and Mongols; the Burjis were largely Circassians. Their rise was followed a decade later by the advent of the Mongols. Once more Syria became a battlefield of two contending powers.

Fresh from the destruction of the caliphate of Baghdad and the Assassin nest of Alamut, the Mongol horde under Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan, made its ominous appearance in northern Syria in 1260. The first victim was Aleppo, where fifty thousand people were put to the sword; Hamah suffered a similar blow. Damascus was besieged. Latin Antioch became a Mongol satellite. Louis IX and the pope thought an alliance with the invaders would help in the struggle against the Moslems. Shamanism was the official religion of the newcomers — as it was of their cousins the Turks — but among them were some Christian descendants of converts by early Syrian missionaries. It was a Christian general, Kitbugha, who overran and devastated most of Syria. The reigning Mamluk was Qutuz (1259- 1260), an ex-slave who had displaced Aybak's son and executed Hulagu's envoys. In a battle at Ayn Jalut (Goliath's spring), near Nazareth, Baybars led the vanguard under Qutuz and administered a crushing defeat to the intruders. Kitbugha fell and the remnant of his army was pursued and chased out of Syria. In recognition of his military service Baybars expected to receive Aleppo as a fief but the sultan disappointed him. On the way home- ward from Syria a fellow-conspirator addressed the sultan and kissed his hand while Baybars stabbed him in the neck. The murderer succeeded his victim.

Fourth in the series, Baybars (1260-1277) was the first great sultan, the real founder of Mamluk power and the victor over both Mongols and Crusaders. He was also a great administrator responsible for canals, harbour improve- ments, swift postal service and public works — renovation of mosques including the Dome of the Rock, restoration of citadels such as that of Aleppo and establishment of philan- thropic endowments. His mausoleum at Damascus is now the library of the Arab Academy, which boasts one of the oldest manuscripts on paper (880).

A second Mongol invasion in 1280 was met by another Turkish ex-slave sultan, Qalawun (1279-1290), who seized power after two sons of Baybars had reigned briefly. After defeating at Horns the numerically superior invaders, re- inforced by Armenians, Georgians and Persians, Qalawun proceeded with the reduction of Crusader fortresses — a task completed in 1291, as previously mentioned, by his son al- Ashraf. Another son, al-Nasir, was defeated in 1299 by a third Mongol host, which proceeded to devastate northern Syria. Early in 1300 the invaders occupied Damascus, utterly destroying a large part of the city. By 1303 the Egyptian army was strong enough to defeat the Mongols south of Damascus and to expel them permanently from the stricken land. The Mamluks had beaten the most persistent and dangerous enemy Syria and Egypt had to face since the beginning of Islam. As in the case of the Crusades, the Mongol invasions had disastrous consequences for the minorities. The Druzes of Lebanon, whose 12,000 bowmen harassed the Egyptian army on its retreat before the Mongols in 1300, were brought to a severe reckoning. The Armenians saw their unhappy land vengefully devastated by al-Nasir, who also made his own Christian and Jewish subjects suffer.

Al-Nasir was followed in a period of forty-two years (1340-1382) by twelve descendants, none of whom dis- tinguished himself in any field of endeavour. The last among them was a child whose reign was first interrupted and then terminated by a Circassian, Barquq. Barquq founded the second Mamluk series, called Burji after the towers of the citadel in Cairo, where they were first quartered as slaves. With the exception of two Greeks the Burjis were all Circassians. They rejected even more emphatically than their predecessors the principle of hereditary succession. Turn-over was rapid and natural death exceptional. The reign of Qjait-bay (1468-1495) was the longest and perhaps the most successful. The new regime was no improvement on the old. Corruption, intrigue, assassination and misrule continued to flourish. Several of the sultans were in- efficient and treacherous; some were immoral, even de- generate; most were uncultured. Not only the sultans were corrupt but the amirs and the entire oligarchy, and the situation in Egypt was duplicated in Mamluk Syria.

The Mamluk administrative system continued that set up by the Abbasids and Fatimids, while the half-dozen provinces followed the divisions under the Ayyubid branches. Provincial governors, originally slaves of some sultan, repre- sented the military as opposed to the learned class. Generally independent of one another, each maintained a court repro- ducing on a small scale, that of Cairo. Animosities and dis- turbances in the federal capital were often reflected in the provincial ones. The change of a Mamluk sultan usually provoked a rebellion on the part of a governor in Damascus or some other Syrian province. Western Lebanon remained under its native Buhturid amirs. Because of its historic background, Damascus, where Baybars often held his court, took precedence over other Syrian cities. One of its governors, Tangiz (13 12-1339), as regent over Syria brought water to Jerusalem and restored the tower of Beirut, where he also built hostels and public baths. After an unusually long and beneficent reign he fell into disgrace and was put to death in a prison in Alexandria.

Almost the entire Mamluk era was punctuated with periods of drought, famine and pestilence. Earthquakes added their quota to the general devastation. Owing to these calamities and Mamluk misgovernment, the population of Egypt and Syria was reduced to an estimated one-third of its former size. The economic difficulties were com- pounded by exorbitant tax burdens. Such necessities as salt and sugar, as well as horses and boats, were heavily taxed. Some sultans monopolized certain commodities and manipulated prices to their advantage. Others debased the currency and contributed to the inflationary spiral. As the people became impoverished, the rulers waxed rich. With- out an abundance of wealth the sultans could not have erected the lavish architectural monuments which still adorn Egypt and Syria.

Some of the economic loss was offset by an increase in trade. The concessions offered by al-Adil and Baybars to Venetians and other European merchants stimulated ex- change of commodities. Syrian silk shared with perfumes and spices first place in the export trade. Glass and manu- factured articles stood next on the list. Damascus, Tripoli, Antioch and Tyre were among the leading centres of industry. In the bazaars of Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut one could buy ivories and metal- work, dyed cloth and carpets. The neighbourhood of Beirut produced olive oil and soap, as it does today. Syrians did not depend entirely on foreigners for their export trade. As early as Saladin's day their merchants took up residence in Constantinople, where the emperor built a mosque for them and their Egyptian col- leagues in reciprocation for privileges enjoyed by Byzantine merchants in Syria and Egypt. No other foreign merchants were permitted permanent residence in the Byzantine capital.

A German clergyman who sojourned in Syria from 1336 to 1341 was most favourably impressed by the signs of prosperity in Damascus and described Acre as 'exceeding neat, all the walls of the houses being of the same height and all alike built of hewn stone, wondrously adorned with glass windows and paintings, while all the palaces and houses in the city were not built merely to meet the needs of those who dwelt therein, but to minister to human luxury and pleasure'. He goes on to say: 'At every street corner there stood an exceeding strong tower, fenced with an iron door and iron chains. All the nobles dwelt in very strong castles and palaces along the outer edge of the city. In the midst of the city dwelt the mechanic citizens and merchants, each in his own special street according to his trade.'

With remarkable dexterity the feudal chiefs of Lebanon maintained their power by co-operating with successive overlords and by offering military service to each in turn — Fatimids, Franks, Ayyubids and Mamluks. In the struggle between Mamluks and Mongols the Buhturid amirs at times had representatives in both camps, to ensure that they would be on the winning side no matter which it was. Mount Lebanon was still partly wooded, with wild beasts frequent- ing its slopes. Wild fruits and edible plants attracted ascetics and hermits of both faiths, but penetration by Arab tribes was reducing their solitude.

Despite its political turmoils and economic vicissitudes Syria enjoyed under the Ayyubids a flourishing era of artistic and educational activity. The hospital built in Damascus by Nur-al-Din continued to prosper on an en- dowment which yielded fifteen dinars daily. It was staffed with wardens who kept a record of the cases and expenses and with physicians who attended the patients and pre- scribed foods and free medicines. An Egyptian official recorded a visit he paid this institution around 1428 accom- panied by an amiable Persian pilgrim who, attracted by the comforts accorded the patients, feigned illness and was admitted. On feeling his pulse and examining him thoroughly, the head physician realized there was nothing wrong with the gentleman but nevertheless prescribed fat- tened chickens, fragrant sherbets, fruits, savoury cakes and other delicacies. When the time came, however, he wrote a new prescription: 'Three days are the limit of the hospitality period'.

This hospital was equipped with a library and served as a medical school. There is evidence to show that physicians, pharmacists and oculists were examined and given certifi- cates before being allowed to practise their professions. In the manuals for the guidance of officials responsible for law enforcement, their duties with respect to phlebotomists, cuppers, physicians, surgeons, bone-setters and druggists are clearly set forth, indicating a certain measure of state control. Ibn-al-Nafis, a Syrian physician 'who would not prescribe medicine when diet sufficed', in a commentary on ibn-Sina contributed a clear conception of the pulmonary circulation of the blood three centuries before the Spaniard Servetus, to whom the discovery is usually credited. The only major Arabic medical works of the thirteenth century were treatises by two Syrian oculists. One of them, Khalifah ibn-abi-al- Mahasin of Aleppo, was so confident of his surgical skill that he did not hesitate to remove a cataract from a one-eyed man. To this century too belongs the most distinguished Arabic historian of medicine, Ahmad ibn-abi-Usaybiah of Damascus. He compiled biographies of some 400 Arab and Greek physicians and scientists. All these men, however, lived in the late twilight of Islamic science.

Saladin and his heirs continued Nur-al-Din's interest in building schools and mosques. It was Saladin who intro- duced from Syria into Egypt the dervish 'monastery' and the collegiate mosque to inculcate orthodox Sunnism and combat the widely held Shiite doctrine. In Jerusalem he built a hospital, a school and a monastery all bearing his name. The Ayyubid school of Syrian architecture was continued in Mamluk Egypt, where it is still represented by some of the most exquisite monuments Arab art ever pro- duced. Strength, solidity and excessive decoration char- acterize this school. Its decorative motifs assume infinite grace on its durable material of fine stone. In the thirteenth century Egypt received fresh Syro-Mesopotamian influences through refugee artists and artisans who had fled Damascus, Baghdad and Mosul during the Mongol invasions. The influence is apparent in schools, mosques, hospitals, dervish monasteries and palaces. The ornamentation of Ayyubid and Mamluk monuments enhanced their architectural beauty. Among the Ayyubid innovations was a tendency towards elaboration in detail, greater elegance of proportion and increase in the number of stalactites. There was also a breakaway from the tradition of the plain square towers. In the Bahri Mamluk period the elaborate type of minaret evolved from the Ayyubid. The finest minarets, however, belong to the Burji period, in which Arab architecture — as represented in the mosques — achieved its greatest triumphs.

Exquisite specimens of iron-work, copper- work, glass- ware and wood-carving have come down to us from the Ayyubid-Mamluk age. Especially noteworthy among copper utensils are vases, ewers, trays, chandeliers, perfume burners and Koran cases — all with rich decoration of a vigour and c sureness of touch that make it not only a delight to the eye but also ... a delight to the intelligence'. Damascus was especially noted for its c gold-like' basins and ewers inlaid with figures, foliage and other delicate designs in silver. Bronze ornaments from doors of mosques bear witness to the good taste of the age. Wood-carvings with floral and geometrical designs indicate freedom from the sterile formulas of Fatimid art. A thirteenth-century bottle sur- vives as one of the oldest specimens of enamelled glass, while mosque lamps prove that Syria was still ahead of any European land in the technique of glass manufacture.

Intellectually, the entire Ayyubid-Mamluk period was one of compilation and imitation rather than of origination. Nevertheless Damascus and Cairo, especially after the destruction of Baghdad and the disintegration of Moslem Spain, remained the educational and intellectual centres of the Arab world. The richly endowed schools in these two cities served to conserve and transmit Arab science and learning.

In Sufism certain significant developments took place. Ayyubid Aleppo was the scene of the activity of an extra- ordinary Sufi, al-Suhrawardi (1155-1191), founder of the doctrine of illumination and of a dervish order. According to this doctrine light is the very essence of God, the funda- mental reality of all things and the representative of true knowledge, perfect purity, love and goodness. Clearly such theories combine Zoroastrian — more especially Manichaean — Neo-Platonic and Islamic ideas. The conception of God as light is stressed in the Koran. Intoxicated with his mystical fervour, young al-Suhrawardi so incensed the con- servative theologians that on their insistence he was starved or strangled to death on orders from the sultan. Another illuminationist Sufi, ibn-Arabi (1165-1240), left his native Spain on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1202 and thereafter made Damascus his home. A pantheistic philosopher, ibn- Arabi is considered the greatest speculative genius of Islamic mysticism. He recognized the inner light as the one true guide and influenced such Christians as Raymond Lull and Dante.

In literature Syria of the Ayyubid - Mamluk period could boast an array of geographers, biographers, historians and encyclopaedic scholars without peer in Islamic history. Yaqut (1179-1229), originally a Greek slave, wrote a master- ful geographical dictionary at Aleppo, as well as a monu- mental dictionary of learned men. Ibn-Khallikan (d. 1282) was, for many years, chief judge of Syria, as well as compiler of the finest Moslem collection of biographies. He took pains to establish the correct orthography of names, fix dates, trace pedigrees, ascertain the significant events, and on the whole produce as accurate and interesting portrayals as possible. A continuation of this work was penned by al- Kutubi (d. 1363) of Aleppo. A more prolific biographer was al-Safadi (1 296-1 363), treasurer of Damascus and author of a thirty-volume work in the extant part of which the lives of some fourteen thousand rulers, judges and literati are portrayed.

Among Syrian historians of the period the most important are abu-Shamah (1203-1268), chronicler of the careers of Nur-al-Din and Saladin, and abu-al-Fida (1273-1332), Ayyubid ruler of Hamah and continuator of the great ibn- al-Athir (d. 1234). Abu-al-Fida made a worthy contribu- tion to geography too ; he argues for the sphericity of the earth and the loss or gain of one day as one travels around it. His contemporary Shams-al-Din al-Dimashqi (d. 1326/7) wrote a cosmographical treatise rich in physical, mineral and ethnic data. Another Damascene, ibn-Fadl-AUah al- Umari (d. 1349), produced a travel book and an epistolary manual for administrators and diplomats. The two leading historians of the period, the Egyptian al-Maqrizi and the Tunisian ibn-Khaldun, are connected with Syria. Al- Maqrizi ( 1364-1442) was of Baalbekan ancestry and held a professorship in Damascus. His teacher was ibn-Khaldun (1332-1406), who, in 1401, accompanied the Burji sultan Faraj to Damascus and was received as an honoured guest by Timur. Ibn-Khaldun's prolegomena, the first volume in his comprehensive history, entitles him to the distinction of being the greatest philosopher of history Islam produced. In his attempt to interpret historical happenings and national traits on economic, geographic, physical and other secular bases, ibn-Khaldun had no predecessor in Islam and remains without a worthy successor.

The onslaught on Syria by Timur Lang (Tamerlane) was the last and most destructive of the Mongol invasions. Timur spread havoc and ruin throughout south-western Asia until Syria lay prostrate beneath his feet. For three days in October 1400 Aleppo was given over to plunder. Its citadel was perhaps for the first time taken by storm, the invader having sacrificed of his men enough to fill the moat with their corpses. Some twenty thousand of the city's inhabitants were slaughtered and their severed heads piled high. The city's priceless schools and mosques built by Nurids and Ayyubids were for ever destroyed. The routing of the advance forces of Faraj opened the way to Damascus. Its citadel held out for a month. In violation of the capitulation terms the city was plundered and com- mitted to the flames. Thirty thousand of its' men, women and children were shut up in its great mosque, which was then set on fire. Of the building itself only the walls were left standing. The cream of Damascene scholars, craftsmen, artisans, armourers, steel workers and glass manufacturers were carried away to Timur's capital, Samarkand, there to implant these and other minor arts. This was perhaps the heaviest blow that the city, if not the whole country, ever suffered. Timur crushed the Ottoman army at Ankara in 1402, but died two years later. His successors exhausted themselves in internal struggles, making possible the recon- stitution of the Ottoman power in Asia Minor and later the rise of the Safawid dynasty in Persia.

Rivalry between the Mamluk and the Ottoman sultanates asserted itself in the second half of the fifteenth century. Hostilities did not break out till i486, when Qait-bay con- tested with the Ottoman Bayazid II the possession of Adana, Tarsus and other border towns. Selim I (1512-1520) destroyed the Safawid army and occupied Mesopotamia. He charged that the Mamluk Qansawh al-Ghawri (1500- 1516) had entered into treaty relations with the Safawid shah against him and had harboured political refugees. Qansawh moved northward under the pretext of acting as an intermediary between the two contestants. He sent a special envoy to Selim, who shaved his beard and sent him back on a lame donkey with a declaration of war.

The Ottoman and Mamluk armies clashed on August 24, 1516, north of Aleppo. The seventy-five-year-old Qansawh fought valiantly but hopelessly. He could not depend upon the loyalty of his Syrian governors nor could his troops match the redoubtable Janissaries with their superior equipment. Khair Bey, the treacherous governor of Aleppo, who was entrusted with the command of the left wing, deserted with his men at the first charge. The Turkish army employed artillery, muskets and other long-range weapons which the Egyptian army, comprising bedouin and Syrian contingents, was unfamiliar with or disdained to use, clinging to the antiquated theory that personal valour is the decisive factor in combat. In the thick of battle Qansawh was stricken with apoplexy and fell from his horse. Selim's victory was complete. In the citadel of Aleppo he found Mamluk treasures estimated in millions of dinars. In mid-October he moved on to Damascus. Syria passed quietly into Ottoman hands, there to remain for four full centuries. Its people, as on many a previous occasion, welcomed the new masters as deliverers from the old. Egypt was subdued in January 1517 and Hejaz, with its two holy cities, automatically became a part of Selim's empire. A new era began for the Arab world: the era of domination by the Ottoman Turks.