The Mamelucks

The Mamelucks played a major role in medieval history by stopping the Mongol expansion into the Middle East at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. They also drove the final Crusader kingdoms out of the Levant.

Also Napoleon (1769 – 1821) fancied the skills of the Mamelucks and their impressive steeds. He fought against them during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria and defeated them at the famous Battle of the Pyramids. Napoleon recruited several Mamelucks and established the Mameluck Squadron of the Imperial Guard, an elite cavalry unit in France. In his book “Napoleon in Egypt”, Vertray provides a colorful description: “In the background, the desert under the blue sky; before us, the beautiful Arabian horses, richly harnessed, snorting, neighing, prancing gracefully and lightly under their martial riders, who are covered with dazzling arms, inlaid with gold and precious stones. Their costumes are brilliantly colorful; their turbans are surmounted with aigret feathers, and some wear gilded helmets. They are armed with sabres, lances, maces, spears, rifles, battle axes, and daggers, and each has three pairs of pistols.” He continues: “A Mameluke was almost never captured: he was either victorious, or he was killed, or he fled with the same lightning speed with which he attacked. As a consequence, he carried with him, in jewels, clothes, and coins, a veritable fortune. Over a muslin shirt, he wore layers of bright and brilliant silken vests and caftans, the whole encased in gigantic silken trousers, a single leg of which a large man could have wrapped himself. The Mameluks’ stature was usually gigantic – they were picked as boys by experts – and their features handsome.”