Mamluk Art of Warfare (1250-1375)

Winner of the J. F. Verbruggen Prize 2025 for Best Book in Medieval Military HistoryIn Mamluk Art of Warfare, Mehdi Berriah sheds light on the mechanisms that structured the conduct and practice of warfare within the Mamluk army. The Mamluks made it one of the most efficient military forces in the medieval Near East in the 7th/13th and 8th/14th centuries, enabling them to repel the triple threat posed by the Mongols, the Franks, and the Armenians to the territories of dār al-Islām. Of servile origin, and coming mainly from the Eurasian steppes and the Caucasus, the Mamluks were recruited above all for warfare. This was their raison d'être, as their politico-religious legitimacy derived almost exclusively from their military exploits. Drawing on a large corpus combining chronicles (Arabic, Latin, Armenian, and Persian), didactic sources, and archaeological evidence, Mehdi Berriah offers the first comprehensive study explaining in detail the military successes of the Bahri Mamluks on different fronts against their three main enemies, as well as their near invincibility on land. This ultimately allowed the sultanate to establish itself as the leading power in the region from the mid-8th/14th century.