The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (1250-1517)

The Ayyubid sultans of Egypt built their armies from young Kipchak Turks brought from the Black Sea steppe. These soldiers were called mamluks. In 1250 the mamluk commanders ended Ayyubid rule and became sultans themselves.

In 1260 the mamluks stopped a Mongol army at Ain Jalut in Palestine. Baybars (1260-1277), a Kipchak Turk who became sultan after that victory, strengthened the state and united Syria and the Hejaz under it. Cairo became one of the greatest cities of the Islamic world, and the Abbasid caliphs came to live there.

A note on origin: in the "Bahri" period, 1250-1382, power lay mainly with Kipchak Turks; in the "Burji" period after 1382 most mamluks were Circassians. In 1517 the Ottoman sultan Selim I took Cairo and the sultanate came to an end.