Political and Economic Developments in the Mamluk Period (1250-1517)

Abstract

The study explained the importance of the geographical location which represented the main pillar of the Mamluk political and economic power in Egypt and enabled it to control the trade routes and make it a link between the East and the West in the transport of goods and commercial goods to and from Europe as well as control of the most important maritime and commercial lines starting from the Far East - The Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and then exported to the European markets and vice versa, and this has earned them vitality, activity and strength and given full sovereignty over the region politically and economically for nearly two and a half centuries.
          The study revealed that the Mamluk state was the intermediary state that collects goods from its markets and receives European merchants and transporting them the eastern commercial goods they needed, especially spice and incense through the ports. The most important commercial routes used by the karm merchants start from India and China and then to the Indian Ocean To Aden and the Red Sea until it reaches the port of Aymab on the Egyptian side, and then transport goods on the Egyptian land to Cairo, and up to the ports of Alexandria or Damietta and then to Europe.
           The study showed that the Mamluk state exercised a special diplomatic approach towards the foreign nationals and traders in its territory and maintained their presence within the region to use them as a tool of pressure and insurance for the state of the Jirxis to confront any external attack on their state and to preserve their political and economic existence.