Movement of Scholars to the Mamluk Region and the Range of Scholarly Institutions in Mamluk Cairo

Abstract

From the hijri 7th century onwards, instabilities seen to the east and west of the Egyptian-Syrian region and Mamluks' effort in making this region a secure area by defending it against external threats constitutes one of the principle motivations for scholars to move there. In addition to promoting safety and stability in the region they ruled, Mamluks made the cities like Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, and Jerusalem prominent learning centers in the Islamicate world by constructing a great number of scholarly institutions and providing facilities for scholars. The influx of scholars from the east and west constituted the cosmopolitan scholarly milieu in the cities of Egypt and Syria, and, thanks to that, numerous works in almost all branches of Islamic sciences were produced, and new encyclopedic genres came to light. This article deals with the motivations behind the movement of scholars to the Egyptian-Syrian region in the Mamluk period and evaluates remarks in modern scholarship on this issue. Moreover, the article proposes that three interrelated tendencies came into view at the scholarly institutions of Cairo which was the political and cultural center of the Mamluks. These tendencies are: first; the harmonization of madrasa and mosque in terms of their architectural forms and institutional functions; second; the emergence of scholarly institutions that combined the functions of institutions such as mosque, madrasa, hanqah, bimaristan, and mausoleum; and lastly; the formation of scholarly institutions, that offered a lot of stipendiary positions (mansibs) to ulama by providing lessons for four Sunni schools of law together with lessons for tafsir, hadith, nahw, qira'a, and medicine.