The Ottoman-Mamluk War of 1516–1517 as Described by the Egyptian Historian Ibn Zunbul

Abstract

The author of this article focuses on the 16th century work “The End of the Temporary Dynasty and the Rise to Power of the Ottoman Dynasty” by the Egyptian historian Ibn Zunbul Al-Rammal (“History” by Ibn Zunbul) and the events of the Ottoman-Mamluk war of 1516–1517 described in it. This book is the author’s most significant work. It is written in an artistic style and recounts the defeat of the penultimate Mamluk sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri in the war with the Ottoman ruler Selim I and the subsequent occupation of Syria and Egypt by the Ottomans. In the work, Ibn Zunbul takes the greatest interest in two topics. First, he examines the causes of the conflict, which broke out between Selim I and Qansuh al-Ghuri and led to the collapse of the Mamluk empire. Second, Ibn Zunbul pose the question why the Mamluks lost the war against the Ottomans. Despite his undisguised admiration for the fighting qualities of the Mamluks as knights, their combat tactics and courage, he is forced to admit that they could not resist the firearms of the Ottomans, which they had been actively using for many decades. Ibn Zunbul’s “History” is one of three works in Arabic written by contemporaries that detail the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The author attempts to define the significance of Ibn Zunbul’s work as a source in the history of Egypt in the first half of the 16th century.