Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class,[21] was of great political importance; for

one thing, it endured for nearly 1,000 years, from the 9th century to the early 19th century.
Over time, Mamluks became a powerful military knightly class in various Muslim societies that
were controlled by dynastic Arab rulers.[3][4][5][7][9] Particularly in Egypt and Syria,[3][4][5][9] but also in
the Ottoman Empire, Levant, Mesopotamia, and India, mamluks held political and military
power.[7] In some cases, they attained the rank of sultan, while in others they held regional power
as emirs or beys.[9] Most notably, Mamluk factions seized the sultanate centered
on Egypt and Syria, and controlled it as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517).[3][4][5][9] The Mamluk
Sultanate famously defeated the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Ain Jalut. They had earlier fought the
western European Christian Crusaders in 1154–1169 and 1213–1221, effectively driving them
out of Egypt and the Levant. In 1302 the Mamluk Sultanate formally expelled the last Crusaders
from the Levant, ending the era of the Crusades.[7][22]
While Mamluks were purchased as property,[3][4][5][7][9] their status was above ordinary slaves, who
were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks.[3][4][5][9] In places such as Egypt, from
the Ayyubid dynasty to the time of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, mamluks were considered to be
"true lords" and "true warriors", with social status above the general population in Egypt and
the Levant.[7] In a sense, they were like enslaved mercenaries.[3][4][5][9][23]
Overview
Daniel Pipes argued that the first indication of the Mamluk military class was rooted in
the practice of early Muslims such as Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Uthman ibn Affan who
before Islam, owned many slaves and practiced Mawla (Islamic manumission of slaves).
[24]
The Zubayrids army under Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, son of Zubayr, used these freed
slave retainers during the second civil war. [24]
Meanwhile, historians agree that the massive implementation of a slave military class
such as the Mamluks appears to have developed in Islamic societies beginning with the
9th-century Abbasid Caliphate based in Baghdad, under the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim.
[5]
Until the 1990s, it was widely believed that the earliest Mamluks were known
as Ghilman or Ghulam[6] (another broadly synonymous term for slaves,) [Note 1] and were
bought by the Abbasid caliphs, especially al-Mu'tasim (833–842).
By the end of the 9th century, such slave warriors had become the dominant element in
the military. Conflict between the Ghilman and the population of Baghdad prompted
the caliph al-Mu'tasim to move his capital to the city of Samarra, but this did not
succeed in calming tensions. The caliph al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by some of
these slave soldiers in 861 (see Anarchy at Samarra).[25]
Since the early 21st century, historians have suggested that there was a distinction
between the Mamluk system and the (earlier) Ghilman system, in Samarra, which did not
have specialized training and was based on pre-existing Central Asian hierarchies. Adult
slaves and freemen both served as warriors in the Ghilman system. The Mamluk system
developed later, after the return of the caliphate to Baghdad in the 870s. It included the
systematic training of young slaves in military and martial skills. [26] The Mamluk system is
considered to have been a small-scale experiment of al-Muwaffaq, to combine the
slaves' efficiency as warriors with improved reliability. This recent interpretation seems to
have been accepted.[27]