“The Earliest Turkish Archery Manual”

A 14th-Century Archery Treatise in Mamluk-Kipchak: Kitab fi ‘Ilm an-Nushshab

Published 2002
Istanbul

The Mamluks were originally purchased as slaves from mostly the Kipchak tribes and the Circassians living on the southern steppes of Russia and the Caucasus and were brought to Cairo and other important military centers.

After extensive military training in these military centers, the Mamluks served as soldiers in the army and as bodyguards of the sultans and military commanders, and they gradually began to exert their power over the sultans. When the Mamluk commander Aybek overthrew the Ayyubid dynasty in 1250, the Mamluks became the rulers of Egypt and Syria and continued in that role until they were overthrown in 1517 by the Ottomans.