130 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRESand protected themselves with plated armor and walled castles. The states
that successfully made the transition to the gunpowder age were those that
strengthened their administrative and commercial classes at the expense
of the landowning aristocracy. No Middle Eastern country succeeded as
well in this as England and Holland. The one that came closest was the
Ottoman Empire.
Because the Middle East is so central within the Afro-Eurasian landmass,
the area is apt to be measured during any given period by military yard¬
sticks: Were its governments strong or weak? Did they win wars or lose
them? Did they gain land or give it up? Did their soldiers go into foreign
territories, or did other armies occupy their lands? Although this chapter
has no defined beginning and ending dates, it could start with a Muslim
victory, that of the Mamluks over the Mongols at Ayn Jalut in 1260, and ter¬
minate in 1699, the date of a widely recognized Muslim defeat, when the
Ottoman Empire ceded Hungary to Habsburg Austria. Between these two
dates, the Muslims recovered from the Mongol shock, formed new political
institutions, expanded the lands of Islam by taking the Balkans and parts of
India and by peacefully penetrating West Africa and Southeast Asia, reached
new heights of prosperity, and built monumental works of art—such as the
Taj Mahal—that still set a standard for created beauty.
THE MAMLUKSYou may recall from Chapter 7 that the Mamluks who saved Egypt from
the Mongol menace in 1260 were Turkish ex-slaves who had recently
seized power from the Ayyubids, the descendants of Salah al-Din. This il¬
lustrious ruler had adopted the practice of many Muslim dynasties, going
back to the Abbasids, of importing Turkish boys (mamluks, or "owned
men") from Central Asia and training them to be soldiers. Under Salah al-
Din's descendants, the Mamluks came to dominate the Ayyubid army. In
the thirteenth century, Egypt, not Jerusalem, bore the brunt of the Cru¬
sader attacks. The Seventh Crusade, led by France's King Louis IX (later
"Saint Louis"), occupied the coastal town of Damietta in 1249 and was
about to take Mansura when the Ayyubids sent the Mamluks to stop his
forces. In the process, the Mamluks captured Louis and his army. Back in
Cairo, meanwhile, the Ayyubid sultan died, with his son and heir pre¬
sumptive far away. For six months his widow, Shajar al-Durr, concealed
his death and ruled in his name. When the son returned to Cairo, the
dominant Mamluk faction, seeing that he favored a rival group, killed him
before he could ascend the throne. The murderers proceeded to make Sha-