Mamlouks: 1250-1517

Abstract

"The Musée du Louvre marks a European first with a major exhibition on the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517), aiming to address this golden age of the Islamic Near East in all its scope and richness by examining it from a transregional perspective.The Mamluks, freed slave-soldiers of primarily Turkish (and later Caucasian) origin, built their legend on their warrior prowess. From 1250 to 1517, the Mamluk sultanate conquered the last bastions of the Crusaders, fought and repulsed the Mongol threat, survived Timur's invasions and kept its threatening Turkmen and Ottoman neighbours at bay before succumbing to the latter's expansionism. It encompassed a vast territory including Egypt, Bilad al-Sham (Syria, Libya, Israel/Palestine, Jordan), part of eastern Anatolia and the Hejaz region of Arabia, which includes Mecca and Medina.But the history of the Mamluk sultanate cannot be reduced to its conquests and feats of arms. Its culture, as complex and multifaceted as its society, was part of a little-known and singularly fluid medieval era. A world in which sultans mingled with emirs and rich civil elites, all actively engaged in artistic patronage. A pluralistic society in which women as well as Christian and Jewish minorities had a place. Another 'Middle Kingdom' where Europe, Africa and Asia converged and in which people and ideas circulated, as did merchandise and artistic repertoires.Structured in five sections (the Mamluks, their society, their cultures, their connections with the rest of the world and their art), the exhibition presents nearly 260 works, a third of which are from the Louvre and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, featured beside prestigious national and international loans. Textiles, objets d'art, manuscripts, paintings, ivories, stone and wood interior décors reveal a teeming artistic, literary, religious and scientific world. The sultanate was then the cultural heart of the Arab world and the heir to a number of grand traditions. Mamluk visual culture would make a lasting impression on art and architectural history. "-- Publisher.