The Chronicles and Annalistic Sources of the Early Mamluk Circassian Period

摘要

One thing that has attracted many to the study of the Mamluk Sultanate, from its military-political elite to the large swathes of the society in Egypt and Syria over which it ruled, is the rich historiographical literature from the period. An excellent idea of the wealth, depth and detail of this corpus is provided by Sami Massoud's study of historical writing in the early Circassian period, which is generally taken to have begun with Barquq's first rise to power in 1282 ce. This particular study, however, commences a few years before, when the ground was being laid for the transformation of Mamluk politics. Dr Massoud's work is a reliable, yet preliminary, guide through a dense thicket of writers -some more famous than others -and works, including various 'editions' (i.e. variant manuscripts and summations of earlier works by later authors) for a twenty five year period. The fact that this is a "preliminary" study (as stressed by the author himself) does not detract from its potential usefulness and significance for students of Mamluk historiography, as well as for those interested in the intellectual, social, political, military and economic history of the period.