Mamluk Prosopography Project

 MPP contains related biographical, institutional, geographical, historical and historiographical data organised in the following key entities (defined by CIDOC-CRM):

(you can click on each entity to learn more)

Navigating & Searching in MPP

See our demo's on how to navigate in MPP from its different entry points: actor , event , institution , place , information object

  • in most cases, simplified transliteration can be used for searches (eg. safad will retrieve all references that include the name Ṣafad, just as muhammad will do for Muḥammad, bugha for Bughā, walid for wālid, Wālid or al-Walīd …) (for MPP's transliteration rules, see below)
  • Searches can always also be done using Arabic script
  • in the case of hamza or ʿayn,  the correct characters ʾ and ʿ can be used to retrieve data, or the wildcard *
  • single quotes or "=" can be used to retrieve exact and specific data (eg. =Jaqmaq; 'Jaqmaq')

  • to browse all data for one of MPP's key entities (see above), leave the search box empty and press search
  • the search engine will remember your recent searches for quick navigation (see the drop down menus with recently consulted entities at the top right corner of every page)

 

MPP currently holds data for the following periods in the history of the sultanate of Cairo:

 

 784-872/1382-1468, broken down into the following six episodes:

4.1 & 4.2: 784-815/1382-1412 (partial)

5.1 815-825/1412-1422 & 5.1b 825-842/1422-1438

5.2 842-857/1438-1453 & 5.2b 857-872/1453-1468

 

MPP currently holds data from the following main sources:

 (input of some ongoing) (for full bibliographical details, see the Mamluk Bibliography Project):

 

Narrative sources: chronicles

  • al-Maqrizi's Sulūk (ed. Ashour)
  • al-'Ayni's 'Iqd (ed. Qarmūt)
  • Ibn Taghrī Birdī's Nujūm (ed. Popper; ed. Shams al-Dīn)
  • Ibn Taghrī Birdī's Ḥawādith (ed. Popper; ed. Shalṭuṭ)
  • Ibn al-Ḥimṣī's Ḥawādith al-Zamān (ed. Fayāḍ Ḥarfūsh) (partial)
  • Ibn Ḥajar's Inbāʾ al-Ghumr (ed. ʿAbd al-Muʿīd Khān) (partial)
  • ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ's Nayl al-Amal (ed. Tadmurī) (partial)
  • al-Ṣayrafī's Nuzhat al-Nufūs (ed. Ḥabashī) (partial)
  • Ibn Iyās' Badāʾiʿ al-Zuhūr (ed. Muṣṭafā) (partial)

 

Narrative sources: biographical dictionaries

  • Ibn Taghrī Birdī's Manhal (ed. Amīn) (vols. 1-12 - complete)
  • al-Sakhāwī's al-Ḍawʾ al-Lāmiʿ (ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān) (partial)

 

Court manuals etc.:

  • Ibn Faḍl Allāh's Masālik (ed. Sayyid)
  • Ibn Faḍl Allāh's Taʿrīf (ed. Ḥusayn)
  • Ibn Nāẓir al-Jaysh's Tathqīf (ed. Vesely)
  • al-Qalqashandī's Ṣubḥ (ed. Ḥātim)
  • al-Maqrīzī's Khiṭaṭ
  • al-Ẓāhirī's Zubda (ed. Ravaisse)

 

Transliteration

consonants: ʾ - b - t - th - j - ḥ - kh - d - dh - r - z - s - sh - ṣ - ḍ - ṭ - ẓ - ʿ - gh - f - q - k - l - m - n - h - w - y

vowels: a/ā - i/ī - u/ū

- simple Arabic-specific consonants and vowels: ʾ, ā, ḥ, ḍ, ṣ, ṭ, ẓ, ʿ, ī, ū

- composed Arabic-specific consonants: th, kh, dh, sh, gh

- hamza is also used as initial letter (except of course al-, ism …)

- no nunation, but wasla-connection (eg. ʾAbu l-Faḍl instead of ʾAbū al-Faḍl)

- no assimilation of al- (eg. al-shams, not ash-shams)

- nisba: ī / īya

- tāʾ marbūṭa: a / at (in iḍāfa)