Wafidiyya

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The wāfidiyya were troops of various ethnic backgrounds who came into the military service of the

Mamlūk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria in exchange for asylum. The term is a collective noun formed from the singular wāfid, meaning "one who comes, makes his way, in a delegation or group".[1]

The wāfidiyya were predominantly

Mongol conquest of Khwarazmia and took refuge in Mamlūk Syria. This preceded the first major influx of Mongol wāfidiyya that took place in the aftermath of the first Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260, during the reign of Sultan Baybars (1260–77). The bulk of the wāfidiyya were settled in the devastated parts of Syria and Palestine, while only their leaders were allowed to settle in Egypt. Another large influx of 10–18,000 Mongol wāfidiyya from the Ilkhanate took place under Sultan al-ʿĀdil Kitbughā (1295–97), himself an Oirat Mongol.[1]

Baybars was purportedly frightened by the sudden influx of soldiers seeking asylum and sought to disperse ethnic Mongols throughout the army. He did allow some to join the elite

Kitbughā favoured the Oirat wāfidiyya and this led in part to his downfall. The Oirats remained politically important at the start of the reign of

al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn Ḳalāwūn (1309–40), but by 1333 some had been reduced servants (atbāʿ) of the Mamlūks. This represented a complete inversion of their original statuses. The Sultan Kitbughā and the regent Sayf al-Din Salar, both Oirats, had entered Egypt as slaves and risen through the Mamlūk ranks to the highest positions, whereas the Oirat wāfidiyya had entered Egypt as free men and been reduced to servile status within a generation or two.[1]

Notes

Sources

  • Amitai-Preiss, Reuven (1995). Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281. Cambridge University Press.
  • Ayalon, David (1951). "The Wafidiya in the Mamluk Kingdom". Islamic Culture. 25: 89–104.
  • Ayalon, David (2002). "Wāfidiyya". In .
  • Landa, Ishayahu (2016). "Oirats in the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk Sultanate in the Thirteenth to the Early Fifteenth Centuries: Two Cases of Assimilation into the Muslim Environment" (PDF). Mamlūk Studies Review. 19: 149–91.
  • Nobutaka, Nakamachi (2006). "The Rank and Status of Military Refugees in the Mamluk Army: A Reconsideration of the Wāfidīyah" (PDF). Mamlūk Studies Review. 10: 55–81.