The Near East (1396–1539 CE): From Mamluk Power to Ottoman Dominion

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of The Near East includes modern Israel, Egypt, Sudan, most of Jordan, extreme southern Lebanon, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, southwestern Cyprus, and southwestern Turkey. Anchors comprised the Nile Valley and Delta, the Red Sea corridor with the Hejaz, the Yemeni highlands and Tihama coast, the Levantine uplands and coastal strip, and the southwest Anatolian and Cypriot Mediterranean littorals. These were zones of intensive agriculture, caravan and pilgrimage routes, and seaports connecting the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean world.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

During the Little Ice Age, cooler winters and erratic rainfall shaped farming and settlement:

• Nile Valley: Annual floods varied in intensity, producing alternating grain surpluses and shortfalls.

• Western Yemen: Highland terraces maintained productivity despite irregular rainfall; drought struck the Tihama coast more severely.

• Hejaz: Extremely arid, reliant on caravan supply and imported grain.

• Levant & Cyprus: Wet–dry cycles influenced cereal, olive, and vine yields.

• Sudan (Nubia): Nile-dependent sorghum fields thrived when floods were reliable, but low waters triggered famine and migration.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Egypt: Irrigated wheat, barley, sugarcane, and fava beans in the Nile Valley and Delta; date palms, vegetables, and flax supplemented. Cairo was the metropolis and breadbasket.

• Western Arabia: Dates, barley, and small gardens in oases; Mecca and Medina subsisted on caravans bringing Syrian and Egyptian grain.

• Yemen: Terraced sorghum, wheat, fruits, and qat; goats and cattle in highlands; Red Sea ports like Aden imported rice and cloth.

• Israel, Jordan, southern Lebanon: Wheat, barley, olives, and vines in uplands; pastoralism in steppe and desert margins.

• Sudan: Sorghum, millet, and herding along the Nile corridor.

• Cyprus & southwestern Anatolia: Grain, vines, olives, and sugar; coastal fishing supported towns like Antalya and Limassol.

Technology & Material Culture

• Irrigation: Nile canals in Egypt; Yemeni terrace walls and cisterns; Jordanian and Levantine cistern systems.

• Military: Mamluk cavalry and fortified cities in Egypt and Syria; Ottomans introduced siege artillery and gunpowder infantry, shifting regional power.

• Architecture: Cairo’s mosques, madrasas, and caravanserais; Yemeni stone tower houses; Ottoman mosques rising in Anatolia; Orthodox monasteries in Cyprus.

• Crafts: Egyptian glass, metalwork, and textiles; Yemeni ceramics; Levantine soap and sugar.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Pilgrimage routes: Cairo and Damascus caravans supplied Mecca; Red Sea shipping funneled pilgrims to Jeddah.

• Red Sea trade: Aden and Jeddah mediated flows of Indian Ocean spices, textiles, and horses.

• Nile corridor: Moved grain and sugar from Upper Egypt to Alexandria and Cairo, then outward to Mediterranean markets.

• Mediterranean ports: Alexandria, Limassol, and Antalya tied the Near East to Venice and Genoa.

• Sudan–Nubia corridor: Linked gold, slaves, and sorghum north to Egypt.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Islamic piety: Mamluk Cairo upheld legitimacy as protector of the holy cities; Mecca and Medina remained spiritual poles.

• Sufism: Flourished through lodges in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Yemen; saints’ shrines anchored local devotion.

• Christianity: Monasteries of Copts in Egypt, Armenians and Orthodox in Cyprus and Anatolia; Latin enclaves in Cyprus under Venetian rule.

• Judaism: Thrived in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Safed (which became a center of mystical Kabbalah by the early 16th century).

• Art & learning: Mamluk manuscripts and architecture in Cairo; Yemeni chronicles; early Ottoman architecture in Anatolia.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Egypt: Stored grain in state and private granaries to offset poor Nile years.

• Yemen: Terracing and cisterns captured rainfall; diversified crops mitigated drought.

• Hejaz: Imported grain ensured survival; cisterns and wells sustained pilgrims.

• Levant: Mixed farming of cereals, olives, and vines spread risk; steppe tribes balanced herding and raiding.

• Sudan: Sorghum and millet cycles staggered planting to hedge against low Nile years.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Mamluk Sultanate (Egypt, Syria, Hejaz): Maintained control until early 16th century; famed for cavalry, but weakened by plague and economic disruption from Portuguese diversion of spice trade.

• Western Yemen: Rasulid then Tahirid dynasties ruled, but Zaydi imams contested highlands.

• Ottoman advance: Captured Constantinople (1453), Antalya, and much of Anatolia; Selim I defeated Mamluks (1516–17), annexing Egypt, Syria, Hejaz, and securing Mecca and Medina.

• Sudan: Christian Nubia declined; Muslim Funj sultanate rose in Sennar (early 16th century).

• Portuguese intrusion: After Vasco da Gama (1498), Portuguese fleets disrupted Red Sea–Aden spice routes; naval clashes at Diu (1509) and Aden (1513).

• Cyprus & Anatolia: Cyprus under Venetian rule; southwestern Anatolia absorbed into Ottoman domains.

Transition

By 1539 CE, the Near East had undergone a profound transformation. The Mamluk Sultanate had fallen; the Ottomans ruled Egypt, Hejaz, Levant, and southwestern Anatolia, presenting themselves as protectors of Islam’s holy cities. Western Yemen remained contested between local dynasties and Zaydi imams, while Aden felt the squeeze of Portuguese and Ottoman rivalry. Sudan’s Funj state emerged along the Nile. Cairo retained cultural centrality but was subordinated to Istanbul. Pilgrimage, Nile irrigation, and Indian Ocean trade still sustained livelihoods, but political hegemony had shifted decisively to the Ottoman sultans.

The Ottoman sultan Selim I (1512-20), known as Selim the Grim, conquers Egypt in 1517, defeating the Mamluk forces at Ar Raydaniyah, immediately outside Cairo.

The origins of the Ottoman Empire go back to the Turkish- speaking tribes who had crossed the frontier into Arab lands beginning in the tenth century.

These Turkish tribes had established themselves in Baghdad and Anatolia, but they had been destroyed by the Mongols in the thirteenth century.

Petty Turkish dynasties called emirates were formed in Anatolia in the wake of the Mongol invasion.

The leader of one of those dynasties was Osman (1280-1324), the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

His emirate, one of many in the thirteenth century, had by the sixteenth century become an empire, destined to be one of the largest and longest lived in world history.

The Ottomans already had a substantial empire in Eastern Europe by the fourteenth century.

In 1453 they conquer Constantinople, the imperial capital, which becomes the Ottoman capital and is renamed Istanbul.

The Ottomans add the Arab provinces, including Egypt, to their empire between 1512 and 1520.

The victorious Selim I leaves behind in Egypt one of his most trusted collaborators, Hayır Bey, as the ruler of Egypt.

Hayır Bey rules as the sultan's vassal, not as a provincial governor.

He keeps his court in the citadel, the ancient residence of the rulers of Egypt.

Selim I does away with the Mamluk sultanate, but neither he nor his successors succeed in extinguishing Mamluk power and influence in Egypt.

As governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali is in charge of safeguarding the pilgrim caravan destined to make hajj in the Hejaz for the pilgrim route from Damascus to Aqaba in southern Transjordan.

In order to do this successfully, he subjugates the Turkmen nomads in the area.

After two years, he manages to have those same Turkmen tribes protecting the pilgrims.

By 1520, hajj caravans are traveling without incident.

In line with Ottoman state policy at this time, al-Ghazali embarks on major development projects in Damascus.

Having been appointed the nazir or "supervisor" of Damascus's main waqf, he has the Umayyad Mosque repaired and redecorated.

He also has a number of other mosques, schools and canals rebuilt and repaired.

Supervisors of madrasas ("religious schools") who are deemed negligent are stripped of their position and their school buildings restored.

Following the succession of Süleyman the Magnificent to the sultanate after Selim's death in 1520, al-Ghazali revolts against the Ottoman state.

He seeks to restore Mamluk suzerainty, declaring himself "sultan" or al-Malik al-Ashraf ("the most noble king").

He bans preachers in mosques from upholding the Ottoman sultan's name in Friday prayers, purges Ottoman officials and soldiers from Syria, and bans Ottoman dress by the provinces's citizens.

After he declares himself sultan, the cities of Tripoli, Hama, and Hims joins his rebellion.

Following failed attempts to enlist the support of Shah Ismail of the Safavid Empire and Kha'ir Bey, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, he nonetheless raises an army and sets out to conquer Aleppo.

The residents of Aleppo support the Ottoman sultanate, however, and resist al-Ghazali's efforts.

His army besieges the city for fifteen days, during which over two hundred residents and Ottoman soldiers are killed, but to no avail.

He withdraws to Damascus soon after to rally his forces.

The Ottoman Army arrives at the outskirts of Damascus, where al-Ghazali's troops confront them in February 1521.

His defending army is swiftly defeated and he is executed.

The Ottoman army sends al-Ghazali's severed head to Süleyman as a trophy.

The Ottomans also proceed to sack Damascus, killing some three thousand residents, and destroying the town quarters as well as nearby villages.

With the suppression of al-Ghazali's revolt, Mamluk influence in Syria has come to an end.