Al-Malik al-Ashraf Sayf al-Dīn Abū l-Naṣr Īnāl b. ʿAbdallāh al-ʿAlāʾī al-Ẓāhirī al-Nāṣirī (b. c.784/1382, d. 15 Jumādā I 865/26 February 1461), known as al-Ajrūd (“the beardless”), was sultan of Mamlūk Egypt and Syria (r. 1 Rabīʿ I 857–14 Jumādā I 865/12 March 1453–25 February 1461), following a long career of military slavery and leadership, court service, and family entrepreneurship, in Egypt (Cairo) and in Syria (Gaza, Safed), southeastern Anatolia (Edessa), and the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Rhodes)

Van Steenbergen, Jo

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

nl al-ajrd, al-malik al-ashraf 129state (London 1991),145–70; Bahattin Akit and Elif Ekin Akit, Shifting conceptions of science, religion, society and state, Middle East Critique 19/1 (2010), 71–87; Hüseyin Atay, Osmanllarda yüksek din eitimi, Istanbul 1983; Niyazi Berkes, Development of secular-ism in Turkey, Montreal 1964; Nahit Dinçer, 1913’ten bugüne imam-hatip okullar, Istanbul 1974; Osman Ergin, Türk maarif tarihi, Istan-bul 1977; Ministry of National Education, National Education Statistics. Formal Education 2014–15, Ankara 2015; Elisabeth Özdalga, Education in the name of “order and prog-ress.” Reflections on the recent eight year obligatory school reform in Turkey, The Muslim World 3–4 (1999), 414–38.StudiesBahattin Akit, mam-Hatip and other second-ary schools in the context of political and cultural modernization of Turkey, Journal of Human Sciences 5/1 (1986), 25–41; Bahattin Akit, Laikleme tipolojisi ve Türkiye’de lai-klik deneyimi, in Ahmet Öncü and Orhan Tekeliolu (eds.), erif Mardin’e armaan (Istanbul 2005), 65–103; Bahattin Akit and Mustafa Kemal Cokun, Türkiye’nin modernlemesi balamnda imam-hatip okullar, in Yasin Aktay (ed.), Modern Türkiye’de siyasi düünce, vol. 6, slamclk, (Istanbul 2004), 394–410; Beyza Bilgin, Eitim bilimi ve din eitimi, Ankara 1995; Ruen Çakr, rfan Bozan, and Balkan Talu, mam-Hatip liseleri, efsaneler ve gerçekler, Istanbul 2004; erif Mardin, Din ve ide-oloji, Istanbul 1992; Fazlur Rahman, Islam and modernity, Chicago 1982; Mustafa en, Önder Kuçukural, Berna Zengin Arslan, Özgür Arun, Gençlik, AB ve zt hisler. Bede-nini isterim ama ruhunu asla, Ankara 2005; lhan Tekeli, Toplumsal dönüüm ve eitim tarihi üzerine konumalar, Ankara 1980.Bahattin Akitnl al-Ajrd, al-Malik al-AshrafAl-Malik al-Ashraf Sayf al-Dn Ab l-Nar nl b. Abdallh al-Al al-hir al-Nir (b. c.784/1382, d. 15 Jumd I 865/26 February 1461), known as al-Ajrd (“the beardless”), was sultan of Mamlk Egypt and Syria (r. 1 Rab I 857–14 Jumd I 865/12 March 1453–25 February 1461), following a long career of military slavery and leadership, court service, and family entrepreneurship, in Egypt (Cairo) and in Syria (Gaza, Safed), southeastern Anatolia (Edessa), and the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Rhodes).Enslaved in unknown circumstances in his Circassian homeland, the adoles-cent nl—Arabised from the Turkic ïnal (trustworthy), occasionally rendered incor-rectly as Aynl—is said to have been part of a batch of military slaves (mamlks) sold in Egypt in about 799/1397 to Suln al-hir Barqq (r. 784–801/1382–99). He was trained in the martial arts of horsemanship, taught the basics of Islam, and socialised into the sultanate’s norms, values, and rules of behaviour in the royal barracks of the Cairo citadel, until Suln al-Nir Faraj (r. 801–15/1399–1412) manumitted him and selected him for service in the royal private retinue (khakiyya). nl rose to military rank, income, and status in the 820s/1420s, when he was first made a “commander of ten [mamlks]” (amr ashara) (824–5/1421–2) and then a “commander of forty” (amr ablakhnh) (825–31/1422–8). In this capacity, nl participated in the sultan-ate’s invasion, plundering, and subordi-nation of Lusignan Cyprus in 829/1426. Eventually, he was sent to Syria as a local governor (nib), in Gaza (831–6/1428–33) and later in Safed (840–3/1437–9). In 836/1433 Suln al-Ashraf Barsby (r. 825–42/1422–38) appointed nl over the town of Edessa (al-Ruh) in southeast-ern Anatolia (836–40/1433–6), in order to represent the sultan’s interests in this frontier zone with the rising Turkmen power of the Aq Qoyunlu (Akkoyunlu).130 nl al-ajrd, al-malik al-ashrafSuln al-hir Jaqmaq (r. 842–57/ 1438–53) invited nl back to his court in Cairo, first as one of the dozen of his commanders of one hundred mamlks (amr mia) (843–57/1439–53), later also as the sultan’s senior secretary (dawdr kabr) (846–9/1442–5), and eventually as the court’s senior member (amr kabr) and chief commander of the armies (atbak al-askir) (849–57/1445–53). In these capacities, nl was assigned a lead-ing role in various military campaigns, policing operations, and punitive expedi-tions, such as those against the island of Rhodes (846/1442–3, 848/1444), against local Arab elites in upper and lower Egypt (844/1441, 853/1449), and against unruly elements, including mamlk recruits (julbn), in Cairo (848/1444, 854/1450). These court posts also provided nl with considerable control over and access to resources; this may have contributed to his gradual creation of a substantial per-sonal fortune and his active participation in real-estate investment, both eventu-ally culminating in the creation of two well-funded religious endowments (waqfs), for which original documents, dating to 862–3/1458–9 and 865/1460–1, have survived.In 857/1453 the combination of resources and experience catapulted nl at the age of seventy-three to royal sta-tus. This happened when political oppo-nents and financially dissatisfied mamlks of Suln al-Manr Uthmn b. Jaqmaq (r. 857/1453) closed ranks behind nl’s leadership and violently enforced his rights to the throne. Suln al-Ashraf nl’s sub-sequent reign was remembered primar-ily for its more or less constructive—an assessment that varies across the hand-ful of detailed contemporary chronicle reports (see bibliography)—engagements with practices of coercion wielding and resource management. The latter practices resulted in the stimulation and appropria-tion of regular flows of taxation, forced payment, confiscation, and gift giving; the imposition of reforms in gold, silver, and copper coinage (861/1457, 862/1458, 863/1459); and investment in mamlk manpower and urban development—including a building complex in Cairo’s Northern Cemetery (al-Sar), which comprises nl’s family mausoleum and of which impressive traces remain today [Illustration 1]. nl’s coercion wielding manifested itself first and foremost at the many frontiers of his royal authority. The fluidity of these frontiers was regularly illustrated by marauding royal mamlk recruits, groups of whom continued to prove keen to maximise, whenever pos-sible, their access to cash and kind by spreading terror in Cairo. In upper and lower Egypt, local Arab elites similarly tended to test and challenge the sultan’s reach, especially in the Buayra region (859/1455) and the ad (864–5/1460). On the remote peripheries of nl’s sultan-ate, the Qarmnid leadership of Konya followed similar local strategies, provok-ing a successful military deployment of nl’s commanders in southern Anatolia (860–2/1456–8). Less successful attempts to intervene directly in a succession dis-pute amongst the ruling elites of Lusig-nan Cyprus (863–5/1459–61) marked Cairo’s waning influence in the eastern Mediterranean. One of the powers on the rise in that region was the Ottoman sultan, Mehmed (Memed) II (r. 848–50/1444–6, 855–886/1451–81), whose conquest of Constantinople in 857/1453 was welcomed in nl’s Cairo with much diplomatic pomp and circumstance. Meanwhile, another regional power on nl al-ajrd, al-malik al-ashraf 131Illustration 1. nl al-Ajrd’s funerary complex in Cairo’s Northern Cemetery (al-Sar), including the family mausoleum (turba), a f convent (khnqah), and a mosque. Photograph courtesy of Jo Van Steenbergen and Maya Termonia.132 nl al-ajrd, al-malik al-ashrafthe rise, the Aq Qoyunlu leader Uzun asan (r. 865–82/1461–78), continued to situate the rapid expansion of his eastern Anatolian leadership at least symbolically within the orbit of nl’s sovereignty.The relatively successful regional for-mation of Suln al-Ashraf nl’s state through the aggregation of a variety of economic, military, and political actions was the achievement of a new collec-tive leadership in Cairo. Two clusters of courtiers have been identified as being connected by and appearing at the fore-front of nl’s leadership and author-ity. The first, predating and facilitating nl’s enthronement, crystallised in often tense and conflict-ridden ways around the resources, practices, and skills of long-standing financial experts such as the majordomo (ustdr) Zayn al-Dn Yay (d. 874/1469) and the army and privy-purse supervisor (nir al-jaysh wa-l-kh) Jaml al-Dn Ysuf (d. 862/1458). The second, increasingly pre-eminent after nl’s empowerment, was formed around the relationships, wealth, and charisma of the sultan’s family, including his only wife for many decades, Zaynab bt. asan b. Kh Bak (d. 884/1479), their son Amad (b. 835/1432, d. 893/1488), and the husbands of their daughters, the senior secretary (dawdr kabr) Ynus al-Aqb (d. 865/1461) and the second secretary (dawdr thn) Birdibak al-Qubrus (d. 868/1464). It has been established that the royal scene in Cairo had been set for this latter cluster to continue to dominate the court and sultanate after nl’s death, but this reproductive strategy proved only partly successful, when nl died of ill-ness and old age in 865/1461. The suc-cession of his son al-Muayyad Amad (r. 865/1461) was surprisingly quickly undone by opponents rallying around the future sultan, al-hir Khushqadam (r. 865–72/1461–7). nl’s legacy was restored to some prominence when, from the early 870s/late 1460s onwards, fam-ily members returned to the court, where control over the endowed family assets was returned to them and remained in their hands until at least the early tenth/sixteenth century.BibliographyNarrative sources, in chronological orderIbn Taghrbird, al-Nujm al-zhira f mulk Mir wa-l-Qhira, ed. F. M. Shal et al., 16 vols., Cairo 1963–72; Ibn Taghrbird, History of Egypt 1382–1486 A.D. Translated from the Ara-bic annals of Abu l-Maâsin ibn Taghrî Birdî, trans. William Popper, 8 vols., Berkeley 1954–63; Ibn Taghrbird, awdith al-duhr f ma l-ayym wa-l-shuhr, ed. Muammad Kaml al-Dn Izz al-Dn, 2 vols., Beirut 1990; Ibn Taghrbird, al-Manhal al-f wa-l-mustawf bada l-wf, ed. M. M. Amn et al., 13 vols., Cairo 1984–2009; Ibn Taghrbird, al-Dall al-shf al l-Manhal al-f, ed. Fahm Muammad Shal, 2 vols., Mecca 1983; Ibn Taghrbird, Mawrid al-lafa f man waliya l-salana wa-l-khilfa, ed. Nabl Muammad Abd al-Azz Amad, 2 vols., Cairo 1997; al-Biq, Ihr al-ar li-asrr ahl al-ar. Tarkh al-Biq, ed. Muammad Slim Ibn Shadd Awf, 3 vols., Giza 1992–3; al-Sakhw, Wajz al-kalm f dhayl al duwal al-Islm, ed. Bashshr Awwd Marf et al., 4 vols., Bei-rut 1995; al-Sakhw, al-Dhayl al-tmm al Duwal al-Islm lil-Dhahab, ed. asan Isml Marwa, 3 vols., Kuwait and Beirut 1992–8; al-Sakhw, al-Tibr al-masbk f dhayl al-sulk, ed. Sad Abd al-Fatt shr et al., 4 vols., Cairo 2002–7; al-Sakhw, al-aw al-lmi li-ahl al-qarn al-tsi, ed. Abd al-Laf asan Abd al-Ramn, 12 vols., Beirut 2003; al-Maqdis, Tarkh al-Malik al-Ashraf Qytby (al-Durra al-mua f khabar al-dawla al-Ashrafi-yya), London, British Library, MS Or. 3028; al-Mala, Nayl al-amal f dhayl al-duwal, ed. Umar Abd al-Salm Tadmur, 9 vols., Bei-rut 2002; Ibn Iys, Badi al-zuhr f waqi al-duhr, ed. Muammad Muaf, 5 vols., Wiesbaden 1960–75 = Die Chronik des Ibn Ijs. Zweite Auflage bearbeitet und mit Einleitung nlids 133und Indices versehen von Mohamed Mostafa (Wies-baden, pt. 4, 1960; pt. 5, 1961; pt. 3 1963; pt. 2, 1972; pt. 1/2, 1974; pt. 1/1, 1975).DocumentsDr al-Kutub al-Qawmiyya (Cairo), 63 tarkh (four endowment documents (waqfiyyt) of nl, 21 Shawwl 862/1 September 1458 to 18 Raman 863/19 July 1459); Dr al-Wathiq al-Qawmya (Cairo), MS 51/346 (an endowment document of nl, 10 afar 865/25 November 1460, and another one of Amad b. nl, 20 Jumd II 865/2 April 1461).StudiesPaul Balog, The coinage of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt and Syria (New York 1964), 330–7; Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Cairo of the Mam-luks. A history of the architecture and its culture (London 2007), 267–72; Stephan Coner-mann and Lucian Reinfandt, Anmerkungen zu einer mamlkischen waqf-Urkunde aus dem 9./15. Jahrhundert, in Stephan Con-ermann and Anja Pistor-Hatam (eds.), Die Mamlken. Studien zu ihrer Geschichte und Kul-tur. Zum Gedenken an Ulrich Haarmann (1942–1999) (Hamburg 2003), 179–238; Albrecht Fuess, Rotting ships and razed harbors. The naval policy of the Mamluks, Mamlk Stud-ies Review 5 (2001), 55–7; Li Guo, Al-Biq’s chronicle. A fifteenth century learned man’s reflection on his time and world, in Hugh Kennedy (ed.), The historiography of Islamic Egypt (c. 950–1800) (Leiden 2001), 121–48; P. M. Holt, The age of the crusades. The Near East from the eleventh century to 1517 (London and New York 1986), 190–1; Robert Irwin, Factions in medieval Egypt, JRAS 118/2 (1986), 228–46; Bernadette Martel-Thoumian, Les civils et l’administration dans l’état militaire mamlk (IXe/XVe siècle) (Damascus 1992), 112–5, 285–94; Elisabeth Puin, Beobachtungen an den Sil-bermünzen des Mamlukensultans Aynl (857/1453–865/1461), mit Berichtigungen und Ergänzungen zu Balog. Münzzeich-nungen und ihre Möglichkeiten, Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 47 (1997), 117–66; Lucian Reinfandt, Mamlukische Sul-tansstiftungen des 9./15. Jahrhunderts. Nach den Urkunden der Stifter al-Araf nl und al-Muayyad Amad ibn nl, Berlin 2003; Lucian Rein-fandt, Religious endowments and succes-sion to rule. The career of a sultan’s son in the fifteenth century, Mamlk Studies Review 6 (2002), 51–62; Lucian Reinfandt, Was geschah in der Zeit zwischen Barsby und Qytby? Überlegungen zu einer Neube-wertung des späten Mamlukensultanats, in Stefan Wild and Hartmut Schild (eds.), Norm und Abweichung, Akten des 27. Deutschen Orientalistentages (Würzburg 2001), 269–78; M. C. ehubeddin Tekinda, Fâtih’le çada bir Memlûklu sultani Aynal el-Ecrûd 1453–1460, Tarih Dergisi 23 (1969), 35–50; M. C. ehabeddin Tekinda, nl (or Aynl) al-Adjrd, EI2; Henning Sievert, Der Herrsch-erwechsel im Mamlukensultanat. Historische und historiographische Untersuchungen zu Ab mid al-Quds und Ibn Tarbird, Berlin 2003; Hen-ning Sievert, Der Kampf um die Macht im Mamlkenreich des 15. Jahrhunderts, in Stephan Conermann and Anja Pistor-Hatam (eds.), Die Mamlken. Studien zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur. Zum Gedenken an Ulrich Haarmann (1942–1999) (Hamburg 2003), 335–66; John E. Woods, The Aqquyunlu. Clan, confederation, empire (rev. ed., Salt Lake City 1999), 78–85; Cihan Yüksel Muslu, The Ottomans and the Mamluks. Imperial diplomacy and warfare in the Islamic world, London 2014.Jo Van SteenbergennlidsThe nlids (naloulları, Yinaloulları, r. 488–579/1095–1183) were one of the many petty Turkish dynasties that became established in Anatolia in the decades fol-lowing the Saljq victory over the Byzan-tines at the battle of Malazgirt (Manzikert) in 463/1071, which resulted in the open-ing of that region to permanent Turkish domination. The dynasty was centred on the town of Amid (mid, modern Diyarbakır), and lasted from around 488/1095 until it was ended by Sal al-Dn’s (Saladin’s, 532–89/1138–93) cap-ture of the capital in 579/1183.Little scholarly research has been car-ried out on the nlids, and there are only fleeting references to the dynasty in the 

Īnāl al-Ajrūd, al-Malik al-Ashraf

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Īnāl al-Ajrūd, al-Malik al-Ashraf

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