High Middle Ages · Middle East · Politics

1250

Mamluks seize power in Cairo

1250

A clique of Turkic slave-soldiers murdered the young Ayyubid sultan Turanshah at a riverside banquet and hoisted one of their own, Aybak, onto the throne. The Mamluks, formerly palace guards, would rule Egypt and Syria as sultans for more than two and a half centuries. Their paradoxical system, in which slaves ruled free men, produced some of the most effective military governance the medieval Islamic world had seen.

More from 1250 High Middle Ages

In context

Also in 1250 (8 other events on record)

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Before and after in Middle East

Before: 1249: Louis IX captures Damietta
After: 1251: Aibek establishes Mamluk power in Egypt

Before and after in Politics

Before: 1249: Alphonse de Poitiers administers southern France
After: 1251: Mongke elected Great Khan

Era

High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.

Sources

Wikipedia: Mamluk