Egypt and Syria

For more than two and a half centuries the Mamluk Sultanate was one of the major powers in the lands of Islam and indeed the wider world. The literal meaning of the word mamluk in Arabic is 'owned', but in common use it donates a military slave, and it was indeed military slaves, acquired from the Eurasian steppes through the Black Sea ports by the last Ayyubid sultan Najm al-Din, who were to launch the Mamluk regime and carry it to unforeseen glory.
Mamluk slaves came from different ethnic groups, but the majority were Turks and Circassians from the Caucasus. Acquired to become loyal fighters for the cause of the sultan, they were instructed in the principles of Islam and learnt extensive cavalry skills and fighting techniques. Their superior military abilities soon enabled the Mamluks to establish their own rule and build an empire that was to control Egypt, the Levant and the holy Muslim cities in Hijaz for well over two centuries.
The Mamluk sultans came to be distinguished in two main lines: the Bahri Mamluks, so called because these guards of the Ayyubids originally had their barracks on the island of al-Rawda [Rhoda] in the Nile (al-Bahr), ruled from AH 648 to 792 / AD 1250–1390. The Burji Mamluks, named because Sultan Qalawun had quartered his guards in the towers (burg) of Cairo, ruled from 784 to 923 / 1382–1517.
Not only did the Mamluks repel the Mongol threat once and for all by a decisive defeat at 'Ayn Jalut in Palestine in 658 / 1260, but they also fiercely attacked the Crusaders' castles in Palestine and eventually expelled them totally from Akko in Palestine in 690 / 1291. On the diplomatic and economic fronts, the Mamluk Sultanate built strong ties with all the important Muslim powers as well as the Far East, Byzantium, France, Castile, Sicily, Genoa and Venice. Cairo became the trade hub of the world, and the exotic goods from East and West exchanged there provided ample inspiration for local artisans and were reflected in the work they produced.
The Mamluks were outstanding defenders of Islam and committed protectors of its Holy Cities. They restored the Caliphate in Cairo in 659 / 1261 after the devastation of its original seat in Baghdad and devoted much of their interest to the building of splendid mosques, madrasas (religious schools) and waqfs (religious foundations) in cities such as Cairo, Jerusalem, Aleppo and Damascus. The best artists and craftsmen were called upon to provide these buildings with calligraphic and geometric decoration, with religious furniture, Qur'ans, carpets and utensils. Patronage was also given to objects designed to reflect the official and private splendour of the Mamluk sultan and his court.
The decline of Mamluk supremacy came with the discovery of new trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope and the expansion of Ottoman power, which eventually was to extinguish the Mamluk Sultanate in 923 / 1517.