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Concubines, daughters, and wives: Family ties inside the ‘dynasty’ of Circassian Sultans
The importance of family ties in Mamluk succession has been highlighted
more for the Bahri period.13 In particular, matrimonial ties as an aid to socio-political
(re)production during the Circassian period were studied in a paper by Kristof
D’Hulster and Jo Van Steenbergen. Focusing on the period between 1382 and
1467, they demonstrated the family ties between the sultans from al-Ẓāhir Barqūq
(784–91/1382–89; 792–801/1390–99) to al-Ẓāhir Khushqadam (865–72/1461–
67), analyzed women and gender as factors in the political power process, and
paid attention to the fact that the “family-in-law impulse” was one of the tools of
succession. The paper suggested various avenues for further research, such as
expanding the chronology up to the Ottoman conquest and analyzing the matrimonial
ties of those amirs who participated in the political race but never reached the
throne.14 In this paper I will follow these avenues. The marriages of some of the
Circassian sultans to the women of their predecessors’ households will be discussed
chronologically to get a deeper insight into the issue and to reveal a number
of important patterns that have not been discussed before. I will also highlight
the in-law relations between the amirs who struggled for power during the reign of
al-Nāṣir Faraj (801–8/1399–1405; 808–15/1405–12), al-Ẓāhir Barqūq’s son, as
this is when the issue at stake was whether the Mamluk political elite would follow
the path of al-Ẓāhir Barqūq, who had deposed the young heir to the throne, or
would opt for the traditional, dynastic pattern of state formation.15 Through various
cases, in-law links and family ties “via women” with the sultan’s household will
be examined as being among the main prerequisites for power in Mamluk society.
In book
