Returning to the history of Egypt, it should be recalled that the conquest of the country by Turks and Kurds and the subsequent development of the Iqta system caused the ecosocial crisis and demographic catastrophe of 1200-1202. However, unlike the Sultanate of the Great Seljuks, the crisis did not lead to the collapse of the state and the transfer of power into the hands of the Turkic military class. This was partly due to the fact that there were relatively few Turks in Egypt, that they were mixed with Kurds and other nomads, as well as the fact that the situation of the crusades encouraged the military class to rally. In addition, there was a strong statist tradition in Egypt, and the Ayyubid sultans found a counterweight to the Turkic Mukta in the form of a restored Ghulam guard. The new Gulyams were called Mamluks, and the Mamluk corps was replenished with Polovtsian slave boys brought by Italian merchants from Crimea. These young men were converted to Islam, taught military skills and brought up in the spirit of loyalty to their commanders. Mamluk commanders (emirs) received iqts, 2/3 of the income from which they had to spend on the maintenance of their soldiers, but there was no inheritance of positions and ICT among the Mamluks, the emirs were nominated for their military merits. In addition to the Mamluks, the military class included the «Khalq» warriors; these were free soldiers who received small grants for the duration of their service with an income of 10-20 thousand dirhams [1896].
The situation after the disaster of 1200-1202 was characterized by a sharp drop in prices, but stabilization did not occur immediately. In 1218, the Crusaders invaded Egypt, who took Damietta during the Fifth Crusade and ravaged the Delta for three years. The result of this invasion was the great famine of 1220-1221, when the price exceeded 10 dinars per hundredweight [1897]. Economic recovery began under Sultan Kamil (1218-1238); the historian Makrizi reports that during this period Egypt again achieved prosperity [1898]. At the end of Kamil’s reign, the normal price of wheat was about 0.7 dinars per hundredweight [1899], with a monthly salary of 2 dinars for an unskilled worker, 11.4 kg of grain could be bought for a day’s earnings.
However, at the end of the reign of Sultan as-Salih (1240-1249), crusaders led by King Louis IX of France invaded Egypt again (the Seventh Crusade). The conquerors captured Damietta and Mansoura and ravaged the Delta again. It was a time of military disasters and famine, which led to the death of a significant part of the population. After this disaster, grain prices fell by almost half, to 0.4 dinars per hundredweight of wheat.
The situation of a difficult war led to an increase in the influence of the Mamluk guard. Just as in the Abbasid caliphate, the guard began to claim power. In 1250, the Mamluks killed Turan Shah, the last sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mamluk period of Egypt’s history began [1900]. After seizing power, the Mamluks established a military dictatorship that lasted for two and a half centuries. During the reign of the Mamluks, the sultans were enthroned by agreement of the Mamluk emirs or by military coups. There was a sharp line between the military class and the peasantry, the distinctive feature of the Mamluks and the Khalq was the right to carry weapons and ride a horse. The peasants were tied to the land and subjected to brutal exploitation [1901].
However, the seizure of power by the military class did not initially lead to internal turmoil and the weakening of the monarchy. On the contrary, the Mongol offensive that began at that time, just as in India, caused the consolidation of the military class around the Mamluk commanders, the sultans. In 1258, the Mongols captured Baghdad, and a wave of Mongol conquests approached the borders of Egypt. In 1260, the Mamluks met the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut; following the old Turkic tactics, the Mamluks feinted the Mongols into an ambush, which suddenly forced the Mongol archers to saber. The saber tactics of the Turks prevailed this time, but the defeat of the Mongols was not decisive. Hulagu Khan was about to descend on Egypt with his entire huge army, and the Mamluks were actually saved not by their sabres, but by the death of the great Khan Monke and the ensuing civil strife among the Mongol rulers [1902].
The political stability achieved at the time contributed to Egypt’s economic recovery. Under Baybars (1260-1277), intensive construction was carried out in Cairo and Alexandria, the sultan took care of the maintenance of irrigation facilities and built new canals. The reign of Qalaun (1280-1290) went down in history as the «golden age» of the Mamluk era. Grain prices remained low, and wages were high. At that time, intensive construction continued in Cairo, and a large irrigation canal was built in Buhair. At the end of the 13th century . The total amount of kharaj was 10.8 million military dinars, or about 3 million ordinary dinars, an amount corresponding to the level of fees before the disaster of 1200 [1903].
After Kalaun’s death, the struggle of various military groups began again, four sultans were replaced in ten years. Taking advantage of the weakening of power, the Mamluk emirs seized the companies of soldiers and prevented the collection of government taxes. Sultan Lajin, who was trying to restore order, was killed. The situation stabilized only under the imperious Sultan an-Nasir (1299-1340), who managed to restore discipline in the army; an-Nasir without talking took iqts from guilty soldiers and executed those who dared to contradict him. In 1314 The Sultan carried out land reform, which increased the share of state (sultan’s) lands and significantly reduced expenses. After the reform of al-Nasir, the state owned revenues from 10 out of 24 regions of Egypt, thus, a significant public sector of land ownership appeared in the country again [1904].
It should be noted that Nasir’s reforms were carried out at about the same time as Ala ud-din’s reforms in the Delhi Sultanate and, like the Indian reforms, were characterized by increased statism, the restoration of state discipline and government regulation, and the creation of an extensive public sector of the economy. There is no doubt that the essence of these transformations was a partial transformation along the lines of the Mongol-Iranian Hulaguid empire: the Mongol victories forced their opponents to adopt the Mongol order.
The economic situation during the reign of an-Nasir was quite tense, and frequent famines forced the Sultan to take measures against speculation, fix grain prices and import wheat from Syria. These measures made it possible for a long time to maintain real wages at the level of about 7 kg of grain per day. Huge efforts were made to irrigate new lands: 100,000 mobilized peasants were employed in the construction of the Alexandria Canal, 100,000 feddans of land were irrigated, and many villages and even several cities arose on the banks of the canal. 12,000 people were employed in the construction of the dam near Giza, and 40 new villages were built near Syriacus after the canal was built – the number of examples of this kind is quite large. An-Nasir tried to support the farmers, abolished illegal levies and removed the governors who introduced them from their posts; nevertheless, the situation of the peasants remained difficult [1905]. The famous geographer and traveler Ibn Batuta was surprised by the high level of taxation in Egypt [1906].
A new flourishing of Egyptian cities dates back to the era of an-Nasir. Ibn Batuta calls Cairo «the mother of all cities», a city incomparable in beauty and grandeur. According to Ibn Batuta, there were 12,000 water carriers in Cairo alone [1907]. According to some, apparently greatly exaggerated, reports, the population of Cairo at that time was about a million inhabitants; many refugees had accumulated in the city, leaving the areas conquered by the Mongols [1908]. Cairo, Tinnis, and Damietta were famous craft centers, and Egyptian silk and linen fabrics were exported to Europe in large quantities. The collapse of the Ilkhan empire led to the displacement of trade routes, and Egypt became the gateway between Europe and Asia [1909]. Cairo and Alexandria had special quarters inhabited by Italian merchants from Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. Spices from India and Indonesia, silk, porcelain, and musk from China were delivered by Muslim merchants to the ports of the Red Sea, from where they were transported to Cairo and Alexandria, where they were sold to the Italians. The monopoly of the spice trade in Egypt belonged to the hereditary corporation of Karemite merchants, the Karemites owned a large fleet and engaged in banking operations, they were the richest people in the East. The state received a duty of one tenth of their goods from merchants; trade duties gradually became an increasingly significant part of state income [1910].
Egypt’s economic and political situation remained stable until the death of Sultan an-Nasir in 1341. Then troubles and civil strife began, and six sultans were replaced in seven years. Prices rose rapidly, real wages fell and approached a critical level (see Figure 22). In 1347, the «Black Death» came to Egypt, a terrible plague epidemic killed a third of the Egyptian population in two years. The plague returned several times; by the end of the 14th century, due to the lack of workers, the area of cultivated land had decreased fivefold, and state revenues had decreased tenfold. A new period of Egyptian history has begun.
Turning to the analysis of Egypt’s socio-economic development during the period described, it should be noted that the crisis of the early 13th century caused by the spread of iqta, unlike a similar crisis in the Great Seljuk empire, did not lead to the collapse of the Egyptian state. The monarchy opposed the Mamluk guards to the Turkic and Kurdish Iktadars, and then the consequences of the Mongol offensive in Eurasia began to affect Egypt. The Mongol victories generated a diffusion wave of borrowings, the components of which were autocracy, legalistic state discipline, and state regulation.
The result of al-Nasir’s reforms was the strengthening of statism and state discipline, the restoration of the public sector in the economy, and the redistribution of ICT (transformation of the SVS). The grants retained the character of service awards, they were not inherited and could be taken away.
In the first half of the 13th century. Egypt was twice subjected to devastating Crusader invasions, and the economic situation during this period was determined not by demographic factors, but by military factors. In peaceful years, low population led to low prices and high wages, but brutal wars led to famine and demographic disasters. In general, the period from the 1200s to the 1260s can be characterized as an intercycle, a period when wars prevented economic recovery, population growth, and the beginning of a new demographic cycle. The period of reconstruction began only in the 70s of the 13th century; this time was characterized by a relatively high level of consumption, the construction of new (or restoration of previously destroyed) settlements, and low prices for bread. At the beginning of the 14th century, signs of Contraction appeared: reports of famine, urban growth, the rapid development of crafts and trade, attempts at statist reforms, the construction of irrigation systems to develop new lands, the fragmentation of the elite, the struggle for status positions among the elite, the intensification of the struggle for resources between the state and the elite. After the death of al-Nasir, various factions of the elite entered into a struggle for the allocation of resources, which led to disruption of economic life. In the middle of the XIV century . The contraction culminated in a demographic catastrophe – the epidemic of the «Black Death».
Eventually, the crisis led to the fall of the statist monarchy of an-Nasir, and a weak feudal monarchy took its place.