The Near East (1396–1539 CE): From Mamluk Power to Ottoman Dominion

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of The Near East includes modern Israel, Egypt, Sudan, most of Jordan, extreme southern Lebanon, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, southwestern Cyprus, and southwestern Turkey. Anchors comprised the Nile Valley and Delta, the Red Sea corridor with the Hejaz, the Yemeni highlands and Tihama coast, the Levantine uplands and coastal strip, and the southwest Anatolian and Cypriot Mediterranean littorals. These were zones of intensive agriculture, caravan and pilgrimage routes, and seaports connecting the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean world.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

During the Little Ice Age, cooler winters and erratic rainfall shaped farming and settlement:

• Nile Valley: Annual floods varied in intensity, producing alternating grain surpluses and shortfalls.

• Western Yemen: Highland terraces maintained productivity despite irregular rainfall; drought struck the Tihama coast more severely.

• Hejaz: Extremely arid, reliant on caravan supply and imported grain.

• Levant & Cyprus: Wet–dry cycles influenced cereal, olive, and vine yields.

• Sudan (Nubia): Nile-dependent sorghum fields thrived when floods were reliable, but low waters triggered famine and migration.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Egypt: Irrigated wheat, barley, sugarcane, and fava beans in the Nile Valley and Delta; date palms, vegetables, and flax supplemented. Cairo was the metropolis and breadbasket.

• Western Arabia: Dates, barley, and small gardens in oases; Mecca and Medina subsisted on caravans bringing Syrian and Egyptian grain.

• Yemen: Terraced sorghum, wheat, fruits, and qat; goats and cattle in highlands; Red Sea ports like Aden imported rice and cloth.

• Israel, Jordan, southern Lebanon: Wheat, barley, olives, and vines in uplands; pastoralism in steppe and desert margins.

• Sudan: Sorghum, millet, and herding along the Nile corridor.

• Cyprus & southwestern Anatolia: Grain, vines, olives, and sugar; coastal fishing supported towns like Antalya and Limassol.

Technology & Material Culture

• Irrigation: Nile canals in Egypt; Yemeni terrace walls and cisterns; Jordanian and Levantine cistern systems.

• Military: Mamluk cavalry and fortified cities in Egypt and Syria; Ottomans introduced siege artillery and gunpowder infantry, shifting regional power.

• Architecture: Cairo’s mosques, madrasas, and caravanserais; Yemeni stone tower houses; Ottoman mosques rising in Anatolia; Orthodox monasteries in Cyprus.

• Crafts: Egyptian glass, metalwork, and textiles; Yemeni ceramics; Levantine soap and sugar.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Pilgrimage routes: Cairo and Damascus caravans supplied Mecca; Red Sea shipping funneled pilgrims to Jeddah.

• Red Sea trade: Aden and Jeddah mediated flows of Indian Ocean spices, textiles, and horses.

• Nile corridor: Moved grain and sugar from Upper Egypt to Alexandria and Cairo, then outward to Mediterranean markets.

• Mediterranean ports: Alexandria, Limassol, and Antalya tied the Near East to Venice and Genoa.

• Sudan–Nubia corridor: Linked gold, slaves, and sorghum north to Egypt.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Islamic piety: Mamluk Cairo upheld legitimacy as protector of the holy cities; Mecca and Medina remained spiritual poles.

• Sufism: Flourished through lodges in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Yemen; saints’ shrines anchored local devotion.

• Christianity: Monasteries of Copts in Egypt, Armenians and Orthodox in Cyprus and Anatolia; Latin enclaves in Cyprus under Venetian rule.

• Judaism: Thrived in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Safed (which became a center of mystical Kabbalah by the early 16th century).

• Art & learning: Mamluk manuscripts and architecture in Cairo; Yemeni chronicles; early Ottoman architecture in Anatolia.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Egypt: Stored grain in state and private granaries to offset poor Nile years.

• Yemen: Terracing and cisterns captured rainfall; diversified crops mitigated drought.

• Hejaz: Imported grain ensured survival; cisterns and wells sustained pilgrims.

• Levant: Mixed farming of cereals, olives, and vines spread risk; steppe tribes balanced herding and raiding.

• Sudan: Sorghum and millet cycles staggered planting to hedge against low Nile years.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Mamluk Sultanate (Egypt, Syria, Hejaz): Maintained control until early 16th century; famed for cavalry, but weakened by plague and economic disruption from Portuguese diversion of spice trade.

• Western Yemen: Rasulid then Tahirid dynasties ruled, but Zaydi imams contested highlands.

• Ottoman advance: Captured Constantinople (1453), Antalya, and much of Anatolia; Selim I defeated Mamluks (1516–17), annexing Egypt, Syria, Hejaz, and securing Mecca and Medina.

• Sudan: Christian Nubia declined; Muslim Funj sultanate rose in Sennar (early 16th century).

• Portuguese intrusion: After Vasco da Gama (1498), Portuguese fleets disrupted Red Sea–Aden spice routes; naval clashes at Diu (1509) and Aden (1513).

• Cyprus & Anatolia: Cyprus under Venetian rule; southwestern Anatolia absorbed into Ottoman domains.

Transition

By 1539 CE, the Near East had undergone a profound transformation. The Mamluk Sultanate had fallen; the Ottomans ruled Egypt, Hejaz, Levant, and southwestern Anatolia, presenting themselves as protectors of Islam’s holy cities. Western Yemen remained contested between local dynasties and Zaydi imams, while Aden felt the squeeze of Portuguese and Ottoman rivalry. Sudan’s Funj state emerged along the Nile. Cairo retained cultural centrality but was subordinated to Istanbul. Pilgrimage, Nile irrigation, and Indian Ocean trade still sustained livelihoods, but political hegemony had shifted decisively to the Ottoman sultans.

A new power, the Funj, has risen in southern Nubia and had supplanted the remnants of the old Christian kingdom of Alodia at the same time that the Ottomans bring northern Nubia into their orbit.

A Funj leader, Amara Dunqas, founds the Black Sultanate (As Saltana az Zarqa) at Sannar in 1502.

The Black Sultanate eventually becomes the keystone of the Funj Empire.

Sannar controls Al Jazirah by the mid-sixteenth century and commands the allegiance of vassal states and tribal districts north to the third cataract and south to the swampy grasslands along the Nile.

The Funj state includes a loose confederation of sultanates and dependent tribal chieftaincies drawn together under the suzerainty of Sannar's mek (sultan).

As overlord, the mek receives tribute, levies taxes, and calls on his vassals to supply troops in time of war.

Vassal states in turn rely on the mek to settle local disorders and to resolve internal disputes.

The Funj stabilize the region and interpose a military bloc between the Arabs in the north, the Ethio- pians in the east, and the non-Muslim blacks in the south.

The sultanate's economy depends on the role played by the Funj in the slave trade.

Farming and herding also thrive in Al Jazirah and in the savanna.

Sannar apportions tributary areas into tribal homelands (each one termed a dar; pi., dur), where the mek grants the local population the right to use arable land.

The diverse groups that inhabit each dar eventually regard themselves as units of tribes.

Movement from one dar to another entails a change in tribal identification. (Tribal distinctions in these areas in modern Sudan can be traced to this period.)

The mek appoints a chieftain (nazir; pi. , nuzzar) to govern each dar.

Nuzzar administers dur according to customary law, pays tribute to the mek, and collects taxes.

The mek also derives income from crown lands set aside for his use in each dar.

Subah and the Blue Nile region are abandoned after the destruction of the 'Alwah kingdom at the hands of the Abdallabite Arabs.

They are reoccupied by the mysterious Funj, who suddenly appear, seemingly from nowhere but probably from the upper Blue Nile in the borderlands between Ethiopia and the Sudan, to establish their authority.

Neither Arabs nor Muslims, the Funj, led by 'Amarah Dunqas, establish their capital in 1504-05 at Sennar, on the left bank of the Blue Nile above its confluence with the White Nile, ruling riverine territory from here to the main Nile.

The Near East (1540–1683 CE)

Ottoman Heartlands, Pilgrimage Routes, and Shifting Imperial Frontiers

Geography & Environmental Context

The Near East includes Israel, Egypt, Sudan, western Saudi Arabia, most of Jordan, southwestern Cyprus, and southwestern Turkey. Anchors include the Nile River and Delta, the Sinai Peninsula, the Hejaz Mountains with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea basin, the Levantine coast from Gaza to Acre, and the Anatolian littoral around Antalya and Adana. This geography encompassed some of the most fertile zones of the eastern Mediterranean—alongside deserts, highlands, and pilgrimage corridors that bound the region to the wider Islamic world.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

During the Little Ice Age, cooler winters and variable rainfall influenced harvests. The Nile’s annual floods were crucial; low inundations brought famine years in Egypt, while high floods damaged dikes and fields. Periodic droughts strained western Arabia and Jordan, making caravan supply lines precarious. Earthquakes struck Cyprus, the Levant, and Anatolia, disrupting settlements. Yet irrigation, terrace farming, and grain redistribution anchored resilience.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Egypt: The Nile Valley produced wheat, barley, flax, and sugar cane, sustaining Cairo as the empire’s largest city after Constantinople. Irrigation systems and dike networks maintained fertility.

• Sudan: Pastoralism and millet cultivation prevailed; Nubian communities and Funj sultanates remained loosely tied to Ottoman Egypt.

• Levant: Olive oil, vines, and citrus groves in Palestine and Cyprus; wheat in inland valleys; terrace farming in the Judean and Anatolian highlands.

• Hejaz: Oases around Mecca and Medina cultivated dates, wheat, and barley, supplying pilgrims.

• Urban centers: Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus (just east of this subregion but closely linked), Alexandria, Jaffa, Acre, and Antalya were key nodes; Medina and Mecca anchored the religious map.

Technology & Material Culture

Irrigation channels, water wheels (sāqiya), and terrace walls maximized agriculture. Caravanserais lined pilgrimage and trade routes. Urban craft traditions produced textiles (linen, silk blends), glassware, ceramics, and manuscripts. In Egypt, sugar mills and papermaking persisted. Mosques and madrasas with domes and minarets symbolized Ottoman patronage, while Coptic and Armenian churches, synagogues, and monasteries embodied religious pluralism.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Pilgrimage: Annual caravans from Cairo, Damascus, and Anatolia to Mecca defined mobility; way stations, wells, and forts safeguarded pilgrims.

• Trade: Alexandria linked the Nile Valley to Mediterranean markets; Red Sea ports (Suez, Jidda) tied the Hejaz to Indian Ocean commerce. Levantine ports (Acre, Jaffa, Larnaca) connected local agriculture to global merchants, including Venetians, French, and English.

• Imperial circuits: Ottoman governors, tax collectors, and garrisons rotated across Cairo, Jerusalem, and Cyprus.

• Conflict zones: Cyprus fell to the Ottomans from Venice in 1571; western Anatolia and the Levant supplied troops for Ottoman campaigns in Europe.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Religion: Islam predominated, with Sunni orthodoxy under Ottoman patronage; Shia communities in southern Lebanon and eastern Arabia endured. Christian minorities—Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Maronite, Armenian—and Jewish communities shaped plural urban cultures.

• Ritual life: The hajj caravans symbolized unity, bringing scholars, mystics, and artisans together. Saints’ shrines, monasteries, and synagogues anchored local pilgrimages.

• Literature & arts: Cairo hosted scholars and poets; calligraphy, Qur’an recitation, and oral storytelling thrived. Mosaic, tile, and architectural decoration marked mosques and caravanserais.

• Music & performance: Religious chants, Sufi ceremonies, and street festivals animated cities; folk songs and poetry celebrated harvests and tribal lineages.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Egypt’s irrigation and granaries buffered lean years, though plague and famine periodically thinned populations. Terrace systems in Cyprus, Palestine, and Anatolia conserved soil and water. In the Hejaz, pilgrims depended on strict rationing, cisterns, and zakat-funded charities. Sudanese communities adapted through mobile pastoralism, redistributing herds across floodplains and savannas.

Political & Military Shocks

• Ottoman consolidation: Egypt remained under Ottoman administration, though semi-autonomous Mamluk households dominated local politics.

• Cyprus campaign (1570–71): The Ottomans seized Cyprus from Venice after fierce battles, securing eastern Mediterranean dominance.

• Naval clashes: The Battle of Lepanto (1571) checked Ottoman sea power, though Cyprus was retained.

• Tribal and provincial revolts: Bedouin uprisings disrupted Hejaz routes; Janissary mutinies in Cairo destabilized authority.

• External rivals: Portuguese influence in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean diminished, but European merchants increased their presence in Alexandria and Levantine ports.

Transition

Between 1540 and 1683, the Near East served as the Ottoman Empire’s southern and eastern heartland—its grain basket, pilgrimage highway, and Mediterranean crossroads. Agricultural terraces and Nile irrigation anchored resilience, while Cairo and Jerusalem radiated culture and faith. Yet beneath Ottoman order lay fragility: provincial revolts, famine cycles, and European naval pressure signaled shifts to come. By 1683, the subregion remained central to imperial wealth and prestige, even as Ottoman expansion faltered in Europe and new global currents began to bypass its traditional caravan and maritime routes.

Sulayman Solong had decreed Islam to be the sultanate's official religion.

However, large-scale religious conversions do not occur until the reign of Sulayman's grandson, Ahmad Bakr (1682-1722), who imports teachers, builds mosques, and compels his subjects to become Muslims.

Several sultans in the eighteenth century consolidate the dynasty's hold on Darfur, establish a capital at Al Fashir, and contest the Funj for control of Kordofan.

The sultans operate the slave trade as a monopoly.

They levy taxes on traders and export duties on slaves sent to Egypt, and take a share of the slaves brought into Darfur.

Some household slaves advance to prominent positions in the courts of sultans, and the power exercised by these slaves provokes a violent reaction among the traditional class of Fur officeholders in the late eighteenth century.

The rivalry between the slave and traditional elites will cause recurrent unrest throughout the next century.

Darfur is the Fur homeland.

Fur clans, renowned as cavalrymen, frequently ally with or oppose their kin, the Kanuri of Bornu, in modern Nigeria.

After a period of disorder in the sixteenth century, during which the region is briefly subject to Bornu, the leader of the Keira clan, Sulayman Solong (1596-1637), supplants a rival clan and becomes Darfur's first sultan.

The introduction of slave soldiers by Badi II has alienated Sennar's ruling dynasty from the Funj warrior aristocracy, which in 1718 deposes the reigning mek and places one of its own ranks on the throne of Sannar.

The mid-eighteenth century witnesses another brief period of expansion when the Funj turn back an Ethiopian invasion, defeat the Fur, and take control of much of Kurdufan, but civil war and the demands of defending the sultanate have overextended the warrior society's resources and sapped its strength.

Another reason for Sannar's decline may have been the growing influence of its hereditary viziers (chancellors), chiefs of a non-Funj tributary tribe who manages court affairs.

The vizier Muhammad Abu al Kaylak, who leads the Funj army in wars in 1761, carries out a palace coup, relegating the sultan to a figurehead role.

Sannar's hold over its vassals diminishes, and by the early nineteenth century more remote areas cease to recognize even the nominal authority of the mek.

Egypt, as a pashalik of the Ottoman Empire, is divided into several provinces, each of which is placed under a Mamluk bey (governor) responsible to the pasha, who in turn answers to the Porte, the term used for the Ottoman government referring to the Sublime Porte, or high gate, of the grand vizier's building.

No fewer than one hundred pashas will succeed each other in approximately two hundred years years of Ottoman rule

Their authority become tenuous in the eighteenth century as rival Mamluk beys become the real power in the land.

The struggles among the beys continue until 1798 when the French invasion of Egypt alters the situation.

Combined British and Turkish military operations force the withdrawal of French forces in 1801, introducing a period of chaos in Egypt.

The Ottomans seek to restore order in 1805 by appointing Muhammad Ali as Egypt's pasha.

With the help of ten thousand Albanian troops provided by the Ottomans, Muhammad Ali purges Egypt of the Mamluks.

He launches a seven-year campaign in Arabia in 1811, supporting his suzerain, the Ottoman sultan, in the suppression of a revolt by the Wahhabi, an ultraconservative Muslim sect.

To replace the Albanian soldiers, Muhammad Ali plans to build an Egyptian army with enslaved Sudanese recruits.

Although a part of present-day northern Sudan is nominally an Egyptian dependency, the previous pashas had demanded little more from the kashif who rules here than the regular remittance of tribute; this changes under Muhammad Ali.

A party of the Mamluks, after he defeats them in Egypt, escapes and flees south.

These Mamluks establish a state at Dongola in 1811 as a base for their slave trading.

The Egyptian occupation of Sudan is initially disastrous.

Under the new government established in 1821, which is known as the Turkiyah or Turkish regime, soldiers live off the land and exact exorbitant taxes from the population.

They also destroy many ancient Meroitic pyramids searching for hidden gold.

Furthermore, slave trading increases, causing many of the inhabitants of the fertile Al Jazirah, heartland of Funj, to flee to escape the slave traders.

Thirty thousand enslaved Sudanese men go to Egypt for training and induction into the army within a year of the pasha's victory.

So many perish from disease and the unfamiliar climate, however, that the remaining enslaved Sudanese can be used only in garrisons in Sudan.

The Egyptian government of Sudan becomes less harsh as the military occupation becomes more secure.

Egypt has saddled Sudan with a parasitic bureaucracy, however, and expects the country to be self-supporting.

Nevertheless, farmers and herders gradually return to Al Jazirah.

The Turkiyah also win the allegiance of some tribal and religious leaders by granting them a tax exemption.

Egyptian soldiers and Sudanese jahidiyah (slave soldiers; literally, fighters), supplemented by mercenaries recruited in various Ottoman domains, man garrisons in Khartoum, Kassala, Al Ubayyid, and at several smaller outposts.

The Shaiqiyah, Arabic speakers who had resisted Egyptian occupation, are defeated and allowed to serve the Egyptian rulers as tax collectors and irregular cavalry under their own sheikhs.

The Egyptians divide Sudan into provinces, which they then subdivide into smaller administrative units that usually correspond to tribal territories.