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.