In the third and final part of a series investigating the relationship between Muslims and Copts, Jill Kamil traces social conditions under the Mamluks When the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar visited the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church on the occasion of Easter last month, he said in a statement that the places of worship of both Muslims and Christians would be defended against arsonists. In this climate of respect I am reminded of the good terms enjoyed between the Mamluk Sultan Barquq and Pope Matthew back in the 14th century. The sultan, who had consulted the pope before accepting the sultanship in 1382, immediately designated four Islamic judges to look into an accusation that mobs were trying to burn down the Hanging Church in what is today known as Old Cairo. The details of this event have been largely lost in the annals of history, probably because the story conflicts with accounts by the 15th-century Arab historian Al-Maqrizi. Al-Maqrizi wrote about a general atmosphere that was charged against Copts, of their being attacked in the streets, of monastic land being confiscated, of torture and forced conversions to Islam. Coptic sources corroborate this record of discrimination; The History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church mentions that altogether eight attempts were made to expel Coptic civil servants from government posts, that their numbers slipped into a minority and that church adornment came to a standstill. How can one reconcile such contradictory accounts -- evidence of peaceful relations on the one hand and gross persecution on the other? The original Mamluks were bought as slaves (usually in Eastern Europe) schooled in Istanbul, trained as soldiers, groomed as horsemen, converted to Islam, and brought into Egypt by the Fatimids to keep the population in order. Many were granted land in return for military service, and a sort of feudal system emerged. Each landowner parcelled out land to his retainers -- other Mamluks -- while he lived like a lord ( emir ) on the toil of peasant farmers. The grants were not hereditary. Mamluks perpetuated their order by bringing in new slaves who were educated and trained in Egypt. They kept themselves culturally separate from the rest of the population, and remained foreign in dress and speech. Since Egypt was their only home, however, they came to share certain cultural values with the local population, the Awlad Al-Balad, "The (real) sons of the country". A struggle for power was inevitable. The strongest of the Mamluks, Baybars, who secured the sultanate in 1250, was a most able ruler. He distinguished himself against the Crusaders, and he and his successor Qalaun systematically captured or destroyed their castles along the Syrian coast. The third outstanding Mamluk was Al-Nasir (1293-1341), whose control of the Islamic world was recognised as far afield as North Africa, Arabia, Asia Minor and Iraq. It was a time when philosophers and men of letters flocked to Egypt. Trade flourished, especially the spice trade, and this most wealthy of sultans built splendid mosques, schools and mausoleums. Well aware that Egyptian Christians had not sided with the Crusaders or sympathised with missionaries from the West, Mamluk sultans were content to employ them on account of their bureaucratic expertise, especially in collecting taxes. The Arab chronicler Abul-Makarim wrote that the spirit of the age was one of tolerance, and he mentioned more than 600 active Coptic churches. As for Egyptian builders and craftsmen, for centuries they had produced work of great beauty and ingenuity and had formed guilds ( tawaaif ) where apprentices worked under masters of different specialisations. These were maintained by the Mamluks for two reasons: strict regulations guaranteed quality control, and guilds fulfilled important administrative functions in regard to tax collection and price control. Indeed, there is every indication of a cohesive and tolerant society. Locally manufactured goods were exported, bazaars overflowed with imported exotic and luxury products, and foreigners flocked to Egypt. A Florentine traveller named Leonardo Frescobaldi wrote that the number of vessels docked in the Nile port (probably Al-Maqs) was equal to three times the shipping in the harbours of Venice, Genoa and Ancona combined, while the historian and jurist Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) described Masr as Umm Al-Dunya, Mother of the World. Like the Fatimids before them, the Mamluks made a great public spectacle of such occasions as the opening of the Khalig (the canal that branched off the Nile at Old Cairo) at the peak of the annual flood. Sham Al-Nessim, the official first day of Spring, was a national holiday. The greatest festivity of the year was the pilgrimage caravan to Mecca, when the kiswa, the richly adorned fabric woven in Egypt, was placed within an elaborate canopy of gold-embroidered silk, mounted on a camel and sent in an impressive convoy across Sinai to cover the kaaba in Mecca. Led by the Am Al-Hagg, the commander of the pilgrimage, it was followed by the wali (governor) and hami al-hara, the supervisors of the Christian, Jewish, Greek and Armenian neighbourhoods of the city. It is unfortunate that the historical records fall short of describing the social upheaval brought about by unforeseen natural events. Lacking evidence of the reason for the religious friction described by Muslim and Coptic chroniclers, one must look further afield. A hint of trouble can be seen when for some successive years the River Nile failed to reach the minimum required level. The thirsty land burnt dry from the summer sun. Food became scarce, and prices soared. Famine breeds pestilence, and outbreaks of plague were not infrequent. And in this way, in the middle of the 14th century, disaster struck. The Black Death originated from Central Asia and, as elsewhere, took a terrible toll on the population of Egypt. It wiped out whole families and reduced the population by a third. Disease knows no boundaries. The Baghdad physician Abdel-Latif lived in Cairo during the famine years and described the struggles of landlord and labourer, craftsman and merchant, wealthy and poverty- stricken, Muslim and Christian. The plague struck hardest in crowded areas. Corpses that lay unburied were surrounded by flocks of vultures and jackals. Treating the ill, washing the dead, arranging funerals and grave-digging became highly paid activities. The "calamities" were long- lasting. There were 16 further outbreaks of plague after the Black Death. Once it the plague had run its course, however, landlords set about redeveloping agriculture, taking over neglected land, and turning empty buildings into schools and mosques. Copts for their part resettled their communities as best they could, but relations between Copts and Muslims became strained. Decline in the fortunes of Copts is frequently attributed to persecution, but because their numbers had declined so drastically the building of new churches was not permitted, and there was, as Al-Maqrizi mentioned, increased taxation and the seizing of church property. Copts were under such pressure from the authorities that in order to continue earning a respectable livelihood many, especially those with scribal skills, converted to Islam. Coptic disappeared as a spoken language, and contributions to The History of the Patriarchs ended. Copts, however, nevertheless kept the spirit of their faith alive. Meanwhile, in the East, the Ottoman Turks had built up a great empire in Asia Minor, and in 1516 Sultan Selim invaded Syria, defeated the Mamluk army at Aleppo and, continuing his victorious advance, subjugated Palestine. Then he marched on Egypt. A decisive encounter took place, and Selim managed to overcome the magnificently-clad but ill-exercised Mamluk cavalry and wrest power from their grasp. The long period of Ottoman rule, which lasted until the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt in the late-18th century, is largely lacking from the historical record, so one tends to overlook the slow and steady emergence of a Coptic-Arabic culture. Society is shaped by many factors not all of which are recounted in the historical record. Too many scholars view their fields as closed or tightly bonded units and research them independently of one another. For example, Doris Behrens- Abouself's brilliant Cairo of the Mamluks focuses on their enormous patronage of Islamic art and architecture, while Massimo Capuani's Christian Egypt covers monastic art through the millennia. Such specialised books emphasise separateness. The fact that there is a Museum of Islamic Art and Architecture and an almost contemporaneous Coptic Museum only serves to emphasise this. Yet incorporated into the Old Wing of the Coptic Museum are architectural elements salvaged from derelict Coptic houses at the turn of the 20th century that include wooden lintels and ceilings, ceramic tile decorations, brass chandeliers, mashrabiya (latticed) woodwork and stained-glass windows that are no different from those in the Islamic Museum. The outer porch of the Hanging Church, which dates from the 11th century, is decorated with glazed tiles in geometrical designs like those in mosques. A glazed Fatimid bowl found at the site of the first Arab capital Al-Fustat (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) is decorated with an incised painting of a Coptic priest holding a lamp. Similarly, a magnificent 18th- century red silk garment embroidered with silver threads on display in the Coptic Museum features the 12 disciples with their names written in Arabic, and is comparable to robes on display in the Islamic Museum. By tradition Masr (Egypt) is a tolerant, cohesive, and resilient society. With the fading of the Coptic language -- the final link with Egypt's pharaonic and classical past) -- bilingual documents and manuscripts began to appear. In accordance with Islam, which forbids the portrayal of any living likeness, there was an increasing production of abstract ornamentation in local workshops for Muslim and Christian patrons alike. Noticeable similarities are apparent in the mediaeval adornment of mosques and churches, and of the beits (houses) of wealthy Egyptians whatever their religious affiliations. So, yes, Sultan Selim of Istanbul was too actively engaged in continuing warfare with Iran and the Christian world to concern himself with his new Egyptian province. And yes, the local populace suffered when he established a new form of government and ruled through a series of viceroys (on whom he bestowed the title Pasha), while the real authority rested with Turkish soldiers and officials sent to Egypt with the given task of maintaining law and order, and of course of ensuring that tribute was paid to Istanbul each year. The Mamluks were still the leading landowners and so were in a strong position. They were allowed to maintain households of slave soldiers, even while they themselves were held in check by a crack regiment of Ottoman troops. Failure to deliver the required grain or other produce led to physical trial, fines and confiscation of land. The rural population, the masreen ("People of Egypt"), Muslim and Christian, revolted time and again, demanding that something be done about the increasingly intolerable conditions. "The Land", a brilliant 20th-century film directed by Youssef Chahine and based on a popular novel by Abdel-Rahman El-Sharqawi, explored the complex relationship between individual interests and collective responses to oppression. As the Mamluks squabbled and intrigued to secure important posts in the Sultanate, the country was kept in a state of constant turmoil and bloodshed. The unfortunate peasantry was squeezed to the limit. I shall never forget the final clip of the film, which showed a farmer being dragged by the feet by a mounted Mamluk, his bleeding hands extended to grasp his emerging crop. Was he Muslim or Christian? Does it matter? He was an Egyptian.
