Mamluk Sultanate (سلطنة المماليك) (may 2, 1250 – jan 22, 1517)

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The Mamluk Sultanate (Arabic: سلطنة المماليك‎, romanized: Salṭanat al-Mamālīk) was a medieval realm spanning Egypt, the Levant and Hejaz that established itself as a caliphate. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Historians have traditionally broken the era of Mamluk rule into two periods, one covering 1250–1382 and the other 1382–1517. Western historians call the former the "Baḥrī" period and the latter the "Burjī" because of the political dominance of the regimes known by those names during the respective eras. Modern sources also refer to the same divisions as the "Turkish" and "Circassian" periods to stress the change in the ethnic origins of most Mamluks.

The term "Mamluk Sultanate" is a modern historiographical term. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, soldiers predominantly of Cuman-Kipchaks (from Crimea), Circassian, Abkhazian, Oghuz Turks and Georgian slave origin. While Mamluks were purchased, their status was above that of ordinary slaves, who were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks. Mamluks were considered to be "true lords", with social status above citizens of Egypt. Though it declined towards the end of its existence, at its height the sultanate represented the zenith of medieval Egyptian and Levantine political, economic, and cultural glory in the Islamic Golden Age.

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