Mamaluks and Bedouin soldier, 1804

Mamaluks and Bedouin soldiers, 1804. Engraving by J Chapman after Denon, published by J Wilkes 7 July 1804 showing ‘A Mamaluke on Horseback, with a Pieton or Foot Mamaluke, and a Bedouin Arab Soldier’. (probably Egypt) Mamaluks, or Mamalukes, belonged to a warrior caste which was created from non-Muslim slave boys. They were trained as soldiers and converted to Islam. Mamluk factions seized the sultanate for themselves in Egypt and Syria in a period known as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517 ).From ‘Encyclopaedia Londinensis, or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature’ . ‘Encyclopaedia Londinensis, or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature’ published in London, 1810-1829. Loose sheet