Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 127 Brother Caliph also wants me to protect him
The ruling class of the Mamluk dynasty is also very special.

It is not new to use military slaves as the main force of the country's army.Around the 9th century, the Abbasid dynasty, which was in decline, began to buy Turkic slaves on a large scale to form an army in order to fight against the Persian nobles in the territory and the foreign enemies who were eyeing them.

These Turkic slaves basically came from the Central Asian grasslands, and became slaves due to various factors such as defeat in tribal conflicts, natural disasters, and bankruptcy of the grasslands.They have some basic military skills and are a good source of soldiers locally.

Moreover, both Mesopotamia and Central Asia are much richer than their hometowns.The status of slaves also makes them lack of foundation in the local area, so it is not easy to rebel in theory.

For the caliph, it was a cheap and efficient weapon.At its peak, more than 7 Turkic slave soldiers were serving the Baghdad court.They were called "Ghulam", which means "trained slaves".

Although called slaves, these people need to be trained and prepared for war all day long. They are actually a kind of professional soldiers.Gulam, who is in his prime, can become an officer and get various rewards.In previous wars, the performance of Gulam soldiers was also satisfactory, and they could be called an elite team.

However, according to the understanding of the Purple Horde Khanate, this is simply a barbarian mercenary.It's just that there are some local characteristics in the specific implementation details.

And the result of the abuse of barbarian mercenaries, the Romans are too clear...

The development of things is not much different from what happened to Rome back then.The slave soldiers quickly got out of control, forming warlords who ruled from each side.Together with the heads of Turkic tribes who like "Shangluo", they ran rampant in the hinterland of the Tianfang Sect world.

The subsequent Persian and Turkic dynasties were not immune.It is common for slave soldiers to stand on their own, rebel, and even replace the original regime, which gave the Persians a good experience of the feeling of the last years of Western Rome.

Later, Saladin reformed the increasingly chaotic Gulam military system and established a stricter, relatively more scientific and systematic training program.These improved slave soldiers are called "Mamluks".

However, the Mamluks also gradually broke away from the control of the Ayyubid dynasty, and finally replaced them and established their own regime.

As for this regime, it is difficult to give him an exact definition.

Since Persia and Macedonia successively conquered Egypt, all regimes here have basically followed a policy, that is, not allowing local Egyptians to join the army.The armed forces and the upper echelons of the government are almost all composed of outsiders.

However, it cannot be said that he is a colonial regime, because the Mamluks who run the country come from all directions, including Kipchaks, Circassians, Mongols, and even Greeks.They were basically trafficked to Egypt as slaves when they were young, and the entire regime did not have a mother country.

They are even different from the Turkic dynasty that ruled Persia.Because these people are not even stable hereditary dynasty, and do not have a ruling family as the core. The "Mamluk dynasty" is just a general term. Every time the sultan changes, the Mamluks will follow the principle of "the sultan is the one who is strong and strong" and engage in brutal internal fighting.It is a very small probability event for the heir to succeed the Sudan.

The first stable Mamluk sultan, Baibars, was a Kipchak; after his death, his son was quickly overthrown by another emir, who passed on for two generations, and was then overthrown by a Mongolian Mamluk; the subsequent sultan , is a Greek Mamluk; after that, it is a Circassian... In short, not to mention the transmission of power between families, even the ethnic groups of origin may be different.

As the core of the dynasty's army, the Mamluks are loyal to their masters.It is also for this reason that the Mamluks are basically "one emperor and one courtier".

After the old sultan died or was overthrown, most of his trusted slaves would be deposed or even purged, and replaced by slaves of the new sultan.Therefore, regime change is often full of violence and chaos.The "old people" who are unwilling to lose power and the "newcomers" who are eager to take over the position often fight.

The rise of Timur and the Purple Horde further deteriorated the internal situation of the Mamluk regime.

The fresh blood of Mamluks comes from other places.However, the expansion of the Purple Horde Khanate and the reform of the Beiya soldiers affected the flow of slaves in the Chincha Grassland; the Queen Mother Helena insisted on entering Morea and expelled the local mercenary gangs and Italian businessmen, resulting in the exhaustion of the source of Greek slaves; finally, Timur invaded West Asia and the Caucasus, and the source of the most popular Circassian slaves was also cut off.

Although nominally slaves of all origins, the Mamluks have been fighting each other on the basis of origin.The source of slaves will affect the balance between various forces.And if all traditional sources were affected, the entire Mamluks would be weakened.

Therefore, for most of the time before, the relationship between the Mamluks and the Italian countries, Eastern Rome, and the Khans of the Golden Horde was good, and the Mamluks have been actively maintaining this diplomatic relationship.

During the Latin Empire and the Paleolio dynasty, Mamluk merchants had the privilege of free passage in the Black Sea, and they could use the Genoese port for procurement and supplies; the Mongols were allowed to occupy a piece of land in Alexandria to build a Slave depots; when the Mamluks attacked Acre to put an end to the crusaders, the Genoese promised them naval support.The cooperation between all parties was once very close.

As a result, all links of the trade route are perfect, and after-sales service can even be provided. Back then, when Sultan Baibar was first sold to Syria, the buyer found that his eyesight was bad, so he found a slave trader to return the goods.After that, Baibars was favored by Ayub Sultan, and he went to Egypt.

However, during the period when Timur and the Purple Horde suddenly rose, the Mamluks were on the wrong team.They habitually unite their old allies, the Golden Horde and Genoa, against Timur, who covets Syria.This caused the Mamluks and the newly formed Purple Tent-Venice Alliance to accidentally stand on opposite sides.

At this time, it was the Burgi dynasty dominated by Circassian slaves who held the power of the sultan.They had just overthrown the previous sultan, but it wasn't long before they were forced to face Timur's invasion.

Sultan Barkuk had no idea. He heard that the Purple Horde and Timur had a close relationship, so he had to recruit the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid of Asia Minor to form an alliance.In this way, the "one vertical" of the Golden Tent, Ottomans, and Mamluks, and the "one horizontal" of the Purple Tent, Timur, and later France formed a situation of direct confrontation.

However, before Timur came, Barkuk died suddenly, leaving behind his 13-year-old son Faraj.Neither his prestige nor his ability could stand against Timur.The Mamluks were eventually forced to abandon Syria.

What's more unfortunate is that Egypt encountered rare plagues and famines at this time, and the statistical population lost two-thirds, leaving the dynasty in a precarious state.

At critical moments, Faraj tried to maintain his authority through military victories.But he didn't have outstanding military talent, instead he was hated by everyone because of his tyrannical personality.

The local emirs kept rebelling; his father's Mamluk veterans ostracized him; and finally, even his own Mamluks deserted him.

Faraj was finally killed in a failed expedition to retake Syria, and the dynasty was left without a monarch.The emirs are not even willing to compete for the position of Sudan, because at this time, the risks and responsibilities are too great.

In the end, everyone thought of a way: Don’t we still have a caliph, just right, just let him go.

As a result, Caliph Mustain, who had been only in charge of issuing certificates of inauguration to the sultan, was appointed by the emirs as the new sultan.

Although I don't know if the emir's appointment of the caliph as the sultan is in line with the etiquette of Tianfang, but they really did so.

At the same time, the emirs also contacted the Purple Horde Khanate, saying that the previous fight was an accident: the emirs and Mamluks below had good intentions, and it was all due to the blind decision of the sultan above.But this guy has been chopped off by us, can the trade be resumed now?
(End of this chapter)