Subject: khassaki knight
Culture: Circassian-Mamluk
Setting: Burji sultanate, Egypt/Mediterranean 15thc
Object: sword
Mamluk Swords
* Arts of the Muslim knight 2008 p49 (describing a mid-fifteenth century Mamluk sword blade)
"It seems very likely that decorated straight dougle edged swords ... are examples of the ceremonial swords of the Mamluk period known as saif badawi. Such swords were used in the most important ceremonial events during this era, that is, in the investiture of Mamluk sultans and of caliphs of the restored 'Abbāsid dynasty.'"
Tribute Swords
* Treasures of Islam 1985 p301 (David Alexander & Howard Ricketts, "Arms and armour" p294-317)
"The keeping and display of captured weapons, especially swords is well documented. Before Islam captured swords are known to have been ritually displayed at the Ka'ba; there are records from the Ayyubid period of swords and shields captured from the Crusaders in 1157/8 being hung on the walls of Aleppo 'creating a spectacle which people admired for seven days.' The crusader swords kept by the Mamluks and later by the Ottomans demonstrate the continuity of this triumphal tradition."
* Oakeshott 1960 p311-312
"There are many such trophies, swords of Italian fashion and of fourteenth-century types, with Arabic inscriptions applied to their blades after being deposited in this Arsenal [the Hall of Victories at Alexandria] by the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt. Some were probably acquired as gifts from merchants or embassies from Genoa, Pisa or Venice, but others are undoubtedly the spoils of war, captured from Christian forces based on Cyprus. In 1365 one such force (under Peter of Lusignan, titular King of Jerusalem) made an attack upon Cairo. It was beaten off, and several swords bear witness to Peter's defeat. ...
"In 1426 the Mamluk Sultan Malik el Asraf Barsabay in his turn raided Cyprus, carrying off a number of swords which were duly inscribed, often more than ten years after their capture. Most of the surviving swords are from this time, being dated in the 1430s."
