Mamluk Descendants: In search for the awlad al-nas

Research on the Mamluk period has so far remained relatively silent about the Mamluk descendants, who are often referred to by the Arabic term awlad al-nas (roughly: children of the elite). After Ulrich Haarmanns fundamental theses, research on this group seems to have paused, in comparison to the study dedicated to other social groups of Mamluk society. This volume brings together the results of an international conference and presents the state of the art in approaching the Mamluk descendants, whose emic perception as a group and social roles were far more differentiated and variable than previously assumed. The contributions shed light on the status of the Mamluk descendants from a variety of viewpoints, including historiographies, archival material, and artifacts produced by Mamluk descendants.