Mameluke definition

mămə-lo͝ok
A member of a former military caste, originally composed of slaves from Turkey, that held the Egyptian throne from about 1250 until 1517 and remained powerful until 1811.
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A member of a military caste, orig. made up of slaves, that ruled in Egypt from 1250 until 1517 and remained powerful until 1811
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In Muslim countries, a slave.
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A member of a military regime created and run originally by freed white slaves, which formed a ruling caste in Egypt from 1250 until 1812 and in Syria until 1516.
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Alternative Forms

Alternative Form of mameluke - mamaluke, mameluk, mamluk, mamluke, mammaluke

Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
mameluke
Plural:
mamelukes

Origin of mameluke

  • French mameluk from Arabic mamlūk slave, Mameluke passive participle of malaka to possess mlk in Semitic roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From French mamelouk, ultimately from Arabic مملوك (mamlÅ«k, “slave") from ملك (málaka, “to possess, to acquire"), from the root Ù… Ù„ Ùƒ (m-l-k).

    From Wiktionary

Mameluke Sentence Examples

  • On leaving Egypt he travelled by land to the Persian Gulf, disguised as a Mameluke, visiting Damascus, and entering the great mosque undetected.

  • They consented to ally themselves with the ruler of Damascus against the sultan of Egypt; but in the battle of Gaza they were deserted by their allies and heavily defeated by Bibars, the Egyptian general and future Mameluke sultan of Egypt.

  • I Turanshah, deposed 1250, and succeeded by the Mameluke Aibek.

  • The building of Cairo in 969, and, above all, the discovery of the route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, nearly ruined its commerce; the canal, which supplied it with Nile water, became blocked; and although it remained a principal Egyptian port, at which most European visitors in the Mameluke and Ottoman periods landed, we hear little of it until about the beginning of the 19th century.

  • Much favoured by the earlier viceroys of Mehemet Ali's house, and removed from the Mameluke troubles, Alexandria was the real capital of Egypt till Said Pasha died there in 1863 and Ismail came into power.

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Words near mameluke in the Dictionary