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THE ARMENIANS IN THE 14TH CENTURY MAMLUK CAIRO. ḪIZĀNAT AL-BUNŪD (Summary)
G. Danielyan, Érévan 2020, Résumé en anglais pp.192-193 d'un long article pp.160-192 + avec une riche bibliographie :
~ https://www.matenadaran.am/ftp/el_grada ... lyan-2.pdf
In almost every description of Mamluk military expeditions against Cilician Armenia, found in Armenian and Mamluk historial sources, there is a reference to enslavement of large numbers of Armenians, including distinguished nobles and barons. But if the noblemen were often given a status of political captives, and diplomatic efforts or ransoms were enough to libe- rate them from slavery and to return to their homeland, the prisoners from common people were henceforth to accept the heavy burden of slavery in various cities of the Sultanate.
Mamluk sources rarely give details on the further fate of Armenian military prisoners. Supposedly, some of them appeared in slave markets of the Middle East and were enslaved. Beautiful women were taken to the harems of Mamluk sultans and emirs. Children were converted to Islam, edu- cated and trained in the arts of warfare. After manumission some of them even reached high positions in the military and administrative system of the Mamluk Sultanate.
But for a single case, Arabic sources give interesting evidence regar- ding the daily life of Armenian war prisoners in Cairo. According to them, sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn Qalāwūn (1293-1294, 1299-1309, 1310-1340) in the beginning of his third reign decided to inhabite the location known as Ḫizānat al-bunūd (literally “storehouse of banners”) with Christian war prisoners, generally with Armenians and Franks. This place had previously served Fatimids as an arsenal and a military treasury. During the Ayyubid and the early Mamluk period it had been used as a prison where former high-ranking military and civilian officials, such as viziers and emirs, were usually kept. Another group of Armenians was settled in the Cairo Citadel.
The Arabic sources report that the Armenian prisoners were mainly employed in public, mainly construction works. But over the years, Ḫizānat al-bunūd transformed into a small quarter, where some “semi-legal” businesses, like winemaking industry, flourished. Beside wine-selling, dwellers of the “getto” were also accused of pig meat- and prostitution-businesses. In spite of its notorious reputation in Muslim eyes, the activities in Ḫizānat al- bunūd were tolerated by sultan al-Nāṣir. But after his death, the new authorities decided to raze the inns and the taverns of the quarter to the ground. The Armenians, who lived in the Cairo Citadel, were also punished. The Armenian population was evicted from these two places and moved to the outskirts of Cairo.
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