On the Punishments and Tortures in the Mamluk State
Altan Çeti̇n
Keywords: Mediavel, Mamluks, Egypt, Punishment, Torture
Abstract
Punishments and tortures are the facts that societies have encountered throughout history and we become aware of them thanks to several sources. Punishments and tortures mostly appearing in relation to them bear importance in terms of giving a meaning to some sociological relations in history beyond being official and legal or informal arrangements. While we see magnificent victories of kings/sultans on one side of the coin, and on the other side punishments and tortures present themselves. In the Mamluk State we observe both practices of lenient punishments and very harsh ones and tortures. Punishments and those applications reaching to the extent of torture were encountered often in the literature during the Mamluk Period. This study was carried on in order to enlighten the types of punishments and tortures applied on human body rather than evaluating the reasons or the selection of punishments according to nature of crime.