Battalık, a Sistem of Exile among the Egyptian Memluks, and Jerusalem

Abstract

Jerusalem has been seeming to be a banishment place from the early Islamic period to the Mamluk period. Jerusalem features prominently in the Mamluk period as a place to which individuals were sent when battal. Battal meant being on the inactive. In the Mamluk period it was normally applied to men in the military sphere but not exclusively. The term could be used of administrative. An individual could receive this status because he was out of favour. For battal why Jerusalem was so often selected? It was clearly deemed preferable to other place, such as Mecca or Tarsus, and people requested transfer to Jerusalem. And in the Mamluk period an amir sent to Jerusalem could paradoxically be apointed to the superintendency of the Harams. In short, the administrative concept of the Mamluk for Jerusalem was based on the battal application.