Who Were the Mamluks?
If you're interested in this kind of history stuff, I recommend reading <i>The Silk Roads</i>, by Peter Frankopan. It's a recent (2015) epic-scope history book, from the beginning of written history to the present day, based on the idea that the Middle East, rather than Europe, is the true center of civilization - that the area stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to western India has been foremost, and remains foremost. (In particular, he argues that northern/western Europe was basically an uninteresting, barbarian backwater until 1500 or so.)<p>Great book, totally fascinating reading, with the hottest geopolitical issues of today traced back through thousands of years of history.