mameluke

• Mamaluke, mamaluke, mameluk, Mameluke, Mamluk, mamluk, mamluke, mammaluke
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From French mamelouk, ultimately from Arabic مَمْلُوك‎ (mamlūk, “slave”) (literally "possessed"), passive participle of مَلَكَ‎ (malaka, “to possess, to acquire”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaməluːk/

mameluke (plural mamelukes)

1. 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.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 48, in The Essayes, […], book I, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     The Mammalukes boast, that they have the nimblest and readiest horses of any men at armes in the world.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p.574:

     He first smashed the native Mameluke army at the battle of the Pyramids on 21 July, and secured lower Egypt before leading an expedition in Syria against Turkish forces.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 278:

     The Mamluks, who seized power in Egypt in 1250, were a caste of men captured for military service, so they drew their identity from their defence of Islam against its enemies.

2. (obsolete) A slave (especially white) in a Muslim country.
   • 1888, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 1:

     Having accepted this advice the King forthwith bade prepare handsome gifts, such as horses with saddles of gem encrusted gold; Mamelukes, or white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high breasted virgins, and splendid stuffs and costly.

mameluke

1. feminine singular of mameluk