This paper aims at showing the significance of Al-Karak Kingdom
in the Mamluki era through the artistic letter used to be issued by the
Council (Dewan El-Ensha'a), being helped by what the contemporary
historians, geographers, and travelers used t
o write about that era.
Therefore, the sources of the study come from those who had seen the
events and lived them in real. Moreover the research will point out the
importance and care which were given to the Kingdom by the kings and
emirs in all military, economic, and social aspects.
Throughout the ages, Egypt had the honour of being the
country where the Kiswa (the embroidered black cloth covering the
Kaaba) had been manufactured. The Kiswa had been made in Egypt
– renowned for manufacturing such a textile - from the Pre-Isla
mic
Age down to the Islamic Age and throughout the successive Arabic
and Islamic historical stages. The Kiswa was looked at as a
political, military, and civilizational emblem for it was an emblem
of sovereignty in both the Arab and Islamic Worlds. The Mamluki
sultans had endeavored to achieve such a status since the very
beginning of their being in power and the rulers of Egypt. The
Mamluki sultans had maintained the hounor of having this dignified
religious emblem and they were involved in conflicts with other
powers just to maintain their patronage of this holy emblem which
denotes political, military, and cultural sovereignty.
The "Mamalik" Estate has been a raised after the vanishing of
the estate of "Bani Ayobe", Egypt in the "Mamalik" era has
witnessed the coming of many different rates, and nationalities,
which lead to a new social formula.
This research, aims to i
llustrate the reality of this social formula
and the groups it contained and to show the rule of each group in
every side 0f political, economical and social life, and the
exchanged influence with each other, throughout the writings some
historians.
This study treated the position of the Mamluke state from the people of Keserwan and limiting it to the military campaigns that the Mamluke state waged against Keserwan Mountain at the ends of the seventh century H/the thirteenth century CE, which we
re known historically by The Keserwan campaigns, and that by standing on their causes by showing the passings of the people of Keserwan and their positions from the state after its exposure to the Crusade invasion. As the three military Keserwan campaigns that the Mamluke state waged against the people of Keserwan with its different sects formed one of the most prominent episodes of the struggle in that geographical spot. This study revealed the several results and effects that those campaings left behind especially the political and demographic and denominational effects on the people of Keserwan. As the state could impose its prestige by force. This study aimed to show the position of the Shiekh ibn Taymia from the behaviours of the people of Keserwan and from their religious belief, with concentrating on his role in the 3rd campaign politically and militarily, and analyzing his letter to the Mamluke Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun and its meanings, and observing its effects and gravity. As the Shiekh Taqiy Aldin ibn Taymia represented in the period of the first Mamluke age one of the most prominent scientists of the Sunna as he had an obvious role side by side with the political authority against its opponents. This study showed the development of this struggle and its revelations intellectually and theoretically by presenting opposite models representing it as Ibn Taymia and Ibn Al-Mutahir Al-Hilly. As the legal opinion of Ibn Taymia and his thought had the most effect in lighting the political and the intellectual struggle with them in the subsequent periods. The importance of this study became clear because of pure objective causes presented in its treatment of several centers and details by some neutrality far from partiality because of the tendencies and points of view that accompanied these campaigns which appeared in the historical writing based on the identity or sectarianism by some writers, which made the history of the campaigns on Keserwan in Lebanon a sectarian history as the whole relation with Mamluke state because of ignoring much of their aspects. As it is impossible in any case to burden the responsibility of the struggle with one of the two parties
