Neale Masterclass 2025: Professor Jo Van Steenbergen

'The Mamlūk institution' – military slavery – was at the centre of a fierce and wideranging debate among Islamicists in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It was often taken to be an enduring presence in Muslim polities across Afro-Eurasia between the 9th and 19th centuries CE; thus one scholar concluded that "The Mamlūk institution – with all its variants and offshoots – is one of the most important and enduring socio-military institutions which Islam has known throughout its long and rich history" (Ayalon 1994). Since the early 2000s, however, scholarship has moved on from the generalisations of the previous century to a more substantial study of many of these 'variants and offshoots'. As a result, the last two decades have uncovered more and more of the very specific and diverse histories of enslavement, service and empowerment of atrāk, ghilmān, mamlūks, kul, yeni çeri and their ilk across pre-modern Islamic Afro-Eurasia.

Having been involved for over two decades in the study of one of the most conspicuous of these 'variants and offshoots' – the so-called Mamlūk Sultanate of Cairo (c. 1250-1517) – in this masterclass I aim to acquaint students with some of these very specific and diverse histories through a handful of case studies ranging from early Islamic late antiquity to (early) modernity. Combining the interpretation of a selection of sources (in translation) with the discussion of a handful of modern studies, we aim to critically reflect on the value and validity of Ayalon's statement about the importance and endurance of the 'Mamlūk institution' against the wider background of the (global) history of enslavement and slavery in general.
 
Open to: undergraduate finalists, Master’s students and PhDs within the History Department. Particularly of interest to anyone working on: history of slavery, global history, Islamic history, medieval and early modern political and social history. No prior knowledge of the masterclass topic is necessary, but everyone will need to read the primary and secondary sources (total c. 50 pages) before the masterclass.  
 
The masterclass will be followed by Professor Van Steenbergen’s Neale Lecture on ‘The enslavement of Middle Eastern history: Politics, historiography, ideology and the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo (13th–16th centuries)' at 6.30pm in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre. All masterclass participants are strongly encouraged to attend. Please sign up for the lecture separately.
 
Questions: email Dr Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite or Dr Patrick Lantschner.

Note: This event is only open to UCL staff and students. The form will be taken down once the participant limit of 17 is reached.