Mamlouks

Mamluks

April 30, 2025 - July 28, 2025

The Musée du Louvre marks a European first with a major exhibition on the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517), aiming to address this golden age of the Islamic Near East in all its scope and richness by examining it from a transregional perspective.

Exhibition catalogues

Exhibition Catalogue Mamlouks

MX038098
  • € 49
Catalogue of the "Mamluks" exhibition at the Musée du Louvre from 30 April to 28 July 2025.
A presentation of more than 350 objects revealing the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517), which encompassed Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan as well as part of East Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula. From their origins as military slaves, this dynasty ruled at a particularly fertile time for Islamic art.
Mamlouks

Mamluks

April 30, 2025 - July 28, 2025

The Musée du Louvre marks a European first with a major exhibition on the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517), aiming to address this golden age of the Islamic Near East in all its scope and richness by examining it from a transregional perspective.

1250-1517

The Musée du Louvre marks a European first with a major exhibition on the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517), aiming to address this golden age of the Islamic Near East in all its scope and richness by examining it from a transregional perspective.

The Mamluks, freed slave-soldiers of primarily Turkish (and later Caucasian) origin, built their legend on their warrior prowess. From 1250 to 1517, the Mamluk sultanate conquered the last bastions of the Crusaders, fought and repulsed the Mongol threat, survived Timur's invasions and kept its threatening Turkmen and Ottoman neighbours at bay before succumbing to the latter's expansionism. It encompassed a vast territory including Egypt, Bilad al-Sham (Syria, Libya, Israel/Palestine, Jordan), part of eastern Anatolia and the Hejaz region of Arabia, which includes Mecca and Medina.

But the history of the Mamluk sultanate cannot be reduced to its conquests and feats of arms. Its culture, as complex and multifaceted as its society, was part of a little-known and singularly fluid medieval era. A world in which sultans mingled with emirs and rich civil elites, all actively engaged in artistic patronage. A pluralistic society in which women as well as Christian and Jewish minorities had a place. Another 'Middle Kingdom' where Europe, Africa and Asia converged and in which people and ideas circulated, as did merchandise and artistic repertoires.

Structured in five sections (the Mamluks, their society, their cultures, their connections with the rest of the world and their art), the exhibition presents nearly 260 works, a third of which are from the Louvre and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, featured beside prestigious national and international loans. Textiles, objets d'art, manuscripts, paintings, ivories, stone and wood interior décors reveal a teeming artistic, literary, religious and scientific world. The sultanate was then the cultural heart of the Arab world and the heir to a number of grand traditions. Mamluk visual culture would make a lasting impression on art and architectural history.

The exhibition, through a spectacular scenography, immersive spaces and varied layouts, invites visitors into a living experience of the world of the Mamluks. Visitors will also be introduced to historical figures representative of Mamluk society, telling their unique stories as part of the greater history.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to discover this glorious and yet little-known empire through masterpieces from around the world, providing a new perspective on medieval Egypt and the Near East, at a time when it stood at a cultural junction between Asia, Africa and Europe.

Muhammad ibn al-Zayn, Bassin dit « Baptistère de Saint Louis ». Paris, Musée du Louvre © 2009 Musée du Louvre, dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Hughes Dubois
Panneau de cénotaphe. Paris, Musée du Louvre © 2011 Musée du Louvre, dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Hughes Dubois
Brûle-parfum au nom du sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun. Doha, Museum of Islamic Art © The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha / photo Samar Kassab
Carreau de revêtement à décor végétal. Paris, musée du Louvre © 2010 Musée du Louvre, dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Hughes Dubois
Armure lamellaire (jawshan ) du sultan Qaytbay. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Vase aux oiseaux. Lisbonne, musée Gulbenkian © Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – Calouste Gulbenkian Museum / photo Catarina Gomes Ferreira

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