Notes on Mamluk Madrasahs (MSR VI, 2002)

The core of Ulrich Haarmann's diverse scholarly interests was his fascination with the literary sources for Mamluk history. His pioneering research on various forms of Mamluk literature—chronicles, travelogues, biographies, religious tracts, furu≠s|yah manuals, etc.—is indispensable for scholars. Not so well known, however, is his occasional interest in documentary sources, most notably in two articles published in the eighties, one entitled "Mamluk Endowment Deeds as Sources for the History of Education in Late Medieval Egypt." This article reflects the increasing interest given to the history of Mamluk institutions by scholars during the past two decades, using to some degree waqf|yahs as primary sources. In the present article I shall assemble some data on Mamluk madrasahs from two secondary sources that have been neglected and which help fill in some of the gaps left by waqf|yahs. One of these is al-Asyu≠t ̧|'s fifteenth century shuru≠t ̧ manual devised for judges, witnesses, and notaries in preparing legal documents; the other is alNuwayr|'s chronicle contained in his encyclopedia written in the early fourteenth century for the use of chancery clerks.