This story of an unnamed slave woman in Mamluk-era Cairo who murdered her mistress is not unique. When enslaved women were named and discussed in contemporary sources, they tended to be the concubines and mothers of powerful men or highly skilled slave singers regarded as prized possessions, but stories of enslaved women committing murder tended to feature the anonymous domestics who made elite households function. They were often portrayed as acting in groups. In contrast, stories of murder by enslaved men tended to focus on mamluks, young slaves undergoing military training. Their acts were generally presented in the context of factional politics rather than as a reaction to abuse.

This particular murder is interesting because of its connection to a prominent commander, Yalbughā al-Yaḥyāwī. He had begun his life in Egypt as a military slave, but after training and manumission, he had a successful career as a close ally of the sultan Al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn Qalawūn. Unusually, he was also able to reconnect with his birth family and bring them from the land of the Tatars (either the Ilkhanate or the Golden Horde) to Egypt to share in his success. Yalbughā himself was executed in 1347 after falling out of favor with the sultan al-Muẓaffar Ḥajjī and attempting to flee, but his mother was apparently still living a comfortable life in Cairo until 1349. 

Translated from the Arabic by Hannah Barker. Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Maqrīzī, Kitāb al-sulūk li-maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk, edited by M.M. Ziyada and Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ ʿAshūr (Cairo: Lajnat al-taʾlīf wa-al-tarjamah wa-al-nashr, 1934-1973), volume 2, part 3, pages 799-800, year 750 H. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

On Wednesday[1] the 22nd a slave woman of the Greek race [jārīya rūmiyyat al-jins] was hanged outside Bāb al-Naṣr,[2] at the oratory of the dead. The reason for that was that she was the slave of the mother of the commander [amīr] Yalbughā al-Yaḥyāwī, and she conspired with several of the slave women to kill her mistress. They killed her at night by putting a pillow on her face and cutting off her breath until she died. On the following day they held her mourning ceremony and pretended that she was struck with blood. Their ruse worked on the people for a day, until they contended for the division of the money that they stole, and they talked about what happened, and they confessed against the slave woman who arranged the killing. So she was taken and hanged with her wrap (izār) and face veil (niqāb).[3] What money was with them was taken from the slave women, and it was a large sum. A woman being hanged was unknown in Egypt except for this.


[1] 22 Rabīʿ al-awwal, 750 is equivalent to June 10, 1349.

[2] The Gate of Victory, one of the main city gates of medieval Cairo.

[3] In other words, even though the bodies of slave women belonged to others and they were not expected to veil themselves in public, this woman’s modesty was protected during her execution. This was probably not in consideration of the enslaved woman’s feelings; rather, it probably reflected the high status of Yalbughā al-Yaḥyāwī’s household and an act of courtesy to the surviving women of the family.

Discussion Questions

  1. If a group of enslaved women conspired to kill Yalbughā al-Yaḥyāwī’s mother, why was only one of them executed? What do you think might have happened to the other women? Why does the author, al-Maqrīzī, not tell us?  
  2. Why did this group of women choose murder as a means of resistance to their enslavement? What other options might they have considered? Why might they have preferred this option?
  3. Why do you think Mamluk authors typically depicted enslaved women acting in groups to commit murder? What does it suggest about Mamluk stereotypes about women? About slaves?

Related Primary Sources

Related Secondary Sources

Themes

Agency, Elite Slaves, Violence, Women