the name of a dynasty that reigned in Egypt.

The Mamalukes were originally Turkish and Circassian slaves, bought of the Tartars by Melicfaleh, to the number of a thousand, whom he bred up to arms, and raised some to the principal offices of the empire. They killed sultan Moadam, to whom they succeeded.

Others say, that the mamalukes were ordinarily chosen from among the Christian slaves, and that they were the same thing in a great measure with the Janissaries among the Turks. They never married. They first are said to have been brought from Circassia, and some have supposed that they began to reign about the year 869.

MAMMÆ, in anatomy. See ANATOMY, p. 277.