Délinquance et ordre social. L'état mamlouk syro-égyptien face au crime à la fin du IXe-XVe siècle

The last fifty years of the Mamluk State, sole ruler of Egypt and Syria since the mid-7th /13th century, were particularly hard for the established military power. Even though it was confronted with internal and recurring structural difficulties – pandemics, famines, recruits revolting, Bedouin uprising – it also had to face external enemies among whom are featured Ottomans who put an end to its existence in 923/1517. In such a context, endemic violence characteristic of the Eastern and Western medieval era did not spare the Mamluk Empire. Thus, chroniclers underline the development of plural delinquency – thieves, assassins, forgers, transgressors, libertines… – which took advantage of these problems and affected cities as well as the countryside. Indeed, since the offenders did not discriminate between youth and elderly, men and women, Christians, Jews and Muslims, the rich and the poor were all among their victims. Political (sultans, governors, and emirs) as well as religious authorities (qadis and ulemas), were aware of the extent of this problem and of the negative consequences it brought and had no choice but to join forces. They did everything to try and fight crimes and they went out, multiplying night watches, arresting the transgressors. Sultans even promulgated edicts to limit individual liberties and turned punishment into a horrific show they hoped to be didactic. However, the criminal phenomenon had spread so much that the multiple initiatives turned out to be unable to stop it.