Mamluk-Golden Horde diplomacy and the Black Sea slave trade (1260-1354)

Dasht-i Kipchak, also known as the north of the Black Sea, was a region where the Islamic world supplied slaves from the IXth century onwards. The slave supply and system, which had been realised by the Abbasids, was continued in the periods of the Fatimids, the Seljuks of Turkey and the Ayyubids, and the region maintained its importance. After the Mamluks, who were brought from Dasht-i Kipchak, took over the administration in Egypt and put an end to the Ayyubids in the middle of the XIIIth century, a great change took place in the slave trade. In the same period, the Mongol invasions in Anatolia, Iran and Dasht-i Kipchak region and the establishment of two separate states named Golden Horde and Ilkhanid affected the slave trade between the Black Sea and Egypt. As a result of political, military and commercial struggles between states, changes have occurred in trade routes. Factors such as the increasing sovereignty of Turkmen principalities in Anatolia in the XIVth century and their communication with the Mamluks brought about new changes in the Black Sea slave trade and the supply of slaves to Egypt. In this study, the effects of the relations between the Mamluks and the Golden Horde, which were established in Egypt after the Ayyubids, on the slave trade and the effects of the relations between the two states on the regional states will be discussed. In addition, the process of turning the trade between the Black Sea and Egypt through land and sea routes into a state policy will be studied. Moreover, this study will also discuss the prices of slaves, methods of procuring slaves, slave traders and the practices of the traders during the sale of slaves.