our little mamluk appreciation thread

[trzes]

... as suggested by Lynyrd Narciso who posts here as BlueToy.

 

This is another follow-up to a thread on ATF, the beloved forum that closed down a year ago. It is meant to deal with everything that is related to the Mamluk pattern in general, also in particular to discuss the possible extension of the mamluk pattern to a full tarot deck, however of course not exclusively.

 

I'll start with something my daughter came up with recently (already posted that on my Facebook page): When she looked over my shoulder while I was paying attention to the mamluk cards (more than paying attention to her, terrible injustice that is), she got me to talk about all the patterns, and we started talking about the blue figures at the end of the curved polo sticks on the odd numbered polo stick cards. These are usually referred to as dragon heads which makes sense, as the mamluk pattern directly derives from Chinese cards. But my daughter instantly said: "Why do you call them dragons, daddy? They are elephants!" Although Ly has mentioned the Indian influence on the mamluk cards before, this had never occured to me. But my daughter insisted: "But they have trunks and tusks. Of course they are elephants!" Apparently it sometimes takes the uncorrupted vision of a child to see the obvious.  <3

[reall]

oh! this is good! I've noticed odd pattern on polo sticks as well!:) china got paper & money first so it's possible they had 1st playing cards as Well dragons would fit! :) but India have Vedas as well

so if ornaments resemble elephants it's possible Islamic influence on India cards? :)aka not showing Actual animal but ornament?:)

[trzes]

I guess more Indian ifnluence on the mamluks than the other way round. India had the elephant god Ganesh for a long time (like 5th century A.D.). I also found this link: https://www.trocadero.com/stores/BodhisatvaCollection/items/1031665/Large-Enameled-Silver-Box-From-Rajasthan-India that shows  a silver box with a blue (!) elephant on it. You can click on the image on the right side to enlarge it.

 

But also look at the border pattern. Almost exactly what you find on the king cards of the mamluk deck.

[reall]

hm, agree so it's indian influence/origin afte all?:) not surprisrd,,, lol

[BlueToy]

Yay! A Mamluk thread! :D

 

About the Indian connection, there was ancient tade between Arabs and Indians (that and parts of India were also eventually invaded by Muslims). I wonder how this deck compares with Ganjifa (which is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganjifa :D

[53rdspirit]

This post caught my attention since I purchased the Trzes’ Mamluk deck by Ulrich Kaltenborn a month or two ago. Of note, I ordered it from Bob at CollecTarot who passed away this mid-January --much to everyone's surprise and sadness. I, for one, will miss him. That aside, however, I find it brilliant that your daughter saw the elephants instead of dragons on the polo sticks. Reading this thread prompted me to look up the relationship of the Mamluks and elephants. My brief research found that elephants were, indeed, a part of the Mamluk court, used primarily for battle. Whereas one soldier would ride a horse, many soldiers could ride an elephant into battle --very interesting read. I found this information in Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam by Housni Aikhateeb Shehada.

 

Here is a brief excerpt (pp. 192-193):

"The elephant handlers, fayyalun (sing. fayyal), were another group of specialists. The elephants in the Mamluk court arrived as gifts from rulers of different countries, mostly from India, but apparently some from Africa, too. The care of elephants required special skill, different from the skills needed for the care of other animals because elephants were rare or, in fact, non-existent throughout the Mamluk empire. Clearly, the knowledge required was not possessed by Arab or Muslim veterinarians who worked anywhere in the empire, and the ongoing care and medical treatment of the elephants was entrusted, as already stated, to people originating from India. Presumably, a similar situation existed in the courts of Mamluk sultans in Egypt, and elephants sent as gifts from rulers in India came accompanied by professional elephant tamers and handlers."

 

The battle formation using elephants is found in the notes section of the book.

 

So...your daughter, trzes, I believe, is absolutely correct! How interesting!