Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army—II

Abstract

The term ḥalqa, as a name of a military unit, seems to be mentioned for the first time in 1174, when Tūrānshāh set out, under Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn's orders, on his expedition to the Yemen. This unit is also mentioned a few times during the siege of Acre in 587/1191. The sources do not indicate the date of its founding, and no authoritative explanation of the meaning of its name is available. Two opinions as to the latter may be submitted with all due reservations: Quatremere thinks that the halqa was so called because it was a corps which surrounded the sultan and constituted his bodyguard, and indeed the sources' description of its position and part in combat support the impression that it was composed of the élite of Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn's forces; A. N. Poliak disagrees, and holds that the name is derived from the special tactics the Turkish peoples used to employ in attack, i.e. that of surrounding the enemy in the form of a ring (ḥalqa). Poliak supports his view by alluding to the frequent recurrence of these tactics in the combat manoeuvres described in the furūsīya literature and in the hunting expeditions which the Ayyubid and Mamluk sultans frequently organized. In the present state of our knowledge, both explanations must be viewed as hypothetical, since no data are available to support either the one or the other; the writer inclines to favour Quatremere's view.