mameluke

• Mamaluke, mamaluke, mameluk, Mameluke, Mamluk, mamluk, mamluke, mammaluke
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From French mamelouk, ultimately from Arabic مَمْلُوك (mamlūk, “slave”) (literally "possessed"), passive participle of مَلَكَ (malaka, “to possess, to acquire”). Doublet of mameluco.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaməluːk/

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mameluke (plural mamelukes)

1. (historical) A member of various military regimes in the Middle East created and run by freed slave soldiers, mainly from the Eurasian steppe or the Caucasus; in particular, those who formed a ruling caste in Egypt from 1250 until 1812 and in Syria until 1516.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 48, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     The Mammalukes boast, that they have the nimblest and readiest horses of any men at armes in the world.

   • 1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 107:

     Conceivably both fort and causeway had been built by an Egyptian Mameluke for the passage of his pilgrim-caravan from Yenbo.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 574:

     He first smashed the native Mameluke army at the battle of the Pyramids on 21 July, and secured lower Egypt before leading an expedition in Syria against Turkish forces.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 278:

     The Mamluks, who seized power in Egypt in 1250, were a caste of men captured for military service, so they drew their identity from their defence of Islam against its enemies.

2. (obsolete) A slave (especially European and white) in a Middle Eastern Muslim country.
   • 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 1”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

     Having accepted this advice the King forthwith bade prepare handsome gifts, such as horses with saddles of gem encrusted gold; Mamelukes, or white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high breasted virgins, and splendid stuffs and costly.

3. (slang, Italian-American) A fool.
   • 2010 June 3, James Ellroy, American Tabloid‎:

     Kabikov: “Hey, I’m setting a mood.” Mad Sal: “I’ll mood you, you mameluke.

   • 2014 January 28, Anthony Bruno, Bad Guys‎:

     My goddamn son-in-law, my right-hand man, acting like a fucking mameluke in front of all those people.” “Maybe he acted that way on purpose,” Tozzi said, “To make you think he was a mameluke.” “He was a mameluke!”

   • 2021 January 14, Harry Brooks, Nothing Beats Luck‎:

     “I’m saying there are some asshole cops who take their ‘collar’ out to the desert and bury him. […] There is nothing I would enjoy more than to put that mameluke Mikey Esposito in the ground . . . but that’s not going to happen.”

mameluke

1. feminine singular of mameluk