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Piecing Together Chancery-Scribal Networks: A Potential Pathway for Exploring the History of Mamlūk-Era Diplomatic Agreements

  • Bogdan Smarandache

This paper discusses chancery personnel serving the last Ayyūbid sultans of Cairo and their immediate successors, between roughly 648 AH/1250 AD and 689 AH/1290 AD, and their role in drafting diplomatic agreements. It considers references to the work of chancery scribes alongside evidence for their interpersonal networks, particularly the relation of ‘scribal tutelage’ whereby veteran chiefs of the chancery bureau trained their soon-to-be successors. This relation served as an important avenue for the transmission of knowledge about diplomatic agreements and about the correct norms for drafting them. I focus on four examples of chancery personnel whose careers show overlap to demonstrate how studying the individual biographies, duties and responsibilities, and interpersonal relations of the individuals who formed part of this evolving network can help us understand how diplomatic agreements were formulated.

  • Keywords:
  • Middle Ages,
  • 13th century,
  • Cairo,
  • chancery bureau,
  • diplomatic agreements,
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Bogdan Smarandache

University of Liège, Belgium - ORCID: 0009-0000-0695-2342

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  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Piecing Together Chancery-Scribal Networks: A Potential Pathway for Exploring the History of Mamlūk-Era Diplomatic Agreements

Authors

Bogdan Smarandache

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1117-8.03

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Diplomatic Networks in the Medieval Mediterranean

Book Subtitle

Individuals, Groups, and Interactions

Editors

Isabella Lazzarini, Roser Salicrú i Lluch

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

208

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1117-8

ISBN Print

979-12-215-1115-4

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-1117-8

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-1120-8

Series Title

Reti Medievali E-Book

Series ISSN

2704-6362

Series E-ISSN

2704-6079

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