Palestine · A closer look
1291
The Mamluks
Sultans ruling from Cairo drove the last Crusaders from Acre in 1291 and spent the next two centuries endowing Jerusalem with madrasas, hospices and fountains. Much of the stone fabric of the Old City that visitors walk through today is Mamluk.
A city of learning
Under the Mamluks, Jerusalem attracted patrons who invested in its religious and scholarly standing. Sultans and other benefactors supported buildings associated with study, worship and pilgrimage. The city's significance did not depend on being the empire's capital. Its holy places offered rulers a way to demonstrate devotion and authority, while the institutions they supported brought teachers, students and visitors into its streets.
Endowments in stone
Religious endowments helped sustain schools, hospices and other institutions. Their buildings became part of the fabric around the Haram al-Sharif and along the approaches to it. Looking closely at portals, inscriptions and patterned stonework reveals how patronage was made visible in the city. These were working institutions, not simply monuments: their maintenance depended on relationships between property, income, religious life and public service.
A shared and contested holy city
Medieval Jerusalem drew the attention of Muslim, Christian and Jewish patrons and pilgrims, even when access and political power were unequal. The Met's study of the period brings together manuscripts, metalwork and architecture to show those overlapping connections. The Mamluk legacy is therefore more than a change of dynasty. It includes the networks of learning and devotion that continued to shape the city when Ottoman rule began in the sixteenth century.