A supplementary source for the study of mamluk social history: The Tāqarīz

The taqārīz were part of an established system of academic recognition and the 'ulamā' patronage networks and at times, they could also be a powerful satirical weapon used by the learned elite members to denigrate and exclude a colleague. The large collection of the satire taqārīz. written for the panegyric Biography composed in 819/1416 by Šams al-Dīn Muhammad b. Nāhid. for the Mamluk sultan al-Mu'ayyad Šayh is explored in this article as a supplementary source to the historical narratives for the study of the 'ulama' milieu during the strained period of the transition from Turkish to Circassian sultanate (784/1382). Placing these taqārīz in the context of the increasing social insecurity entailed by the political reshuffles, reveals the growing anxiety of the incumbent learned elites over their positions and status in the administration of justice, the academe (madāris) and the waqf institution-the spheres where they exercised their hegemony of knowledge and religious power-and the strategies they adopted for their social survival.