The emergence of Gaza as a provincial intellectual centre during the Mamluk period

During the Mamluk period (1260–1516), Gaza developed from a minor town into an important city in southern Bilad al-Sham, the capital of an administrative province. This prosperity was the product of substantial and continuous Mamluk investment in the town, the security and stability maintained by this regime, and Gaza’s strategic location as the bridge connecting Egypt and Bilad al-Sham. This article will trace the concomitant development of Gaza as a provincial intellectual centre within this context. Combining narrative sources with epigraphic and material evidence, it will show how the growth of Gaza as an administrative centre instigated a flourishing—albeit modest—scholarly scene in the town, which, while strongly connected to and integrated with wider social and intellectual networks within the Sultanate, retained its unique character.