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Originally Posted by Marc
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Oh, and I thought it might be worth mentioning that, IIRC, the Mamluk Sultan Baybars I, who was involved in the coup of 1250 and took later the power in Egypt in 1260 after defeating the Mongols in Ain Jalut, at some point in his career was the commander of the Mamluk units of crossbowmen...
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I'm not too sure about that
. I think this belief has come about because one of Beybars' titles was
El-Bunduqdari. This has often been translated as "the crossbowman" in the belief that
bunduq means crossbow. Which is reasonable when you consider that the modern Arabic name for rifle is
bunduqiyah. However
El-Bunduqiyah is also the Arabic name for Venice and
bunduq in Arabic means hazelnut. I have seen suggestions that in Mamluk times the name
bunduq was actually used for pellet bows, also reasonable when you consider the size and shape of a pellet.
Beybars had this title because his first master was the
emir Aydekin El-Bunduqdar, which translates either as Aydekin the pellet-bow bearer, or Aydekin the crossbow bearer, depending on how you translate
bunduq. This title was a court position, and referred to the sultan's attendents. There were also
silahdars, sword bearers;
tabardars, axe bearers and
jukandars, polo-stick bearers. Sultan El-Salih Ayyub later purchased Beybars from Aydekin, which is how he came to be one of the Bahri
mamluks.