The translators at the chancellery of the Mamluk Sultans in Cairo

Abstract EN

The books of chancellery quoted that the secretaries of the Mamluk sultans’ chancellery needed to master languages particularly Arabic, Turkish and other several foreign languages.

But according to the sources few of secretaries were capable of dealing with letters written in foreign languages, thus the need of translators who spoke and wrote the most common languages adopted in the exchanged correspondences between the sultans and their contemporary rulers.