Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/81

 MALWA MAMELUKES Donation of Alexander II., and from 1215 to L218 attended the fourth Laterari council as of the representatives of the Scottish mrch. He was a zealous churchman, and, >rding to Fordun, was equally zealous in ipport of his personal rights, having deprived abbey of Dunfermline of the presentation two livings because its monks had once neg- to provide him with wine for supper. [e introduced new monastic orders into Scot- md, established many Dominican and other invents, and wrote the lives of St. Ninian id Kentigern. MALWA, an old province of central India, Hnprising a table land from 1,500 to 2,500 above the level of the sea, bounded N". E. by valley of the Ganges, E. by Bundelcund, S. >y the Vindhya, and W. by the Aravulli moun- lins, and lying chiefly between lat. 22 and 24 and Ion. 74 and 78 E. ; length about 220, average breadth 150 m. The people are mostly Hindoos. It is divided into a number of native states under British protection, and includes part of the possessions of Sindia and "lolkar. The surface is uneven, with a gradu- descent from the Vindhya mountains. It is watered by many rivers, the chief of which is the Chumbul, an affluent of the Ganges. The soil is fertile, producing cotton, tobacco, opium, indigo, sugar, and grain, and affording pastur- age for large numbers of sheep and cattle. The rivers are not navigable, but a considerable overland trade is carried on in cottons, printed cloths, opium, and other products. The prin- cipal towns are Oojein, Indore, Bhopal, and Bilsa. Malwa became tributary to the sover- eign of Delhi in the 13th century, but at the beginning of the 15th threw off the yoke, and for 130 years formed a powerful independent kingdom. It was subsequently conquered by Shir Khan, annexed to the Mogul empire by Akbar, overrun by the Mahrattas early in the 18th century, and separated from the Mogul territory about 1732. It was long desolated by the Pindarrees, who were subdued by the marquis of Hastings and Sir John Malcolm. A police force of Bheels was subsequently or- ganized by the British, and for some time proved highly efficient, but a large portion of it mutinied in 1857. MAME, Alfred Henri Armand, a French printer, born in Tours, Aug. 17, 1811. In 1833 the printing establishment founded by his father in Tours came into his possession, in partner- ship with his cousin Charles Ernest Mame, who was mayor of Tours from 1851 to 1865. The cousins, who are also brothers-in-law, together extended the business till 1845, when it came under the sole direction of Alfred Mame, who raised it to the greatest importance. The es- tablishment includes departments for print- ing, binding, and bookselling. About 700 per- sons are employed within and 500 without the premises. It produces daily about 20,000 vol- umes, bound and unbound. Among the spe- cial publications of this house are liturgical and devotional works, small books for religious edu- cation printed under the auspices of the arch- bishop of Tours, editions of the classics, and elementary treatises on science and education, issued likewise under ecclesiastical authority. Its small prayer books (Paroissiens), bound in leather and with gilt edges, are sold at re- tail for 35 centimes (about 7 cents). About 1854 M. Mame entered upon the publication of richly illustrated works, among the most celebrated of which is the Bible with illustra- tions by Dore" (1865-'6). He obtained prizes at the London exhibition of 1851, the grand medal of honor at the French exposition .of 1855, and the grand prize at that of 1867. In the last year he also received one of the prizes of 10,000 francs offered to model establish- ments in which the greatest social harmony and comfort prevail among the workmen. MAMELUKES (Arabic, memalik, a slave), a body of soldiery who ruled Egypt for several centuries. They were introduced into that country by the sultan Malek el-Adel II. about the middle of the 13th century, and were composed originally of young captives pur- chased from the Mongols. They were called the Bahri Mamelukes, or Mamelukes of the river, because they were trained on an island in the Nile. They formed the body guard of the sultan. Tjiran Shah, the son and suc- cessor of Malek el-Adel, becoming unpopu- lar, the Mamelukes deposed and murdered him about 1250, and raised their commander Eybek to the throne. A line of sultans known as the Bahri or Turkish dynasty now followed, all of whom were raised to power by the Mamelukes, and many of them deposed and slain. A new band of Mamelukes, however, had been created by these sovereigns, composed of Circassians and Georgians, who were called Borgis, suggestive of a tower or castle, from the fact that they had been employed on forti- fications in Egypt. In 1382 the Borgi Mame- lukes gained the ascendancy over the Bahris, and made their commander Barkok sultan. The Borgis continued in power till 1517, when they were subdued by the Ottoman Turks, and Egypt became a dependency of Constantinople. The Turkish sultan, however, placed the 24 provinces into which he di- vided Egypt under Mameluke governors or beys, who served to keep the Turkish viceroy in check. The beys also had the right to elect the governor of Cairo, an official of great pow- er. The number of the Mamelukes was about 12,000, and they were nearly all from the region between the Black sea and the Caspian, whence they were brought in their youth to Cairo, compelled or persuaded to embrace Mo- hammedanism, and educated as soldiers. They did not intermarry with the natives of Egypt, but bought wives of their own race from the traders in Circassian slaves. These women from the north seldom bore children in Egypt, or if they did their offspring were sickly and short-lived. Though instances of hereditary