642 



MAMELUKES MAMMALIA. 



inhabitants. Since the late division of Greece, Mai 

 vasia forms a province of the department Laconia. 

 The well-known cape Malea belongs to Malvasia. 

 The famous Malmsey wine is made here (also on 

 some other Greek islands). A similar kind of wine 

 is also made in Sicily, Sardinia, in Provence, and 

 Spain. Among the Sardinian wines of this sort, the 

 Malvagia di Sorso is particularly distinguished. The 

 Spanish sort comes mostly from Catalonia and Tene- 

 riffe. There are both red and white kinds. See 

 Malmsey Wine. 



MAMELUKES, MAMLOUKS, or MAMA- 

 LUKES (from the Arabic memalik, a slave); slaves I 

 from the Caucasian countries, who, from menial 

 offices, were advanced to dignities of state. They 

 did not, however, form a separate body, but when 

 Gengis-Khan made himself master of the greatest 

 part of Asia, in the thirteenth century, and carried 

 vast numbers of the inhabitants into slavery, Nedj- 

 meddin (Malek Salah), sultan of Egypt, bought 12,000 

 of them, including natives of Mingrelia and Circas- 

 sia, but chiefly Turks from Capchak (Kipzak), had 

 them instructed in the military exercises, and formed 



B regular corps of them. They soon exhibited a 

 spirit of insubordination and rebellion. Under his 

 successor, they interfered in the government, assassin- 

 ated the sultan, Turan Shah, and, in 1254, appointed 

 Ibegh, one of their own number, sultan of Egypt. 

 The dominion of the Mamelukes in Egypt continued 

 263 years. The command was usually held by the 

 bravest of their number. During this period, they 

 made some important conquests, and, in 1291, they 

 drove the Franks entirely out of the East. Selim I. 

 put an end to this kingdom, after having taken Cairo 

 the capital, by storm, in 1517. He placed a Turkish 

 pacha as governor over Egypt, but appears to have 

 been compelled, by circumstances, to leave the 

 twenty-four beys, who governed the different prov- 

 inces, in possession of their power. This state of 

 things continued more than 200 years. But, from 

 the middle of the last century, the number and wealth 

 of the Mamelukes gave them such a superiority over 

 the Turks in Egypt, that the pacha appointed by the 

 Porte was obliged to conform entirely to their wishes. 

 This superiority was owing principally to Ali Bey, 

 who ruled with unlimited power, from 1766 to 

 1773, when he was assassinated. The Mame- 

 luke beys, especially Murad Bey, played an im- 

 portant part at the time of the French invasion. 

 The Mamelukes, who were scattered throughout 

 Egypt, and estimated at 10 or 12,000 men, main- 

 tained their numbers, principally by slaves brought 

 to Cairo from the regions lying between the Black 

 and Caspian seas. These were compelled to embrace 

 the Mohammedan faith, and were all educated as sol- 

 diers. After a time they obtained a share in the 



government,, and some of them even became beys ; 

 Kir none but Mamelukes were capable of holding this 

 office. They formed a fine body of cavalry, and at- 

 tacked the French, when they landed in Egypt, with 

 the greatest fury ; but they were unable to withstand 

 the European artillery, and many of them soon .joined 

 the French. The pacha of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, 

 destroyed the Beys, 1st March, LSI 1 , by a stratagem. 



MAMMALIA. This class contains all animals 

 which are provided with breasts, by means of which 

 they suckle their young. The term is derived from 

 mammee, breasts. 



The first writers on this branch of natural history 

 were Aristotle and Pliny, and some time afterwards 

 they were followed by JElian, who wrote a work on 

 the nature of animals, and Oppian, in a treatise on 

 hunting, describes, at some length, the wild animals 

 which were known at his time. In the writings of 

 Hippocrates, Cato, Columella, and Varro, we find 

 occasional observations on the uses of wild animals, 

 and, also, on their ferocity, most of which are pretty 

 considerably mixed up with fable. 



In 1551, after the revival of letters in Europe, 

 Gesner published a history of quadrupeds, which he 

 placed in alphabetical order ; but some of the more 

 striking genera, such as horses, deer, apes, and oxen, 

 were arranged in groups. But it was John Ray, a 

 native of Britain, who formed the first classical 

 arrangement of quadrupeds, which was published 

 in the year 1693, under the title of Synopsis Met/io- 

 dica Animalium Quadrupedum. These he divided 

 into two classes ; first those with hoofs, and second, 

 those provided with nails. 



Succeeding writers continued to improve upon the 

 superstructure of Ray ; but it was reserved for the 

 great Linnasus to lay the first foundation of a more 

 extensive and distinct classification. To his genius, 

 also, we are indebted for a more perfect method of 

 definition. He attempted what never had been done 

 before, in his Systema Naturae, which appeared in 

 1735, by bringing under review the whole animal, 

 vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, wherein he de- 

 scribed and named every natural object which had 

 been discovered up to his time, and introduced into 

 his writings a language fitted to supply all the wants 

 of the age. This celebrated work was eagerly 

 sought after, and, in a short time, passed through 

 twelve editions ; and not long after his death, Gmetin 

 edited a new edition of the Systema Naturce, with 

 additions, up to the date of its publication in 1788. 

 After his time many distinguished men attempted to 

 improve the arrangement of Linnaeus, the most suc- 

 cessful of which was Blumenbach. 



A new era commenced in the study of natural 

 history in France. Cuvier, Lamarck, and Latreille 

 laid the foundation of a school which classifies all ani- 

 mals from their organization. These great naturalists 

 so far adopted the Linnean method, but their investi- 

 gations being more precise, and the accumulation 

 of objects being almost daily augmented, they found it 

 necessary to institute many new genera, in every 

 department of zoology. They soon found that the 

 study of internal comparative anatomy was indispen- 

 sably necessary to a true knowledge of animals; and, 

 by their vigorous and patient investigation, they 

 showed the world that tin's was the only certain 

 method of ascertaining the distinctions between 

 nearly allied groups and species. This, with the aid 

 of external characters, has brought the study of natu- 

 ral history to its present advanced condition. 



Cuvier has shown that there are " immutable laws 

 prescribed to living beings," which he thus illustrates : 

 " Every organised being forms a whole and entire 

 system, of which all the parts mutually correspond 

 'and co-operate to produce the same definite action, 



