Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
In addition to Herman Melville's own experience on the whaling ship Acushnet, two real events served as the genesis for his <i>Moby Dick</i>. One was the sinking of the Nantucket ship <i>Essex</i> in 1820, after a sperm whale rammed her 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America.<br/><br/> The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. Mocha Dick was rumored to have 20 or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity.
Mamluk (Arabic: مملوك mamluk (singular), مماليك mamālīk (plural)), 'owned'; also transliterated Mamlouk, Turkish: Memlük, also called Kölemen; , Mamluq, Mamluke, Mameluk, Mameluke, Mamaluke or Marmeluke.<br/><br/> A soldier of slave origin, predominantly Cuman or Kipchak and later Circassian and Georgian. The 'Mamluk phenomenon', as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class, was of great political importance and was extraordinarily long-lived, lasting from the 9th to the 19th century CE. Over time, Mamluks became a powerful military caste in various Muslim societies. Particularly in Egypt, but also in the Levant, Iraq, and India, Mamluks held political and military power.<br/><br/> In some cases, they attained the rank of sultan, while in others they held regional power as amirs or beys. Most notably, Mamluk factions seized the sultanate for themselves in Egypt and Syria in a period known as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The Mamluk Sultanate famously beat back the Mongols at the Battle of Ayn Jalut and fought the Crusaders effectively driving them out from the Levant by 1291 and officially in 1302 ending the era of the Crusades.<br/><br/> They were predominantly drawn from Turkic tribes, the Cumans and Kipchaks, depending on the period and region in question. While Mamluks were purchased, their status was above ordinary slaves, who were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks. In places such as Egypt from the Ayyubid dynasty to the time of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, mamluks were considered to be 'true lords', with social status above freeborn Muslims.