Rural Administration, Tax-Farming, and the mutadarriks in Egypt from the Late 14th to the Early 16th Centuries

Abstract

This paper focuses on the category of Egyptian provincial officials called mutadarrik who emerged in the late 14th century, to understand the relationship between the government and rural areas, and the state of rural society in late medieval Egypt. After the mid-14th century, the iqṭāʿ land system underwent a major transformation. Amidst repeated plagues, declining agricultural production, rampant political instability, and the rise of Arab tribes in the provinces, the financial and local administrations of the Mamluk Sultanate underwent a substantial process of restructuring. This paper shows that the emergence of the mutadarrik was closely related to these changes in the administration as well as in rural society.