The Mamluk Sultanate was a medieval realm spanning Egypt, the Levant, and Hejaz. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Historians have traditionally broken the era of Mamluk rule into two period, one covering 1250??382, the other, 1382??517.

Western historians call the former the 'Bahri' period and the latter the 'Burji' due to the political dominance of the regimes known by these names during the respective eras. Contemporary Muslim historians refer to the same divisions as the 'Turkish' and 'Circassian' periods in order to emphasize the change in ethnic origin of the Mamluk rulers.