Mamluk dynasty of Iraq

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The Mamluk dynasty of Iraq (Arabic: مماليك العراق, romanized: Mamālīk al-ʻIrāq) was a dynasty of Georgian Mamluk origin which ruled over Iraq in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the Ottoman Empire, Mamluks were freedmen who converted to Islam, were trained in a special school, and then assigned to military and administrative duties. Such Mamluks presided over Iraq from 1704 to 1831. The Mamluk ruling elite, composed principally of Georgian and Circassian origin from Caucasian officers, succeeded in asserting autonomy from their Ottoman overlords, and restored order and some degree of economic prosperity in the region. The Ottomans overthrew the Mamluk regime in 1831 and gradually imposed their direct rule over Iraq, which would last until World War I, although the Mamluks continued to be a dominant socio-political force in Iraq, as most of the administrative personnel of note in Baghdad were drawn from former Mamluk households, or comprised a cross-section of the notable class in...

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