Note 4 — Chapter I

Beybars, following the example of Saladin, organized a feudal system by granting lands to the chief lords of his court in return for service in the field, and his arrangement appears to have lasted until the time of Lāgīn, when we find the whole land of Egypt was divided into twenty-four kīrāts, of which four belonged to the Sultan, ten to the Amīrs and the holders of royal grants, and ten to the soldiers of the guard. Lāgīn made a fresh survey and reconstructed the feofs: ten kīrāts were allotted to the Amīrs and guard together, one was reserved for compensating the dissatisfied, four as before belonged to the Sultan, and the remaining nine were assigned to the cost of levying a new body of troops. We learn that the Sultan’s sixth part comprised Boheyra, Atfih, Alexandria, Damietta, Manfalūt, with their villages, and Kōm Ahmar. The feof of Mangūtimūr, the viceroy, included Semhoud, Edfū, Kūs, and others, and brought in a revenue of more than 100,000 ardebbs (each of five bushels) of grain, without reckoning money-payments, sugar-candy (for which there were seventeen factories), fruits, cattle, and wood. The only lands excepted from this general distribution among the Amīrs and soldiers were the pious foundations, heritages, and the like. Lāgīn considerably reduced the value of the individual feofs, which had previously been worth, at the time of Kalaūn, at least 10,000 francs a year.—El-Makrīzy (Quatremère), II. ii. 65 ff.