About the donkey driver's map:

This map has everything a donkey driver working in the Mamluk Levant might need. It is most useful for intra-city travel: it maps the locations of Mamluk equids, reflects the administrative geography of the region, and provides the locations of inns (khans). For the Mamluk donkey drivers who once roamed the Levant, transporting and connecting people, goods, and information, this map is comprehensive. 

At this phase of the project, the map consists of five layers: three for administrative geography, one for equids, and one for road inns. In the coming phases of the project, additional layers will be added, including bridges, workshops, local industry hubs, marketplaces, and shops, and more historical info will be added to the pinned locations.   

During the Mamluk period, the Levant was divided into districts and subdistricts based on taxed agricultural regions. These divisions were unstable, meaning that districts and subdistricts changed geographic shape and distribution at different times throughout the Mamluk empire. That being said, the logic that determined how the land was divided remained the same.

This map demonstrates this logic based on three different Mamluk period administrative geography books from the period: Zubdat Kashf al-Mamalik wa-Bayan al-Turuq wa-l-Masalik (A Summary of the Kingdoms and a Demonstration of its Roads and Routes)  by Ibn Shahin al-Zahiri (d. 1468). Masalik al-Absar fi Mamalik al-Amsar: Dawlat al-Mamalik al-Ula (The Routes of Sight and the Kingdoms of regions) by Ibn Fadl-Allah al-‘Umari (d. 1348-49), and Taqwīm al-Buldān (Locating Places) by Imad al-Din Ibn Shahinshah (d. 1338. A.D.).

Based on the three sources, the Mamluk Levant was divided into seven main districts: Damascus, Aleppo, Safad, al-Karak, Ghaza, Tripoli, and Hama. The districts, especially the smaller ones such as Hama, were sometimes considered part of other districts or named after a different city. Subdistricts also belonged to different districts depending on the political context at a given time. The subdistricts were the taxable agricultural regions which differed in size. Some subdistricts included, and were also named after, a major city located within the subdistrict, such as Saida and Beirut. On the map, I label these “City Regions.” Other subdistricts did not include a city and were named instead after castles or fortresses. I refer to these as “Castle Regions.” The third type of subdistrict consisted of major agriculture plains, which had their own name. I refer to these as “Regions”. 

In addition to the map page, this website also includes a page of "Donkey Quotes.” This set of quotes provides crucial information for the donkey driver about donkeys, mules, and horses from the period. More specifically, the quotes are from a 13th century Damascene manuscript entitled Na't al-Hayawan (Descriptions of Animals).