The Mamluks are members of a militia made up of freed slaves, in the service of various sovereigns. They are recruited from among children selected on criteria of capacity, lack of ties, and resistance. The future Mamluk receives a religious education and military training. When he reaches adulthood, the sultan or the emir frees him and provides him with equipment and pay. Throughout his life he retained the esprit de corps that characterises the Mamluks. Each mamluk, in fact, is linked to his house, that is to say to his chief and to the mamluks who were formed at the same time as him.