The authors of this volume discuss a wide range of issues: medicine and non-muslim doctors in Mamluk Cairo, social order in 15th-century Damascus, official reports of natural disasters (ma???ir) as sources for Mamluk geography, folk literature, the narrative analysis of ego-documents, the legal system in Damascus during the late Mamluk and early Osman period, and the problems posed by urban planning drawn up at the centre of the empire. All the essays contribute to a better, more differentiated understanding of the Mamluk era. The conributions originated in the Annemarie Schimmel Lecture Series on the History and Society of the Mamluk Era at the University of Bonn. It is the aim of the lecture series to mark new directions in Mamluk research through international and interdisciplinary projects. In this volume, fellows of the first two cohorts present the results of their research.