West. These included the madrasas, or colleges of religious law, the dar al-hadith, teachers of the Traditions of the Prophets, the mazalims or reorganized royal courts, qadis, or Muslim judges, and the mahtasibs or local religious officials. The intellectual leadership and ultimate interpreters of the sharia were the religious scholars or ulama. Great centers of religious learning were constructed. The leading sultans of the 13th and 14th centuries, such as the Mamluk Baybars (in 1269) and al-Nasir Muhammad (in 1320 and 1332) made pilgrimages to Mecca. They claimed overlordship over the Holy Cities in Arabia and showed their piety by great acts of m
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