About Mamluk
We chose the name Mamluk deliberately. In Arabic, it literally means one who serves — and that is the standard we hold ourselves to.
In 2013, a small project called aladhan.com began publishing daily prayer times for Muslims around the world. Quietly, year after year, it grew into Islamic Network — today a network of APIs and applications that serves up to 60 million requests a day to over 1,500 developers.
In December 2022, we incorporated Mamluk LLC in the United Arab Emirates. The trigger was practical — we were beginning work that would handle user data and we needed proper legal structure — but the moment was strategic. We took the chance to build a new API framework and platform from first principles, free of dependencies on third-party services. That platform became 7x.
A year later, in October 2023, we conceptualised Bahriya — a public cloud designed to give developers a way to deploy distributed containers without the operational complexity that has come to define modern Kubernetes. Bahriya runs on the Bahriya Kubernetes Engine, the same distribution we now license for on-premise installation.
Today, Mamluk is a small, deliberately small, group of senior engineers offering Enterprise Architecture as a Service, Kubernetes consulting and development, and the Bahriya Kubernetes Engine.
Why "Mamluk"
The Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo was established in 1250 and ruled Egypt and Syria until 1517. The Mamluks were a class of slave-soldiers — freed, trained, and elevated until they became one of the most formidable military and administrative forces in the medieval world. They halted the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut. They governed for nearly three centuries.
But the Mamluks are remembered as much for their chivalry as for their military discipline — for their patronage of scholars, artisans and architects, and for a tolerance of the religions and cultures around them that was unusual for the age. They have often been called the Knights of Islam.
The word Mamluk in Arabic literally means one who serves. We chose the name to make the standard explicit: we are here to serve our customers, our community and our team, with the integrity and determination that the original Mamluks gave their craft.
You will see that thread in our product names — Bahriya, the elite river-stationed regiment; Aybak, the first Mamluk Sultan; Kipchak, the Turkic family from which the founding Mamluks were drawn — and in the way we run engagements.
We respond to every enquiry. Where we are not the right fit, we will tell you and where possible point you to someone who is.