MPP. Mamluk prosopography project. From a project-specific database to an open access digital humanities database for prosopographical research of late medieval Syro-Egyptian elites and networks

The Mamluk Prosopography Project (MPP) is an open access digital humanities database for the study of elite social groups, networks and social/cultural practice in the Late Medieval Syro-Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate (13th-15th centuries). This construction of a new research infrastructure for historical research operates on four different levels. 

(1) The development of a complex relational database structure.

(2) The migration, upgrading and updating of pre-existing datasets to MPP.

(3) The creation of modular web-based applications for internal and external users.

(4) The implementation of data-mining and visualisation tools for social, temporal, spatial and semantic analyses.

MPP will be a crucial asset to move forward in quantitative and qualitative ways extant research on late medieval Middle Eastern elites in Flanders (UGent and UAntwerpen). MPP will also enable international participation in this and related research.