Arab Merchant Republics

I'm not an expert, so maybe my question is a little odd...but does the mamluk culture supported (or even contemplated) the idea of voting a leader? However, no-one force us to recreate maritime republics. We could try maritime principalities, the merchant class would be influential enough even without direct access to political power.

Isn't that pretty much OTL, then?
 
What about Cordba? I mean the city, not the caliphate. After the collapse of the Caliphate of Cordoba the city itself had an (oligarchic) republican set up. It collapsed due to fighting between the sons of the current ruler in the end. Any hope there? It doesn't have the proximity to trade routes etc., and it's more moorish than arab, but it's a start.
 
Maritime merchant principalities existed almost everywhere in Muslim world after the breakdown of the Baghdad caliphate.
Not all of them were hereditary (the mamuleks weren't, strictly speaking) and merchant oligarchies could have a significant power in many of them. But well, most pre-Modern muslims read the religious tradition as if it mandated a single person holding the supreme rule, and transmitting it to a successor of his choice (very often a close relative of course, but not in all cases).
It was widely accepted that, lacking such a choice, the elite of the community should elect the ruler, but this was mostly theoretical.

Probably the difference between elective republic and hereditary monarchy fits less well the Muslim world than the Western one.
 
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