 Most of the mamluks in the Ayyubids' service were ethnic Kipchak Turks from Central Asia, who, upon entering service, were converted to Sunni Islam and taught Arabic.They were highly committed to their masters, whom they often referred to as "father", and were in turn treated more as kinsmen than as slaves by their masters.Sultan as-Salih Ayyub (), the last of the Ayyubid sultans, had acquired some 1,000 mamluks (some of them free-born) from Syria, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula by 1229, while serving as "na'ib" (viceroy) of Egypt during the absence of his father, Sultan al-Kamil ().