notes to pages 94–95 219
Crossroads,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 6 , no. 3 ( 1996 ): 305 – 33 ; Peter B.
Golden, “Some Notes on the Comitatus in Medieval Eurasia with Special Refer-
ence to the Khazars,” Russian History/ Histoire Russe 28 ( 2001 ): 153 – 170 ; Matthew
Gordon, The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military
of Samarra, A.H. 200 – 275 / 815 – 889 C.E.; Peter B. Golden, “The Terminology of
Slavery and Servitude in Medieval Turkic,” in Studies on Central Asian History
in Honor of Yuri Bregel, ed. D. DeWeese, 27 – 56 ; idem, “Khazar Turkic Ghulams
in Caliphal Service,” Journal asiatique 292 , no. 1 – 2 ( 2004 ): 279 – 309 ; Reuven Ami-
tai, “The Mamlūk Institution, or One Thousand Years of Military Slavery in the
Islamic World,” in Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age, 40 –
78 ; Mohammed Meouak, “Slaves, noirs et affranchise dans les armies Fatimides
d’Ifrîqiya: Histoires et trajectoires ‘marginales,’ ” in D’esclaves à soldats: Miliciens
et soldats d’origine servile XIIIe – XXIe siècles, ed. Carmen Bernand and Alessan-
dro Stella, 15 – 37 ; and Yaacov Lev, “David Ayalon ( 1914 – 1998 ) and the History of
Black Military Slavery in Medieval Islam,” Der Islam 90 , no. 1 ( 2013 ): 21 – 43.
147. Jacob Lassner, The Shaping of Abbasid Rule, 116 – 36. On the choice of
Turkic soldiers, see Helmut Töllner, Die turkischen Garden am Kalifenhof von Sa-
marra: ihre Entstehung und Machtergreifung bis zum Kalifat Al- Mu‘tadids, 20 – 21.
148. Crone, Slaves on Horses, 78 ; Étienne de la Vaissière, Histoire des march-
ands sogdiens, 305 ; David Ayalon, “The Mamluks: The Mainstay of Islam’s Mili-
tary Might,” in Slavery in the Islamic Middle East, ed. S. Marmon, 90. Whether or
not these soldiers were originally slaves or only spoken of as such is a matter of
controversy. M. A. Shaban, Islamic History: A New Interpretation, 2 , 63 – 64 ; and
Beckwith, “Aspects of Early History of the Central Asian Guard Corps in Islam,”
argue that the Turks were not originally slaves. Gordon, Thousand Swords, 40 –
41 ; and Golden, “Khazar Turkic Ghulams in Caliphal Service,” 287 , argue the
opposite.
149. Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study; and
Golden, “Khazar Turkic Ghulams,” 293.
150. Golden, “Khazar Turkic Ghulams,” 288 , 308.
151. A view shared by Golden, “Some Notes on the Comitatus”; Beckwith,
“Aspects of the Early History of the Central Asian Guard Corps”; Shaban, Islamic
History, 63 – 65 ; Richard Frye, History of Ancient Iran, 352 – 54 , and ibid., The Heri-
tage of Central Asia, 195 – 96 ; and Étienne de la Vaissière, Samarcande et Samarra:
Élites d’Asie centrale dans l’empire abbasside. Gordon, Thousand Swords, 7 – 8 ,
156 , sees the tradition as fundamentally Middle Eastern.
152. Golden, “Khazar Turkic Ghulams,” 288 ; and Mohsen Zakeri, Sâsânid Sol-
diers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ‘Ayyârân and Futuwwa.
153. Golden, “The Terminology of Slavery and Servitude,” 29.
154. Cf. Crone, Slaves on Horses, 79 , emphasizes the military function over
the political function: “They were designed to be not a military elite, but military
automata.”