84
TheIslamicateContext
Whowerethesenewfriends,andwhere
did
they
comefrom?
Overwhelmingly,they
wereoutsiders,
fresh
marginal
areasol-
diers.Thiscomesasnosurprise;they
hadthesamestrengths
as
the
marginal
area
soldierswhohad
originally
conquered
the
government
areaandfoundedthedynasty:
hardinessand
good
health,martialskillsandinclination.
As
marginal
areamen,
the
recruitshadnot
experienced
government
andsohad
notwith-
drawnfromit;
andtheir
way
oflife
required
thatthey
be
hardy
andmartial.
When
theyjoined
a
government
army(or
adminis-
tration)they
hadnointerestsoftheir
owninthe
kingdom,
little
sympathy
forthesubjectpeoples,
and
they
werereadily
con-
vincedtoassociate
themselveswiththeexisting
outsider
ruling
elite.Ina
key
passage,
IbnKhaldfinnotes
thattherulermust
seekoutfreshmarginal
areasoldierswhen
hisownbecomeun-
reliable:
In
a
dynasty
affected
bysenility
astheresultofluxury
andrest,it
sometimeshappens
thattherulerchooseshelpers
and
partisans
from
groups
notrelatedto(therulingdynastybut)
usedtotough-
ness.Heuses
(these
people)
asan
army
whichwillbebetter
ableto
sufferthehardships
of
war,hunger,
and
privation.
Thiscould
prove
acure
forthe
senility
ofthe
dynasty
65
While
marginal
area soldiers
dominated these recruited
troops,
insiders also
participated
(in contrast
to the act of
founding
a
dynasty,
wheninsiderswereusuallyentirelyabsent).
Governmentareasoldiershaddrawbacks(they
wereinclinedto
bealienatedand
they
lackedthe
bestmartial
skills)
but
they
also
hadtwoadvantages,their
abundanceandlowcost.
6n
Therulers
madeoccasional
useofthemas
auxiliary
forces,
as
emergency
reinforcements,asacounterbalanceto
the
marginal
areasol-
diers,orevenasasourceof
revenue
(for
sometimestheypaid
to
join
thearmedforces).
67
In
general,
however,insiders
played
a
- Muq,1:342.
66.Forexample,
C.E.Bosworth,"TheArmiesoftheafffirids,"
Bulletin
of
the
School
of
Orientaland
African
Studies 31 (1968):554;H.Inalcik,
"TheSocio-
political
EffectsoftheDiffusionofFire-armsinthe
MiddleEast,"WTS,
pp.
196-97.
67.D.
Ayalon,
"The
Muslim
City,"p.326.