Slave Soldiers and Islam_ The Genesis of a Military System - Daniel Pipes

108 Origins

status

played

a

major

roleinthe

early

social

history

oftheMus-

lim

community.

In

Marwanidtimes,mawlareferredtotwo

dis-

tinct

types

of

person,

theslavemawlaandthefreemawla.The

slavemawla (mawl wal’)was a slavewho was

subsequently

freedandwhocontractedawal’

(client)relationship

withhis

oldmasterinaccordancewithIslamiclaw.Mostslaveswhowere

freedhad

already

convertedtoIslam.Thefreemawla(mawl

muwl{h)

wasamemberofthe

conquered(thatis,non-Arabian)

populations

whohadconvertedtoIslam.

Uponconverting,

hetoo

contractedawal’

rela.tionship

withhis

patron,

anArabian.The

wal’

ofthefreedmanandthatofthefreemandifferedonlyin

minor

details,

andtheirsocial

standing

was

comparable.

The bestefforts of

twentieth-century

researchershave not

succeededin

distinguishing

one

type

ofmawlafromtheother.

The

historical

sourcescallmost

persons

merely"mawla,"

with-

out

providing

informationaboutwhether

they

wereslaveor

free.Fora

study

of

slavery,

theneedto

distinguish

betweenthe

twokindsofmawla

appears

tobeof

paramountimportance;

but

I

argue

elsewhere

2

that

nearly

all

mawlaswhofoughtintheearly

Islamic

period

eitherhadslave

origins

or

experienced

some-

thingvery

similar.The

reasoning

behindthisisasfollows.

For

analyzing

themawla

status,

the

earlyperiod

ofIslamic

history

divides into three eras, the

Muh.

ammadan

(1-13/

622-34),Arabian (13-132/634-750),andfirstAbbasid (129-

205/747-820). In thefirst, a count shows thatfive-sixthsof

identifiedmawlaswereslavemawlas;inthethird,thefreemawla

status

disappeared,

sothe

overwhelmingmajority

ofmawlashad

slave

origins.

Thesecond(Arabian)

period

isthemost

complex,

forbothslaveandfreemawlas

appear

tohaveexistedin

quan-

tity.

Closeexaminationofmawlasinthat

period

reveals that

they

shared
manysignificant

characteristics. Onthebasisofthese

common features, Iconclude thatallmawlasin theArabian

period

hada

single

social

status;in

chapter

6,I

argue

thatfor

mawlaswho

fought,

theirstatuswasservile.Thus,inallthree

erasofmawla
development,

mostofthose

engaged

inwarfare

2.Ibid.