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

TheUnfree

inMuslim

Warfare,

2-205/624-820 109

experiencedslavery

or

somethingclosely

akintoit. Theterm

"unfree"thusrefersbothtoslavesandtomawlas.

Before64/684

Muh.ammad

andtheRiddaWars,2-13/624-34

Slavesformed a
disproportionately

large

part

ofthe Muslim

community

initsveryfirstyears. According

toan

oft-quoted

h.adth,

fiveofthefirst

eight

convertshadslave

origins?Indeed,

thesecondMuslim

(after

Muh.

ammad

himself)may

havebeen

Muh.

ammad’sslave,Zayd

b.

H.

firitha.

4

Thehumble

origins

ofthe

firstMuslims
provided

Meccanscofferswithmuchto

laugh

at.

5

Naturally,

whenwarcametheseMuslims

played

a

major

role.

Slavesandotherweak

persons(mustad.

Cafn)

foundawelcome

place

inthenascentIslamicatearmiesforboth

religious

and

military

reasons. Islamstressedthesocialegalitarianismofall

Muslims;whatbetter

way

toconfirmthisthan

byletting

slaves

takeanactiverolein

defending

thefaith?

Beyondideology,

the

slaves

provided

valuable

manpower

tothesmallcommunityof

Muslimsanditsallies.Theymade

up

agood

part

of

the

umma

forsome

years,

anditwouldhavebeen

folly

to

disregard

them

when

every

manwasneeded.

Accordingly,

the

Prophet

andthe

first

caliphfully

utilizedtheslavesattheir

disposal.

Thiscombi-

nationofsentimentand

exigency

ledtotheheavyuseofslaves

during

theten

years

fromBadrtotheendoftheRiddaWars

(2-13/624-34).

Unfreesoldiers

fought

forIslamfromthefirstbattle;indeed,

thefirstMuslimkilledin

battlewas

Mihja

c,ablackmawla.

6

The

biography

ofthe

Prophet,

IbnHishm’sas-Sra

an-Nabawya,

lists

the

combatants,slayers,

andcasualtiesattheBattleofBadrin

2/624,aswellasthecasualtiesattheBattleof

Uh.

udin3/625.A

tally

oftheselistsshowsthefollowingparticipationby

mawlas:

3.UG,4:44.

4.AA,1:471.

5.AA,1:156.

6. IS,3:1.285

andUG,

4:424sayYemeni;

al-Jfibi,

Fakhr,p. 180 saysblack.

7.Combatants:

IH,

1:677-706.

Haas,pp.29-30,Goto78,

andW.M.

Watt,