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

110

Origins

Total

Percentage

Mawlas

Muslims

of

Mawlas

Combatants:

Badr 26 314 8

Slayers:

Badr 11 68 16

Casualties:Badr

8 12

Uhud 4 70 6

Total

42 460 9

Inaddition

tothese,Usd

al-Ghgba

mentions

twomoremawlas

who

fought

at

Badr. A

compilation

of

a.hfiba

mawlasshows

thataboutfive-sixthsofthemwere

slave

mawlas;

9

thus,some

twenty-four

slavemawlas

fought

atBadr.

These

figures

are

only

formawlas,notslaves

stillinservitude

atthetimeofbattle.

Generally,

slaves

whohadnotbeenman-

umitted

donotwarrant

separate

mention,since

they

werecon-

sideredthe

property

oftheirmasters;therefore

wetendtohear

oftheir

exploits only

iftheywere

later

manumitted,

whenit

might

benotedthat

they

had

fought

whilestillslaves.Atthe

Battle

ofBadrthreesuchslavesof

Muh.

ammad’s

fought,

three

orfive

belonging

toothermasters,andthreeslaves

oftheBanu

cAfffin.

TM

Adding

theseslavestotheslave

mawlas, theunfree

made

up

about 34

out

of 324 combatantsatBadr, about 10

percent

oftheMuslim force. This

figure

mustbe seenas a

minimum,for

undoubtedly

moreslaves

foughtalongside

their

masterswithouttheir

participationbeing

recorded.

Lookingbeyond

Badrto allthebattlestheMuslimsfought

during Muh.

ammad’s lifetimeand theRidda Wars, a sizable

proportion

ofmawlas

fought.

Acollation ofthebiographies

showsthe

following:l

MuhammadatMedina

(Oxford,

1956),

p.

344,havepartiallistings.Slayers:

IH,

1:708-15.CasualtiesatBadr:IH,1:706-08.

Casualtiesat

U.hfid:

IH,2:122-27.

8.UG,3:10,

4:403.

9.See

Pipes,

"Mawlas,"Slavery

andAbolition,

forthcoming.

10.

Mu.hammad’s:

Shaqrfin(al-Wfiqidi

105,AA,1:478),Salmfinal-Frisi(UG,

2:330),

andAnisb.Mlik

(UG,

1:127).AI-Wfiqdi,pp.

104-105,hasthree,IS,

3:1.34,hasfive.Banff’:AftSn:Abff Ubayd,p.

310.

11.

Walg’

to

Mul)ammad:

UG,

1:41,127-29,132,2:133-34,224-27,328-32,

3:2,5:123-24,282;IS,

7:1.8-9+94;AA, :479,484;T,1:1780.

Walg’

toothers: