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

TheUnfree

inMuslim

Warfare,

2-205/624-820 113

Firisimade
significantmilitary

contributions;thoughthey

are

thebestknownofthefirstMuslimslavesoldiers,

otherstoomust

havehad
important

militaryroles.

Usamab.

Zayd

b.

H.

aritha,

ason of

Muh.

ammad’s favorite

slavemawla,

commandedtheleft

wing

attheBattleofYamama;

then,in11/632,
just

beforehisdeath,

Muh.

ammadorderedan

expedition

to

Syria

underUsma’scommand.

TheArabianwar-

riors
assigned

tothiscampaign

resistedtheselectionofamawla

leader,

so whenAbfi Bakrinsistedon

carrying through

the

Prophet’s

last

wishes,

someofthem

complained

tocUmar.De-

spite

their

protests,

Usfima ledthecampaign

andexecutedit

successfully,returning

home

with

booty.

Thusamawlaledthe

very

firstsortieofMuslimsoutofArabia.

Despite

the

profusion

ofslavesandmawlasfighting

withthe

Muslimsbefore 13/634,there

canbeno

question

of

military

slavery

here;theMuslim

forces

constitutedraidingparties

more

thanatrue

army,

andtheirneedfortheunfreein

warfare

was

immediateandshort-term.No

system

existed;rather,

needfor

and

availability

oftheunfreehappily

coincided.

ArabianArmipotence,

13-64/634-84

The Arabian
conquests began

in

earnest

afterthe

subjection

oftheArabiantribes tookplace

underthe

caliph

Abfi Bakr

(r.11-13/632-34).Amazingly,

the

conquests

weremade

in

two

short

periods,

withonlyfinishingoperationsoccurring

atother

times.Thefirstwaveof

conquests

werecarried

out

during

the

reign

ofCUmarI,

13-23/634-44

and

thenext

couple

of

years.

Afterthisburstofexpansion,

theMuslimsdidcontinueto

push

their boundariesback, butfar more

slowly.

Then,

a second

roundof

conquests

took

place

from

78/697to96/715.

AtthecloseoftheRiddaWars,

mostArabiansunitedbehind

Muslim

leadership

andenrolled

asMuslims.

Suddenly,

Islam

hada

profusion

ofwarriors,Arabiansno

longer

neededtheir

slavesto

fight,

andthe slaves’military

role

droppedprecipi-

tously.

It then remained

minor fortwo

generations.

Unfree

27.Yamama:IbnAetham,1:32.To

Syria:

Balearrff,3:228-29.According

to

a[-Tabari,

1:1849thesoldiers

complained

aboutUsma’syouth.