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

116

Origins

markably,

they

alsoledforcesonoccasion.Aghulgtm

led 60 or 80

freemen
against

thePersiansat

al-Qdisiya;

other

unfreecom-

manders,

twoofthem,led

troops

inKhurasan,andalso

against

Carthage

in59/679.

4’

Onanexpedition

totheeast,anArabian

commander"hadthree

braveslaveswithhim,

oneofwhomhe

retainedto

bearhisarms,andtheothertwo

he

appointed

as

officers

inthe

army,

each

being

madetheleaderof 500 men.

’’46

A

striking

but

puzzling

pattern

concernsthe"slaves

ofthe

people

ofKufa";every

mentionof

large

numbers

ofservilesol-

diers

during

this

period

involvestheseKufan

slaves.Afterthe

campaign

against

Tabaristanin30/651, Caliph

cUthmSndis-

tributedmoney

tothe

mamlfiksof

Kufa,apparently

for

military

purposes,

without

reducing

the

pay

of

their masters.

47

The

8,000or16,000

slavesandmawlaswhofought

witheAliat

S.iffin

came

fromKufa.

48

The

Khfiriji

leader

ofthefirstmawlasortie

mentionedabovealsocamefrom

Kufa.

49

Kufahadindeedbeen

knownfor

its

highproportion

ofnon-Arabians

eversinceits

founding--a

recentestimate

puts

the

numberofmawlasathalf

the

populationS--so

this

may

explain

the

conspicuous

roleofits

slavesandmawlasinwarfare.

A

special

group

ofunfreesoldiershas been

omittedfrom

mentionhere,theslavesandmawlas

whohadconvertedtoIslam

beforethe

occupation

of

Mecca.Their

early

conversionsmade

them

part

ofthe

Muslim

aristocracy

and

largely

obscuredtheir

humblebackgrounds(though

not

immediately:

recall

thecaseof

Usfima).

Menofservile

origins

suchaseAmmfir

b.

Yfisir,

SalmOn

al-Ffirisi,and

S.uhayb

b.

Sinfin

acquiredimportantmilitarypo-

sitionsonthebasisof

their

highstanding

inthenascentIslamic

community.

34-35.Eastern

Iran:Khalifa,

p.

172.Transoxiana:T,2:156.

Tabaristan:

T,

1:2845.

45.

al-Qftdisiya:

T, 1:2355.Khurasan:FB,

pp.

405,409.Carthage:

ITB,

1:152.

46.al-Kffi,p.60.

47.T,1:2845.

48.Seenote 33 above.

49.TYac,2:221.

50.az-Zabidi,

p.

76.Ontheirnumbers,

see

Din,pp.288,

293.