TheFirst
Military
Slave
System
145
al-Mans.fir
wasthefirst
caliph
toacquire
Turks.
Heacquired
H.
ammad and then Caliph
al-Mahdi
acquired
Mubrak. Sub-
sequentcaliphs
and
everyone
elsefollowedtheminthis
practice?
Adistrict
[ofBaghdad]
isknownasthe"HouseofSlaves"
(Dhr
ar-Raqiq)
becauseitcontainedtheslavesof
al-Mans.fir
whowere
brought
fromdistant
places?
AI-Manfir
claimed
inhistestamenttohissonal-Mahdi:"Ihave
collectedfor
you
mawlassuchasno
caliph
beforeme
hasac-
quired.
’’aa
One
early
source
puts
theirnumberat40,000.
34
The
caliphs
whoruledbetween
al-Mans.flr
andal-Ma’mfin--
that
is,
between 158/775 and 198/813--must alsohave col-
lected
slaves,
butthe sources
say
almost
nothing
aboutthis.
HSrfan ar-Rashid, as mentioned above, received substantial
numbersofslavesas
khar{tj;
an
inventory
ofhis
legacy
includes
50,000
swords
belonging
tohisShSkirisand
ghulrns
inanarse-
nal.
35
Shortly
after
becomingcaliph
in193/809,al-Amin
searchedfor
eunuchsand
bought
them[i.e.
they
wereslaves].He
set
great
store
by
themandmadethemhisintimates
throughnight
and
day.Theyprovided
himwithfoodanddrinkandexercisedab-
solute
authority
[overhim].HeenteredthemintheMilitary
Reg-
isterasa
corps
calledtheJir5diya
anda
corps
of
Ethiopians
called
the
Ghurbiya?
6
AI-Aminalsohadanother
corps
ofeunuchs
calledthe
Siyfa?
7
A1-Amin
had
somany
slavesthat
by
theendofhis
reign,
when
hefoundhimselfin
jail,
hecouldnoteven
recognize
oneofhis
slavemawlas
bysight,
as
31.ath-Thaelibi,
p.
20.
32.KB,
p.
248.
- T,3:448.
- ar-Rashid,
p.
213.
35.Ibid.,
p.
217;ontheShkiris,seenote 215 to
chapter
4.
36.T,3:950.
37.T,3:954;seealsoITB,2:160.
38.
MDh,3:421.