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

148

Origins

quisition

effort;twoanecdotesmention 400 slavesinconnection

withal-Ma’mfin
(30,33).

Besidesthenumbersofslaveshe

pos-

sessed before

becoming caliph (noted

above), the following

numbersofslavesare

ascribedto

al-Muetaim:

4,000:5

8,000:25,ITB,2:251,35

18,000:25,26

ca.20,000:21

38,000:32

50,000:13

70,000:14,18,19,31,33

Whilethese

figures

aretoovariabletopindown,theyclearly

confirm

thatal-Ma’mflnand

al-MuCtas.im

institutedanew

policy

of
gathering

CentralAsianslaves.IntheArabian

period,

slaves

hadbeensoavailablethattheMuslimrulers
rarely

made

special

efforts to
acquire

them; also

the

presence

ofnon-Arabian

converts,mawlas,

invulnerable

positionsgave

them

ample

un-

free resources; theAbbasidrulers beforeal-Ma’mfinandal-

MuCta.sim

had

only

amoderate needfor slavesand

procured

them
sporadically.

In

striking

contrast, al-Ma’mfin and al-

MuCtas.im

wentto

great

lengthstocollectslaves.

This

policy

of

ac-

quisition

constitutes thefirstofthree

necessary

attributesfor

militaryslavery.

OrganizedTraining

The
trainingprocess,

socentralto

military

slavery,

didnotexist

during

the firsttwo Islamic centuries.

While unfreesoldiers

lackedformalmilitarytraining,

itwassometimes

possible

for

themtohavehad

militaryexperience

before

entering

Islamicate

society.

41

Theskills

theybrought

withthemsometimes

sufficed

tomakeslavesormawlasrecognizedmilitary

authorities.

42

Theevidencefora

system

of

militarytraining

forslavesin

205/820istentative.

Curiously,

the

only

individual

biography

of

41.al-Ali,Tanz.mt,p.

66;az-Zabidi,

pp.

74,99.

42.T,

2:1544,1599.