HowMilitary
SlaveryFirstOccurred
177
Marwanid
times
changed
whentheAbbasidsseizedpower;sup-
ply
anddemandboth
diminished.Theeasyavailability
ofun-
freesoldiersduring
theArabian
period
came
toanend. No
significantconquests
hadtakenplace
since119/737,so
theAb-
basidsfoundthat
the
supply
of
captives
had
dried
up.
Even
moreimportantly,they
hadenfranchised
freemawlas,sothese
nolongerprovided
asource
ofunfreesoldiers.Theneed
for
unfreesoldiershadalso
declined;theAbbasids
cameto
power
withan
army
of
fresh
marginal
areasoldiers
thatwouldnothave
tobereplaced
untiltwo
generations
later.During
thefirst
sixty
years
ofAbbasidrule(132-95/747-811),
the
government
did
nothaveunreliablesoldiers.
Slavesandmawlashad
anotincon-
siderable
military
roleduring
thefirsttwo
generations
afterthe
Abbasidtakeover,
butitwasnotso
great
asearlier.
Nothing
in-
dicates
thatthe
army
atthistimehad
aneedfor
military
slavery.
Abbasid Weakness.
The
Umayyads
never mobilized
theirown
forcesbuthad
toreachan
agreement
with
thetriballeaders;
still,they
did
usually
arrive
ataconsensusand
preserved
their
rule
overallDfral-Islm.TheUmayyadregime
hadits
shareof
rebels,
butit
vanquished
themall
(until
theAbbasids),
main-
tainedsomecontrol
overallthelandsruledby
Muslims,and
continued
to
wage
warsof
expansion.
TheAbbasidrecordwas
farless
impressive;
theirtakeover
in
132/750markedthe
endofMuslim
expansion
andunity.
The
last
significant
military
advance occurredin Inner
Asia, cul-
minating
inthe
BattleofTalasandthe
occupation
ofTashkent
in
133/751.
69
Raids
against
Canton
in 141/758, theAbbasid-
T’ang
alliance
against
Tibet
in182/798,andintermittent
war-
fare
against
Byzantium
did
nothing
to expand
the Muslims’
frontiers.
7
The Abbasidscould notresume
the earliercon-
quests.
71
Worse,they
failedevento
hold
together
theempire
69.D.M.
Dunlop,
"ANewSource
ofInformationonthe
BattleofTalasor
At.lakh,"UraLAltaischeJahrbcher
36
(1964):
326-30.
Tashkent:P.K.Hitti,
H/s-
tory
of
theArabs,9threv.ed.(New
York,1967),
p.
210.
70.Canton:
G.F.Hourani,ArabSeafaring(Princeton,N.J.,
1951),p.
63.
Tibet:
J.
Delorme,
Chronologie
descivilisations(Paris,
1949),
p.
117.
71.
Muslim
expansion
didnotendin
132/750,buthenceforthotherdynasties,
such the
Aghlabids,
Samanids,andTahirids,carried
it