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

HowMilitary

Slavery

FirstOccurred

185

4. Insecureprivilege. Like amilitaryslave, themawlaad-

vancedbecauseoftheweaknessofhisown

position;

hetoocould

be

displaced

atthe

patron’s

merestwhim.

TheeffectivenessofArabiancontrolovermawlasin

military

service

can

bestbejudgedby

results;timeand

again

mawlas

showed

exceptional

devotiontotheir

patron,

tothe

point

even

of

sacrificing

their own lives or

fighting against

their own

peoples

onhisbehalf.

OutstandingLoyalty

Notable

examples

ofslave

and mawla

loyalty

inwarfare

ap-

pearedconsistentlythroughoutearly

Islam.Thefirst

example

may

havecome

atthe

death

of

Caliph

cUthmfinin35/656,when

ghulms

almost

singlehandedly

defended

him.WhencUthmfin’s

housewasoverrun,

they

diedalong

with

him;subsequentlythey

sharedhisfateof

having

theircorpses

leftunwashed;andsur-

viving

ghulms

werethe

only

mournersathis

funeral,

ss

The

Umayyad

leadersdiscoveredtheloyalty

of unfree

per-

sonsraisedto

positions

of

responsibility

evenbefore

64/684,as

the

following

conversation

betweenMarwfinb.

al-H.

akam(the

future

CaliphMarwn

I)

andhis

ghulmJurayh.

makesclear:

Marwn

hadaghulmcalledJurayh.onhislandsat

Dhfi

Khushub.

One

dayhe

asked

Jurayh.:

"Have

any

ofthe

cropsripened?"

"They

will

ripen

soon,while

you

arehere."

AsMarwfinrodeonhislands,hesawsome

cropsbeingshipped.

On

asking,

"Wherearethesecropsfrom?"hereceivedthereply,

"From

your

estateatDhfiKhushub,wherethelandsareinhar-

vest."

On

hearing

this,MarwfinaccusedJurayh.:"Ithink

you

area

traitor

tome."

Jurayh.

answered:

"Asfor

me,my

Lord,Ithink

you

areweakinthehead.When

youboughtme,

Iwasinacoarsewool

jerkin

and

today

Iam

pros-

perous.

Ihavetakenon

[responsibilities]

andhaveconstructed

buildings.I

amnomore

likely

todeceive

you

than

you

wouldde-

ceivethe

caliph

orhewoulddeceive

God--may

Goddamnallthree

oftheseevils."a9

88.T,1:3018,3046,3049-50;Imma,1:44.

89.

AA,

5:130.