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

190 Origins

Nabat.i

negotiated

with

therulerofTabaristanfora

peacetreaty

in98/717,hetoldtheruler:"Iamamanfrom

amongyou,even

if

religion

hasdividedus.

’’114

In

just

afew

words,

this

statement

conveys

thetremendousbreakwhichconversiontoIslamcaused

betweentheconvertandhisown

people.

Muchlater,in224/839,

whena non-Muslim relative

ofal-Afshin’s rebelledin Azer-

baijan,

al-Afshindirectedthe

campaignagainst

him.

11

Separate

Corps

Incontrasttomost

ordinary

slavesbutsimilar

to

military

slaves,

the

unfreesoldiersin

early

Islamoften

fought

in

separatecorps

undertheirown

commanders.

Amawlafirstledmawlasin43/663onbehalfofthe

Khrijis;

thesecondoccurrencewasin63/683attheBattleof

al-H.

arra

where

they fought

under theirown banner?

16

A1-Mukhtr’s

chiefof

bodyguard,

AhfiCAmra

Kaysn,

amawla,ledthe

mawlas

attheBattleofMadhfrin

67/687.17

ThemawlawhokilledIbn

az-Zubayr

in72/691commandedmawlas

in

the

Umayyad

army

senttothe

Hijaz?

8

Four

years

later

al-Hajjjsent

four

com-

mandersand6,000soldiersto

fight

a

Khrijirebellion;

of

these,

twocommandersandatleast1,000and

maybe

2,000soldiers

were

mawlas.

119

AttheBattleofDayr

Jamjim

in83/702, a

mawlacommanderand 200 ofhismawla

troops

fell

fighting

for

therebelIbnal-AshCath?

2

H.

ayyfnan-Nabat.i,

amawla,com-

manded

7,000mawlas

in

Khurasan

in

96/715; inhiscase,we

knowthathe

really

controlled

them,because

theyprovided

him

witha

politicalbasefromwhichheinfluencedcurrentaffairs?

-a

Again

inCentral

Asia,

the

governor

ofKhurasanin106/724

sent

amawla

against

theTurkswitha

body(qawm)

ofmawlasand

114.

T,2:1329;

Ibn

ACtham,7:292.NotealsoT,2:1184.

115.T,3:1301;TYac,

2:474.

116.

Khrijis:

TYac,

2:221.

AI-.Harra:

AA,

4b:35;IS,5:209,7:1.160.Forthe

bannerandmoredetails,seeKister,
pp.

44-45.

117.

T,2:721;AA,5:253.

118.al-Kindi,

p.

51.

119.T,2:919.

120. Khalifa,
     p.

370.

121.T,2:1291.