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

APPENDIX2:MILITARYSLAVERYASDESCRIBEDIN

THEMUSLIMSOURCES

Muslimswere

apparentlyvery

littleawareoftheinstitutionof

militaryslavery,

foritismentioned

rarely

inthe

great

bulkof

premodern

literature

writtenbythem.Slavesoldiers

keepap-

pearing,

butnotthe

system

whichmoldsthem,

except

fortheir

military training,

described in detail in the

manyfurCsya

treatises.AsfarasIamaware,

premodern

Muslimliterature

contains

onlytwo

discussionsof

militaryslaveryasaninstitution,

onewritten

by

therenownedvizier

Nizam

al-Mulk,

a

Seljuk

offi-

cial, the other

by

the even more celebrated historian, Ibn

Khaldfin.Itis

interesting

thatthetwodiscussionscomefromthe

pens

ofsucheminentauthors.

Might

this

imply

thatwhereasthe

cultureasawholedid

notnoticemilitaryslavery,themostacute

mindsdid?

The

followingpagespresent

themost

important

sectionsof

Ni.zfim

al-MulkandIbnKhaldfin

dealing

with

militaryslavery.

Ni.zm

aI-Mulk

OnkeepingTurkmansinservicelike
pages[ghulms]

Although

the

Turkmanshave

given

risetoacertainamountof

vexation,and
they

are

verynumerous,stilltheyhavea

long-

standingclaim
upon

this

dynasty,

becauseatits

inceptionthey

served
wellandsufferedmuch,andalso
they

areattached

by

ties

of
kinship.

Soitis

fitting

thatabouta

thousandoftheirsons

shouldbeenrolledandmaintainedinthe
samewayas
pages

of

the
palace.

When

they

areincontinuous

employmenttheywill

learnthe
useofarmsandbecometrainedinservice.Then
they

willsettledownwith
other
people

andwith

growing

devotion

serveas
pages,

andceasetofeelthat

aversion[tosettledlife]with

which
theyare
naturally

imbued;andwhenevertheneed

arises,

5,000

or

10,000

of

them,

organized

and

equipped

like

pages,

will

mountto
perform

the

taskforwhich

they

aredetailed.Inthis

way

the

empire

willnotleavethem

portionless,the

king

will

acquireglory,and
they

willbecontented.

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