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

APPENDIX5:SOURCESONTHEFIRSTMILITARY

SLAVESYSTEM

A

full

listing

oftheArabicandPersiansources

dealing

withthe

firstuseof
military

slavesby

theAbbasidsfollows.These

quotes

provide

thereader

withthematerialfromwhichtodrawhisown

conclusions?They

arelistedin

chronological

orderunderfour

separate

headings.

"He"withoutfurther

description

refers

to

al-MuCtas.im.

I.Turkishslaves

1.

A1-Jh.i.z

(255/868): "al-Muetas.im

knew the Turks well

when

hecollectedandtrained(i.s.tanaa)

them"

(Manzqib,p.

37).

2. IbnQutayba(276/889):

al-Ma’mfin"orderedhisbrother

Abe5

Ish.q [al-MuCtas.im]

to

acquire

Turks,andhe

imported

them[asslaves]

’’2

(KM

[Cairo,1969],

p.

391).

3.

TayfiSr

(280/893):

al-MuCtas.im

said the

following

about

Turksinan

argument:

"Thereisno

people

intheworldbraver,

more

numerous,

ormoresteadfast

against

the

enemy

thanthe

Turks. While

they

can attack their enemies, none oftheir

enemiescanattackthem"(Kit6bBaghdad,p.143).

4.

A1-Yaq0bi

(285/897):

"I heard this from

JaCfar

al-

Khushshaki:

"’A1-Mutas.im

sent me

during

the

reign

ofal-Ma’mfin to

Samarqand,

to

Nfi.h

b.Asad[Samanid

governor,

202-27/818-

42]forthepurchaseof

Turks.I

presented

himeach

year

witha

numberof

them,sothat

already

inal-Ma’m0n’s

reign

hehad

collectedsome3,000

ghulms.’

1.Most

ofthe

following

sourcesdealwiththe

inception

of

military

slavery.No

contemporary

chroniclessurvivefromthe

early

Islamicperiod;andthedozens

ofsources

fromlatertimesdealwithitseventsindifferent

ways.

Itisindeedre-

markablehowseldomversionsfi"ommanycenturieslaterrepeat

eachother;

historiographically

thismaybeunique.

Dothelate

accounts

reflectafirstre-

cordingof

oraltraditionsora

copying

ofwrittendocumentssincelost? think

theywereoral

traditions,forthechronicleswedo

possess

sorarelyrepeateach

other’s

accounts.

2.WListenfeld’sedidonlacksthisimportantquotation.

2O5