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

xxiv

Introduction

thefirst

twocenturiesofIslamdatesfromlatertimesandis

open

todoubt;how

credibleistheinformationonslavesinwarfare?

Any

historiographicalanalysis

of

thesourcesforthefirsttwo

centuriesofIslammust

begin

with

recognition

of

afundamental

fact:we

are

dealing

herewithoraltradition,

z’

Withfew

excep-

tions,alltheinformationon

this

period

wasfirst

compiled

inthe

3d/9th

or

subsequentcenturies,oftentwohundred

years

after

theeventshadoccurred.

Obviously,

the

useofsuchmaterialsis

fraught

with

pitfalls.

A

methodology

fi)rthe

historicaluseoforal

traditionshasbeen

recentlydeveloped

andcanserveasa

guide.

Although

it does not deal

with Islamicate sources from a

thousand

yearsago,

butwithoral

traditionscollectedincontem-

porarynonliteratesocieties,

especially

in

Africa,

this

methodol-

ogy

has

perfect

validity

forour

purposes;

the

major

difference

is

thatIslamicate

traditionswere notwrittendown

by

alienre-

searchersbut

by

Muslims

themselves,adistinct

advantage

for

ourmaterial,

z

Giventhe

natureoforaltraditions,itis

possible

to

accept

in-

formationabout

slavesinwarfareatfacevalue.Thisissobe-

cause

(1)

chroniclershad

nointerestin

distorting

this

particular

infi)rmation

andso

(2)

the

inaccuraciesoftheiraccountsdonot

seriouslyflawthe

generalpicture

whichthis

study

attempts

to

draw.

Oraltraditions are

particularly susceptible

to distortion,so

howdoesonetakethisinto

account?

Itis

absolutely

essentialtofindoutwhat

purpose

a

traditionisused

for,soastobe

ableto

judge

thekindoffalsificationit

mayhave

undergone..,

sometimesitis

possible

to

provide

proof

thata

given

traditionis

unlikely

tohavebeen

falsified.Acasein

point

iswherea

A. Noth, "Zum Verhiltnis von

kalifaler

Zentralgewalt

und Provinzenin

umayyadischer

Zeit,"

writes:"Thelarger

part

ofthetraditions

dealing

withthe

first

caliphs

was

originally

not--or

almostnot--dated.The

arrangement

offacts

in

thehijra

chronology

alater

systematization"(p.41).

P.

CroneandM.

Cook,Hagarism:The

Making

of

thellamicWorld

(London,1977),part1.

25.Foradifferent

view,seeU.

Sezgin,

Ab

Mnaf:

ein

Beitrag Historiog-

raphie

der

umaiyadischen

Zeit

(Leiden,1971).

26.

J.

Vansina,OralTradition:A

Study

1

HistoricalMethodology,trans.H.M.

Wright(London,1965),

appendix.