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

Introduction

xxv

traditioncontainsfeatures

whicharenotinaccordwiththe

pur-

pose

for

whichitisused.

27

Inthe

historyof

early

Islam,theoral

traditionshad

great

reli-

gious

and

political

significance;

theeventsof

that

period

re-

mainedthefocusof

controversyforcenturiestocome.Infor-

mation

aboutslavesinwarfareis

mentionedinthecourseof

mattersmore

importantto the

chroniclers,

who

were uncon-

cernedwithslaves

fighting,paid

themlittle

attention,andmost

probably

didnot

manipulatefactsaboutthembecause

they

did

not

raise

any

fundamentalissues.No

intentionaldistortioncol-

orsthis

information;and

reeditingprobably

did

nothing

toalter

the

reporting

about

slavesinwar.

Becausethechroniclershad

noreason

purposely

todistort

the

roleof

slavesinwarfare,factual

errorsintheiraccountsreflect

unintentionalmistakesand

probablycanceleachotherout.This

studyrarelyusesisolatedfactsbutinstead triestobuild

up

a

broadstatistical

picture;

someclear

patternsemerge,

and

they

appearvalidevenif

specific

details

areinaccurate.

Byrelying

on

manyfacts

I

hopetoreducethe

importance

of

each

particular

one.

Onlygreatquantitiesofsoldiers

(4,000,8,000,100,000and

even

more)

comeunder

doubt; Iunderstandthese

figuresto

mean

merely"large

multitudes."

AlthoughIhavemadeeffortsto

collectall

pertinent

informa-

tionforthis

study,itmustbe

pointed

outthat

thefactsformili-

taryslavery

in

earlyIslamdonotadd

up

toa

watertight

expla-

nationforits
origins. Myconclusions are
highlyspeculative;

lacking

hardevidence,Ihavecome

toexplaintheeventsas

they

makemost
sensetome.Inour
present

state

ofknowledge,the

very

assertionthata

militaryslave

system

existedbefore235/850

is
audacious;to
attempt

totrace

its

developmentmight

seemab-

solutely
foolhardy.

The

attempt

seems

worthwhile,nonetheless,

forthe
importantrole
militaryslaveryplayedinIslamicatehis-

toryjustifies

a

guess,

no

matterhowwild.

While

part

Iisbased

mostly

on

secondary

works,

part

IIrelies

heavily

on

primary

sourceswith

historicalcontent:chronicles,

specializedhistories(suchasthatofthe
vizierate),
biographies,

27. Ibid.,
    pp.

81,83.