PartI
mayappeartobeanachronistic;like
old-stylehistories,it
ignores
timeand
place--appearing
to
imply
that
nothingreally
changedamong
Muslims--anditfindsin
Islam the
key
toa
military
institution--suggesting
thatIslam
explains
everything
about
Muslims.
Despite
theirarchaic
ring,
however,
myideas
aboutthe
history
of
Muslimsdiffer
fundamentally
fromtheold
assumptions.
Tomakethisclear,Iwishtoindicate
some
general
viewsbefore
takingupmilitaryslavery.
First,thisisnotan"essentialist"
study.
Westernscholars
used
toviewthe
history
ofnon-Western
peoples
asstatic:cultural
traits were fixed millennia back
and have remained similar
henceforth. Since then, motion has
occurred but without
changing
theessenceofthatculture.
(In
contrast,weseeour-
selvesas
always
developing;
each
century,
evendecade,hasa
distinct
spirit
and
role.)
Forthe
history
ofMuslims,thisviewledtothenotion
ofaclas-
sical
civilizationthat
developed
inthefirstcenturiesof
Islam,
followed
bysteadydecline.An
increasingappreciation
inthis
century
forthe
adaptive
andcreative
forceswhichcharacterized
Islamicateinstitutionshasmodifiedthisstatic
approach.*Now
we
knowthatIslamicatelifewas
continuouslychanging,
both
overtimeand
space;mostrecenteffortsinthefieldofMuslim
history
endeavorto
understandthose
changes.
Inthecaseof
militaryslavery,
thismeans
thatithaddifferentfunctionsin
ninth-century
Iran,
eleventh-centuryEgypt,
thirteenth-century
India,
fifteenth-centuryBengal,seventeenth-century
Morocco,
and
nineteenth-century
West
Africa.Atvarious timesandin
various
places,
slavesoldiersservedtheir
mastersasbodyguards
andelite
troops,infantry
and
cavalry,politicalagentsand
pro-
vincial
governors,
asaforcetocentralizeortoextend
political
power.
Later
rulershaddifferentneedsfromthosewhofirstde-
veloped
theinstitutionand
adapted
it
toachievetheir
purposes.
Changesoccurring
inthe
military
slave
system
areas
yet
un-
knownindetail,butitevolved
considerably
overamillennium.
I
pass
over
changeand
diversity
here,notbecause
they
areless
importantthansimilarities,butinorderto
study
theinstitution
*E.W.Said,Orientalism
(NewYork,1978),
chapter
3 tothe
contrary.