22 The
IslamicateContext
itary
slaveswhoare
legally
freefromthosewhoremain
legally
enslaved.Twocases
illustratehowlittleattentionwas
paid
tothe
manumission of
military
slaves:
one of the Fatimid
caliphs
"realizedone
day
thatallthe
great
meninhisstatewere
legally
slaves,that
they
weremarried
contrary
toIslamic
law,thattheir
children
were
illegitimate,
andsoforth.Hethen
proceeded
to
legitimize
this
stateofaffairs.
’’z7
Thatthesituationcouldhave
reachedsucha
pointbetraysthefundamental
insignificance
of
manumission.Intheother
example,
nooneknewwhether
or
notIltutmish,theMuCizzisultanofDelhi
(r.607-33/1211-36)
wasstill
legally
aslavewhenhebecameruler.
Only
whenhis
op-
ponentschallenged
his
legitimacyon
the
groundsthathewasa
slavedidhemake
public
hismanumissioncertificate,
zs
Both
of
thesecasesshowhowmanumissionwasinthe naturalcourseof
events
oftenforgotten.A
comparativereading
in
military
slave
systems
suggests
that
manumissionoccurredinabouthalfthe
cases.
Formerslaves
act as
independentprofessional soldiersfor
whomfinancial
considerationshave
paramountimportance.
As
long
astheirformer
master
pays
them
regularly,theyobeyhim;
butwhennot,
they
tendtotake
matters
into
theirownhands.
Appearances to the
contrary, military
slaves dostill
differ
fundamentallyfrommercenaries.
They
resemblemercenaries
in
theirreadinesstoturn
againsttherulerwhofallsbehindinhis
payments,
but
they
differinthat
mercenariesalwaysremainout-
siders and
military
slavesbecomeinsiders.
While dissatisfied
mercenaries
mayexpress their
grievancesbyrampaging
and
settingup
theirownrule,
military
slaves
are
part
ofthe
govern-
27.
J.
Schacht,inUV,p.163.
28.S.L.Rathor,"APlea
againstthe
Charge
of
UsurpationbyIltutmish,"
Is-
lamicCulture 32
(1958):266.ThestatusofthefirstMuCizzfruler,
Qut.b
ad-Dfn
Aybak
(r.
602-07/1206-10)
isalso
open
to
question;somethinkhebecamea
king
while
yetaslave.Cf.A.Schimmel,"TurkandHindu:A
PoeticalImageand
its
Application
to
HistoricalFact,"inIslamandCultural
ChangeintheMiddleAges,
ed.S.
Vryonis,
Jr.
(Wiesbaden,1975),
p.
112.A.Mez,TheRenaissance
oflslam,
trans.S.KhudaBakhshandD.S.
Margoliouth(Patra,1937),
p.
217,tellsof
contrarycase,when
righteousqSdf
demanded
thattheFatimidgeneralal-
Mu’nis
prove
that
hewasno
longer
aslave.