AnExplanation
ofMilitary
Slavery
69
umma
hadbecomea
pipedream,itremainedavital
emotional
anchor.
Regardlessofthedivisions
into
kingdoms
andthe
war-
fare
among
them,
the
community
ofIslamdid
notloseitsallure
forMuslim
peoples;theysawdevotiontothe
ummaasan
expres-
sion
of
allegiance
toIslam
andits
principles.
Concern
forthe
totality
of
Muslims,oftena
fuzzynotion,tookthe
place
oflocal
patriotism.
Muslim
subjectsfeltmoreofa
bondtotheummathan
to their
governments; the
transitory, arbitrary, local ruleof
some
kingpaled
intheface
ofthe
permanent,grand,universal
umma.
2
Asthe
unityoftheumma,rule
by
the
caliph,
andwarfare
against
only
unbelievers
turnedinto
piousfictions,Islamicideals
became
evermoreisolatedfrom
life.
The
governmentofAllahandthe
governmentofthesultan
grew
apart.
Socialand
politicallifewaslivedon
two
planes,
ononeof
which
happeningswouldbe
spirituallyvalidbut
actuallyunreal,
whileon
theotherno
validity
could
everbe
aspired
to.
28
But, unreal
as
they
were, Islamic
public ideals
continued to
dominate Muslim
thinking. Any number of
examples
show
this;
militaryslaveryitselfmakesthe
pointwell.Thescholarsar-
guedfine
points
ofShariCabut
didnot
recognize--oratleast
acknowledge--this
preeminentinstitution.Withthe
singleex-
ceptionof
Ni.zm
al
Mulk’sbrief
description
(Appendix2),
no
writeron
politics
deigned
to discuss
military slavery!
And
it
never
appears
in
theShariCa.
Having
no
placein
theory,
slave
soldiershad
no
place
intheMuslim
consciousness, which
re-
mainedattuned to
Islamic ideals and
pulled
away
fromdis-
cordantrealities.Buttheworld
wasfilledwithharsh
facts;how
did
theMuslimsdealwiththem?
TheWithdrawalfrom
Power
Muslim
subjects responded to troublesome realities
by with-
drawingfrom
politics
andwarfare.
They
avoidedthe
blatant
nonimplementationofIslamic
goalsinthe
publicspherebyre-
27.
Goitein,p.40;
Lapidus,p.30;
Hodgson,
2:53,57.
28.
Grunebaum,Medieval
Islam,p.143;also
p.
153.