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

74 TheIslamicateContext

950),largelyas

a

result

ofthe

practice

ofonemadhhab,the

H.

an-

bali,of

organizing

common

people

"intocadresdedicatedtode-

fending

the

principles

oftheschool.

’’4

Theother

madhhabs

ap-

pear

tohavefollowedtheHanbalisandtohavesimilarly

trans-

formedtheir

systems

ofjurisprudenceintogenuinelypopular

movements.

41

Atthesametime,

theyspreadgeographically

and

eachofthembecame

predominant

insome

regions.

42

The

t.arqas(Sufi

ordersorbrotherhoods)developedfrom

the

6th/12th

century

and

paralleled

themadhhab

organization

ona

moreemotionaland

mystical

level.

Although

Sufi

thought

had

existed

long

before,theorderswerefirstorganized

inthe6th/

12th

century.

The

t.arqas

differed

widely

onefromanotherand

betweenregions;always,

however,

theysupplied

an

emotionally

and

socially

conducive contextfor intense

religious feelings;

strong

bondsbetweenmembersofthesame

lodge

madeanim-

portant

contributiontothesocialorder.They

offered"asense

of

spiritualunity"

whichthefailed

political

institutionswereun-

ableto

provide.

43

FormostMuslims,

ariqasplayed

amuch

larger

socialrolethandid

any

ofthe

government

agencies.

Similarly,

the

religious

elites,theSufimasters(prs)

andthe

’ulamd’
usuallyreplaced

therulerasthesource

of

authority

and

prestige

fortheaverage urban

Muslim. Becausethe

political

structure

laybeyond

theusualconcernsofMuslim

subjects,

reli-

gious

statushadmore

bearing

than

political

or

militarypower.

Theseelites

provideddailyguidance

for the

populace

andalso

servedasintermediariesbetweenMuslim

subjects

andtheirrul-

ers.Theywere

indigenous.

These

disparateaffiliations,

small-scaleand

Islamic,

shared

one
key

feature;noneofthemhadcoercive

powers--they

could

nottax,raisearmies,norclaima

monopoly

onviolence.Someof

themmightoccasionallymobilize

ona

localscale,

but

none

could

challenge

the

rulers.Theyabsorbedenergies

which

otherwise

wouldhave
gone

into

politics.

40. Lapidus,p.36,relyinglargely

ontheworkofHenriLaoust,

George

Makdisi,andDoninique

Sourdel.

41. Ibid.,p.41.


42. Ibid.,pp.42-43.

43.

Hodgson,2:221.