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

84

TheIslamicateContext

Whowerethesenewfriends,andwhere

did

they

comefrom?

Overwhelmingly,they

wereoutsiders,

fresh

marginal

areasol-

diers.Thiscomesasnosurprise;they

hadthesamestrengths

as

the
marginal

area

soldierswhohad

originally

conquered

the

government

areaandfoundedthedynasty:

hardinessand

good

health,martialskillsandinclination.

As

marginal

areamen,

the

recruitshadnot
experienced

government

andsohad

notwith-

drawnfromit;

andtheir

way

oflife

required

thatthey

be

hardy

andmartial.

When

theyjoined

a

government

army(or

adminis-

tration)they

hadnointerestsoftheir

owninthe

kingdom,

little

sympathy

forthesubjectpeoples,

and

they

werereadily

con-

vincedtoassociate

themselveswiththeexisting

outsider

ruling

elite.Ina

key

passage,

IbnKhaldfinnotes

thattherulermust

seekoutfreshmarginal

areasoldierswhen

hisownbecomeun-

reliable:

In

a

dynasty

affected

bysenility

astheresultofluxury

andrest,it

sometimeshappens

thattherulerchooseshelpers

and

partisans

from

groups

notrelatedto(therulingdynastybut)

usedtotough-

ness.Heuses

(these

people)

asan

army

whichwillbebetter

ableto

sufferthehardships

of

war,hunger,

and

privation.

Thiscould

prove

acure

forthe

senility

ofthe

dynasty

65

While

marginal

area soldiers

dominated these recruited

troops,

insiders also

participated

(in contrast

to the act of

founding

a

dynasty,

wheninsiderswereusuallyentirelyabsent).

Governmentareasoldiershaddrawbacks(they

wereinclinedto

bealienatedand

they

lackedthe

bestmartial

skills)

but

they

also

hadtwoadvantages,their

abundanceandlowcost.

6n

Therulers

madeoccasional

useofthemas

auxiliary

forces,

as

emergency

reinforcements,asacounterbalanceto

the

marginal

areasol-

diers,orevenasasourceof

revenue

(for

sometimestheypaid

to

join

thearmedforces).

67

In

general,

however,insiders

played

a

65. Muq,1:342.

66.Forexample,

C.E.Bosworth,"TheArmiesoftheafffirids,"

Bulletin

of

the

School

of

Orientaland

African

Studies 31 (1968):554;H.Inalcik,

"TheSocio-

political

EffectsoftheDiffusionofFire-armsinthe

MiddleEast,"WTS,

pp.

196-97.

67.D.

Ayalon,

"The

Muslim

City,"p.326.