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

AnExplanationof

MilitarySlavery 85

small

role.

All

rulers,eventhosewholacked

easy

access,hadto

acquiremarginal

area

soldiers,sometimesat

great

cost,forno

army

was

complete

withoutthem.

68

Therecruitment

process

didnotendthere,however;asfresh

marginalarea

troopsspent

timeinthe

governmentarea,they

toobecameunreliable.Once

again,somelosttheirmartialskills,

otherslosttheir

loyalty.

Asfresh

troops

went

stale,newoneshad

toberecruitedinan

unendingcycle

whichlastedas

long

asthe

dynasty

did. IbnKhaldfin describeshowthe newfriendsbe-

comeas
demanding

astheold

relatives:

In

taking

[newfriends]onasfollowersand[in]

replacing

hisold

clientsandoriginalfollowers

by

them,therulerismotivated

by

the

factthat

(his

old

clientsandfollowers)havebecome

overbearing.

They

showlittleobediencetohim.

Theylookat

him

inthesame

way

hisowntribeandrelativesdo.

Thus,

martial

decay

and

political

unrulinessrendereda

per-

petual

searchfornew

sourcesof

militarymanpowerobligatory.

Rulers
relying

on

marginal

area

soldiersfoundthemselvescon-

stantlyseeking

outnew

soldiers;they

hadtofind

theseorelse

watch
theirarmies
grow

debilitated andfractious. Each

pre-

modern
Islamicate
government

which

depended largely

on

marginal

areasoldiers--andthis

included

nearlyevery

one--

hadtoseekoutalternatesourcesof
manpower

withintwo

(orso)

generations

ofitsestablishmentandthencontinuetodosountil

thetimeofitsdemise.

The recruitmentof

marginalarea

soldiers

completed

their

hold overIslamicatearmies.
They

both

broughtdynastiesto

power

andstaffedthearmiesthereafter.Asthe

founding

sol-

diersbecameunreliable,the
governmentimported

new

margi-

nal areasoldierstoreplacethem. Thus,
unreliability

didnot

signal

theexitof

marginal

area

soldiersbutonlychangedthe

cast.Afterthefirst
spasm

of

conquest,importationmightgo

on

for
generations.

Theinfluxesof

marginal

areasoldiersmarked

the
great

shiftsof

power

in

politics:

thefirst

createdthedynasty,

the second maintained
it,

and

the third

destroyed

it,

begin-

68.

Ayalon,"Aspects,"p.206.

69.

Muq,

1:376.