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

88

TheIslamicateContext

varied
origins,

therulerhadmuch

lesscontroloverwherethey

camefrom.

Further, byenslaving

his recruits,

the Muslim

rulercould

choose

hissoldiersman

forman.Mercenariesand

alliesarrived

in
corps

ortribesandfought

asa

group;

slaves

came

singly.

The

government

couldselectitsslavescarefully,

whichwas

not

possi-

blewith

free

marginal

areasoldiers.

Thisselectivity

made

possi-

blea

higher

standardofquality

foreachsoldier

inslavearmies.

Along

withthese

benefits,the

procurement

of

military

slaves

also involve

some

special problems.

As a

dynasty

declined in

strength,

itcould no

longer

acquire

itsslaves through

force

(raiding,

warfare,andsoforth)

buthadtopurchase

them.Yet,

as the

dynasty

weakeneditsresources

diminished,

sothisex-

pense grew

evermore burdensome.

The Mamluks

of

Egypt

couldneither

reducetheirdependence

onnewrecruits

norac-

quire

them

inexpensively;

theneedto

buy

slaves

contributed

significantly

totheeconomic

troublesof

the

government.

TM

Thedistanceslavesusually

hadtotravel

fromtheirhomelands

totheir

country

ofserviceandthefragility

ofthe

supply

lines

couldalsocauseproblems.

7

Asslavesusually

camefromremote

regions,

enemy

forcescouldeasily

blockaccesstothem.

Abbasid

dependence

on theTahirids

tosend themslave

childrenre-

duced Abbasid control

in northern Iran

and added to the

Tahirids’

strength.

On

theotherhand,why

theOttomansdid

notcutoffthesupply

ofrecruitsfrom

theBlackSeaandthe

Caucasusareas

totheMamlukkingdom,

oncethose

two

powers

hadbecomeantagonistic,

continues

tobafflehistorians.

The

expense

and

the distance over which military

slaves

traveled

presented

twodrawbackspeculiar

toslavesoldiers,

but

only

in

times ofdecline;theseproblems

werenotenvisioned

74.Ayalon,"Aspects,"

p.208;

E.Ashtor,"Recent

ResearchonLevantine

Trade,"Journal

of

European

Economic

History

(1973): 201

idem.,LesMetauxpre-

cieux

(Paris,

1971),pp.

99-108;R.Lopez,

H.Miskimin,and

A.Udovitch,"En-

gland

toEgypt,

1350-1500:Long-term

TrendsandLong-distmace

Trade,"Studies

intheEconomicHistory

of

theMiddle

East,ed.M.A.Cook(London,

1970),

p.

127.

(Boaz

Shoshon

gave

the

referencestoAshtor’sworks.)

75.

Ayalon,

"Aspects,"pp.

207-08;Hrbek,pp.552-53.