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

90

TheIslamicateContext

instances.

The

adoption

of a master’s nisba (kinship name)

reflectedtheneedforanew,

albeit

spurious

filiation.

77

Themaster

alsoisolatedhisslaves.Hetookthemfromtheir

homelands

toa

strangecountry

andcutthemofffrom

therest

ofthe
society.

Theyhadnochoice

butto

accept

theties

provided

themandtobecomeloyal

tohim.

Theydeveloped

closerelations

withtheir

comrades,allofwhomsharedthesame

predicament.

Geographic

isolationalsoreducedthepossibility

thata

marginal

areasoldierwouldeverhaveto

fight

hisown

peoplebytaking

himfar

away

fromthem.Combatagainst

conationalsstrained

theloyalty

evenofa

military

slave,

thoughmany

examples

of

their

loyalty

totheirmastersinsuchsituations

canbefound.

8

Militaryslavery

madeindoctrinationpossible.

Whereasmer-

cenariesandalliesarrivedfullydeveloped

andresisted

changes

in

their

personalities

and

loyalties,military

slavescameas

chil-

dren,

unformed and

susceptible

to reorientation.

Years of

creful

schooling

imbuedthemwith

lifelong

attachmentsto

the

Islamic

religion,

theirmaster,his

dynasty,

andtheir

comrades-

in-arms.Themasterexertedcontinuous

pressure

on

theslave

recruitsto

relinquish

their

priorallegiances

in favorofhim-

self.Enslavementmadepossible

theextended

period

of

gesta-

tionwhichchanged

identities.IbnKhaldfin

explains:

"Whena

people

with

groupfeeling

traina

people

ofanotherdescentor

enslaveslavesandmawlas,

they

enterintoclosecontactwith

them

Thesemawlasandtrained

persons

share

in

[their

patrons’]groupfeeling

andtakeitonas

ifitweretheirown.

9

Mercenariesandallies

invariably

hadconcerns

outsideoftheir

military

service.

They

had

family,

kinsmen,herds,farms,and

so

forth,towhich

they

devotedattentionandfromwhichthey

were

loathtobe

long

separated.

Theseinterests

required

timeand

conflictedwiththeir

servicetotheruler.Slaves,onthe

contrary,

couldbemadeto

liveinisolationfromtherestof

society.

Not

77. Forand,"Relation,"
    pp.

62-63;D.

Ayalon,

"Names,Titlesand’Nisbas’of

theMamluks,"Israel

OrientalStudies 5 (1975):213-19;Lvi-Provenal,

p.

106

10.

78.CHI,4:162;P.Wittek,

"TfirkentumundIslam,I,"

Archivfiir

Sozialwis-

senschaft

und

Sozialpolitik

59 (1928):517;andseethemanyexamples

in

chapter

6.

79.

Muq,

1:276

(my

translationfromtheArabic,1:245).