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

Introduction xv

core areaaloneisnot
enough

forthis;tounderstandIslamin

history,they

mustbetracedtothefarcorners.Forthis

purpose,

theMiddleEastisonlyone
region

of

many,

albeitthemost

im-

portant.

For

example,

Islamicatecitiesinthecore areawere

usually

dividedintoethnic

quarters;

wasthisanIslamicatefea-

tureoraMiddleEasternone?TheanswerliesinIslamicatecities

outsidetheMiddleEast.
If

mostMuslimsfromnorthwestAfrica

toSoutheastAsiain
premodern

timesshareda

pattern,

itwas

presumablyIslamicate;

butbefore

deciding

this,onemustven-

ture stillfarther afield to examine
patterns.

Muslims every-

where emphasized cavalry

over

infantry;

did this reflectan

Islamicatebiasorauniversal

tendency?

Theanswertothislies

outsideIslamdom.

Inordertodiscussthese

questions

most

precisely,

Ishallcon-

centrateonanIslamicate

pattern

thatexistedthroughout

most

ofIslamdomandnowhereelse

yet

hadnoevidentconnectionto

Islam.This is

military slavery,

the

systematicacquisition,

or-

ganizedtraining,

and

professionalemployment

of

slavesinmil-

itary

service.

It

existed

among

Muslimsfrom

SpaintoBengal

(andpossiblyfarther);

it

was

absentoutsideIslamdom

(slaves

did

fight

fornon-Muslims,butnotinthesame

systematic

manner

norwiththesame

degree

of

importance);yet

ithadno

religious,

legal,orinstitutional

tietoIslam.

5

To

non-Muslims,

slavesol-

diers

wereanomalousand

rare;

toMuslims

they

werefamiliar

and

widespread.

CanIslam accountfor thisdifference,even

though

ithas

nothing

to

say

about

using

slavesassoldiers?This

studyargues

thatIslamdidhavearelationto

militaryslavery--

furthermore,

thatthisrelation

representsonly

onediscernible

point

onawide

spectrum

of

political

and

military

Islamicate

institutions.

Chapter

3 tiesslavesoldiers

specifically

toIslam;

the

followingpages

discuss

generally

howIslam extendedits

influencetoallfacets

oflife.

5.Besidesthese

primary

reasonsfor

studyingmilitaryslavery,

thereare

others:(3)The

topic

hasconsiderableintrinsicinterest,

raising

such

questions

as:

areslavesoldiersrealslaves,

why

domasters

purposefully

armslaves,andwhat

relationsdotheybeartotheirmasters?(4)Althoughmilitaryslaveryplaye

d

an

important

roleinmost

premodern

Islamicate

dynasties,

ithasnotbeen

treatedas

a

single

institution.