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

128

Origins

mawlas

inKhurasanandTransoxiana,

H.

ayyfinan-Nabat.i

acted

asone

of

thepower-brokers

ofhistime;he

apparently

did

not

haveanArabian

patron

towhomheowed

service

anymore.

Mawlasalso

fought

the

pagans

inCentralAsiainlesserca-

pacities.Theyservedasarchers

inthe

capture

of

Satnarqand

in

93/712.1

a0

Mamlfzksandmawlasfought

withYazidb.al-Muhallab

against

Tabaristanin

98/717.

TM

Mawlas

complained

to

Caliph

CUmarII
(r.

99-101/717-720)

that

20,000

ofthemwere

fighting

without

pay

inKhurasanin

100/719;

a2

however

exaggerated,

this

figure

tellsus

something

oftheirnumbers.Amawlamilitary

commanderled

troops

againstSoghdia

for the

governor

of

Khurasan

and became

governor

ofKiss in

194/7227

aa

Two

years

lateramawlaleda

body(qawm)

ofmawlas

and

arfs

(cap-

tains)against

theTurks.

TM

Themawlasof

Samarqand

followed

theminthe

rearguard.

15

A

Khfiriji

mawla

participated

inthe

siege

of

Kamarja

in

110/728.

lz6

SlavesmadeacrucialcontributionattheBattleof

thePassin

112/730;theMuslims’

surprise

attheeffectiveness

oftheirslaves

inwarfare

(which

hasalready

been

noted),

17

clearlyimplies

that

slavesnormally

did

notfight.

Thesewere

ordinary

slaveswho,

unlike

many

ofthe

mawlas,only

wenttowarunder

exceptional

circumstances.AlsoattheBattleofthePass,otherslavesofthe

Muslimswereslainas

they

leftthebattlefield;presumablythey

too

participated

inthe

fighting?

as

Ghulams

fought

theTurkstwicein

119/737.

Inthefirsten-

counter,they

leftthe

Umayyadtnilitarycamp

withsaddles

and

stavesandbeatbacktheTurks,

forcing

themtoflee?

a9

Soon

130.T,2:1244.

131.

T,2:1318.

132.T,2:1353-54;TYac,2:302.

133.T,2:1447.

134.T,2:1478.

135.T,2:1485.

136.

T,2:1525.

137. T,2:1543.Foratranslationanddiscussion,

see

p.

26.NotealsoT,

2:1536.

138.T,2:1537.

139.

T,2:1598.