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

TheUnfreeinMuslimWarfare,

2-205/624-820 139

vance
guardagainst

Ankara

in 159/776.

2

Rabi

b. Yfinis,a

mawlaandoneofthemostrenownedfigures

ofthefirstAbbasid

period,accompanied

Hfirfinar-Rashid

onan

expeditionagainst

Byzantium

in

165/782.

24

Aboutthatsametime,the

prominent

AbbasidleaderCsfi

b.CAlileda

corps

ofhismawlastoMarash

where
theyjoined

thelocal

populace

infighting

the

Byzantines;

eight

ofthemawlas

losttheir livesinbattle.

2

Then nearly

twenty-five

years passed

before mawlas

again

fought

the

Byzantines;

in 189/805 a mawla led 30,000 murtaziqa (paid

troops)

anda

year

laterMasrfiral-Khfidim

alsoled

troops.

6

Theunfree

fought

often

and

performedimportant

dutiesbe-

fore

al-Mutas.im’s

reign;

isthisreasontobelieve

that

military

slavery

existedbeforehistime?

Thenext

chapter

takes

up

this

question.

223.T,3:459;ITB,2:34.

224.T,3:503.

225.FB,p.

189.

226.Mawla:Tanln-h,p.189.

Masrfir:TMaw,p.309.