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

Chapter Five

The First

Military

Slave

System

Slavesandmawlas

foughtrightfromthebirthofIslam

through

to

205/820;

yet

the

manyexamplesgiven

in

chapter 2 makeit

clear thatthemerefactso

manyunfree

personsparticipated

in

battle does not mean that

aninstitution of

military slavery

existed.When

during

thefirsttwoIslamic

centuriesdidthemil-

itary

slave

systemoriginate?

Whendidthe

unfreemakethetran-

sition

from

ordinary

slavesto

military

slaves?To

place

military

slavery,

itis

necessary

tolookforitsattributes:

systematic

acqui-

sition,

organizedtraining,

and

professionalemployment.When

these

characteristicsexisted

simultaneously

and

slavesdidcom-

monlyfight, military

slavery

had

presumablydeveloped.

Of

thesethree

requirements, themostinformationexistsforac-

quisition

ofslavesin

early

Islam.

Systematic

Acquisition

TheArabianPeriod

As

theMuslimswon

great

victoriesfrom2/624to

132/750,they

acquired

vastnumbers

ofslaves--so

many

thatno

special

efforts

wereneededto
acquire

them.

TheProphethimselfhadabout 70

slaves, a

verylargeholding

inArabia.

SubsequentMuslimlead-

ers amassed far
greater

numbersofslaves, however.

Caliph

1.This

figure

derivesfroma

tally

fromUsd

al-Gtbaandothersources.

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