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

TheFirst
Military

Slave

System

145

al-Mans.fir

wasthefirst

caliph

toacquire

Turks.

Heacquired

H.

ammad and then Caliph

al-Mahdi

acquired

Mubrak. Sub-

sequentcaliphs

and

everyone

elsefollowedtheminthis

practice?

Adistrict

[ofBaghdad]

isknownasthe"HouseofSlaves"

(Dhr

ar-Raqiq)

becauseitcontainedtheslavesof

al-Mans.fir

whowere

brought

fromdistant

places?

AI-Manfir

claimed

inhistestamenttohissonal-Mahdi:"Ihave

collectedfor
you

mawlassuchasno

caliph

beforeme

hasac-

quired.

’’aa

One

early

source

puts

theirnumberat40,000.

34

The

caliphs

whoruledbetween

al-Mans.flr

andal-Ma’mfin--

that
is,

between 158/775 and 198/813--must alsohave col-

lected
slaves,

butthe sources

say

almost

nothing

aboutthis.

HSrfan ar-Rashid, as mentioned above, received substantial

numbersofslavesas
khar{tj;

an

inventory

ofhis

legacy

includes

50,000

swords

belonging

tohisShSkirisand

ghulrns

inanarse-

nal.

35

Shortly

after

becomingcaliph

in193/809,al-Amin

searchedfor

eunuchsand

bought

them[i.e.

they

wereslaves].He

set

great

store

by

themandmadethemhisintimates

throughnight

and

day.Theyprovided

himwithfoodanddrinkandexercisedab-

solute

authority

[overhim].HeenteredthemintheMilitary

Reg-

isterasa

corps

calledtheJir5diya

anda

corps

of

Ethiopians

called

the

Ghurbiya?

6

AI-Aminalsohadanother

corps

ofeunuchs

calledthe

Siyfa?

7

A1-Amin

had

somany

slavesthat

by

theendofhis

reign,

when

hefoundhimselfin

jail,

hecouldnoteven

recognize

oneofhis

slavemawlas

bysight,

as

31.ath-Thaelibi,

p.

20.

32.KB,

p.

248.

33. T,3:448.


34. ar-Rashid,
    p.

213.

35.Ibid.,

p.

217;ontheShkiris,seenote 215 to

chapter

4.

36.T,3:950.

37.T,3:954;seealsoITB,2:160.

38.

MDh,3:421.