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

146

AI-Ma’mOnandAI-MuCta.sim,

198-227/813-42

Origins

Thesetwo

caliphs

andbrothersundertookto

acquire

slaves

in

a

systematic

and

large-scale

mannerunrelatedto

anything

that

preceded

them. While

al-MuCta.sim’s

name is farmore com-

monly

associatedwiththerecruitmentand

employment

ofslaves

for

militarypurposes,

thesourcesdonotclearlydistinguish

be-

tweenhisandal-Ma’mfn’seffortsto

acquire

slaves.Theexact

roleseachofthem

playedin

theintroductionof

militaryslavery

willbemore

fully

discussed

later;

whichofthemdidwhatisless

important

thanthefactthat

together

they

began

systematically

to

acquire

Turkishandotherslaves

foruse

in

the

army.

The

contrast

betweenthese

andearlier

effbrts

to

produce

slavescan-

notbetoo

sharply

drawn;forthefirsttimeinIslamicate

history,

a

government

madeconcentratedeffortsand

spentlarge

sums

to

purchase

slaves.

The

majority

ofslavescamefromCentralAsia,

though

some

alsocamefrom

Egypt(5,42,

44: thesenumbersrefertothe

sourcescitedin

Appendix 5).Samarqand,

arenownedslave-

trading

center

(al-Muqaddasi, p.

278),servedas

al-MuCtas.im’s

mainsourceofTurkishslaves

(4,

25,26,44).

Through

that

city

cameslavesidentifiedas

coming

fromFarghana(5,25, 26,

41,

43,44),

Khurasan

(5,41),

Shash

(41),Soghdia(26,41),

Trans-

oxiana

(41,44),

andUsrushana

(5,41,44),

aswellasTurksof

the

Tughuz

Ghuzzconfederation

(36).

A

variety

of

agentsacquired

theslavesforthecaliphs.

A1-

Ma’mfi

requested

al-MuCtas.im

to

procure

Turks

(2)

andal-

Mutasim

turnedtoothers:hesent

buyers

to

Samarqand

(4,25),

including

hisownmawlas(5),andhemade

requests

tothegov-

ernorofKhurasan,

Abdallh

b..Thir

(gov.213-30/828-45),

whointurnsenthis

request

ontothe

governor

inTransoxiana,

Nfi.h

b.Asad

(gov.202-27/818-42)(8,9).Nfi.h

b.Asadalsosent

slaves

directly

toal-Ma’mfan

(36-39);

and

judgingby

the

praise

heaped

onhiseffortsbyal-Ma’mfan,

Yah.

y

b.

Aktham,

a

qa.d

and

highofficial,contributedsignificantly

tothe

acquisition

of

slaves

(33).

Notallslaveshadtobe

sought

inthe

hinterlands;

al-Muetas.im

bought

someofhismost

important

CentralAsians

inthe

Baghdad

market(4).