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

The

First

Military

SlaveSystem 147

Prices are

generally

unknown;

only

the

highest

oneshave

beenrecorded.Thesourcesnote

withawethatal-Ma’mfn’sand

al-MuCtas.im’s

purchasespushed

thecostofa

single

slave

up

to

100,000(6,20)

oreven200,000dirhams

(6,

20,

23).

39

Onocca-

sion,this
money

wastransferredto

Samarqand

(26),sometimes

insilver(32).

Not

allCentralAsianslaveswere

purchased:

some

appear

to

havebeenabducted
(8,9),

some

joinedvoluntarily

(41),and

others were
captured--al-Ma’mfn directly

received 2,000

GhuzzTurks as
captives

from Kabulin

211-12/826-27

(Ibn

Khurdadhbih,p.37)--but

in

general

the

caliphs

reliedontheir

governors

tosend

captives..Talh,

ab.

Tahir,

the

governor

of

Khurasan207-13/822-28,had

enough

slavesofhisowntogive

away

80 mamlftks atonce

(Tayffir, p.

172); presumably

these

were
captives,

foral-Ma’mfinnodoubtprohibited

Tal.ha

from

spending

revenuesto

buy

slavesofhisown.cAbdallahb.

Tthir

senta

yearly

tributetothe

caliph

of 44 milliondirhamsand

either1,012raqqs
(al-Muqaddasi,p.

340)or2,000Ghuzz

Turks

captured

inKhurasan

(Ibn

Khurdadhbih,

p.

39)..Tfalftn,

father

ofthesoldierwhofoundedtheTulunid

dynasty

in

Egypt,

wasa

slavewhohadbeen

captured.

4

AI-Ma’mfan and

al-MuCtas.im

first

acquired

Central Asian

slaveswhile

living

inKhurasan,atthe

closeoftheal-Amin-al-

Ma’mfi civilwar.

AI-MuCtas.im

purchased

]takh

in 199/815

(T, 3:1383); al-Ma’mfinreceived slavesfrom

his

governor

in

Khurasan

astributeas

early

as200/816

(36-38).

AI-Mutas.im

had

acquiredmany

ofhis

principal

slaveaidesbeforeascending

tothethronein

217/833

(7);indeed,

whileal-Ma’mfnwasstill

caliph,al-Mutas.im

had

gathered

some3,000

(4)

or4,000

(al-

Kindi,

pp.

188-189 ITB,2:208-09)slaves.Afterbecoming

caliph,

hecontinuedtosendformore(26:referring

to

220/835),

untilhewas

finally

satisfied(13).

Estimatednumbersofslavesdifferwidelyinthe

sourcesand

are

open

todoubt.Still,they

indicatethe

magnitude

oftheac-

39.Atthistime,

adirhamwasworthaboutthree

grams

ofsilver

(G.

C.Miles,

"Dirham,"

in

El2).

40.Aslave:36,38-40.

Captured:

al-Balawi,p.

34.