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.