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

The
FirstMilitary

SlaveSystem 149

a
military

slavefrom

aboutthis

period,

thatof

Ah.

mad.b.

Tfdfin

(born

in

220/835),

4

emphasizes

not

militarytraining

butreli-

gious

instruction! "His

upbringing

was

unlikethatofa non-

Arabian,

TM

meaning

thathelearntthe Islamicsciences. Asa

consequence,although

A.hmad.

b.

Tfilfin

wasaTurk,he"de-

spised

theTurksandtheirsonswhorodeinthe

caliph’s

ser-

vice.

’’4

Despite

this

religious

emphasis,

it

isquitecertainthat

A.hmad

alsohada

military

education.

46

Useoftheword

..tana

Ca

provides

thatmostdefiniteindication

thatslavesunderwentanew,more

systematictraining

around

205/820.

Although

theword

wasused

occasionally

beforethis

time,

4r

it

appears

with

greater

frequency

in

descriptions

ofal-

MuCtas.im’s

Turks,

aswellasothersofthattime.WithForand,I

understandthisverbtomean"totrain,educate,

discipline,

rear

orfoster

(someone)

fora

particularpurpose.

’’4s

Ihavefound

fourreferencestothe

#.tinz

of

groups(1,5,11,44)

andthreeto

individuals

(24,

T,3:1316,MDh,

4:61).

49

The

proliferation

of

thisterm

maysignal

theexistenceofanew

procedure

fortrain-

ing

slaves.This

impression

isconfirmedbythe

report

thatitwas

mostlyyouths

whounderwenttraining(44).

ProfessionalEmployment

Inearliertimes,noMuslims,notevenArabians,fought

as

pro-

fessionalsoldiers,sotheunfreecouldhardly

havebeenmore

professional

thantheir

patrons.

Theslaveormawlawas

typically

a

personal

retainertohis

patron

and

fought

inthat

capacity.

Only

when thefreesoldiersbecame

professional

inthe first

Abbasid

periodcouldtheunfree

followsuit.One

may

viewthe

43.al-Balawi,

p.

38,callshim

the

ghulfim

of

Caliph

al-Mustacin

(r.

248-52/

862-66),

but

clearly

hewastheslaveofearlier

caliphs

too,hisfatherhavingbeen

theslaveofal-Ma’mtan

(39).

44.al-Balawi,

p.

34.

45.ITB,3:4.

46.Z.M.Hassan,Les

Tulunides

(Paris,

1933),

p.

28.

47.T,2:1920,3:l18;AM,p.

88.

48.Forand,

"Development,"p.

70.

49.Notealso:

al-Qalqashandi,

3:504;az-Zubayr,p.

567.