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

The

First

Military

SlaveSystem 151

Turks had a habit of
galloping

on their horses

through

Baghdad,disturbing

the

peace,

thus

inciting

theinhabitantsto

pull

downsomeofthesoldiersandkillthemin

revenge.

51

To

put

anendtothis

problem,

andalsotomovehimself

away

from

thehostile

populace

of

Baghdad

whichresented hisrule,al-

Muetas.im

foundedanew

capital

atSamarrain

291/836.

5

Inthis

newtownhehadafreehandto

arrange

his

troops

ashewished;

theTurksended
up

isolatedfromtherestofthe

population,

di-

videdfromit
by

walls,farfromthe

marketplace

andcrowds.To

complete

theirisolation,

al-Mueta.sim

builtthem

mosques,

baths,

and

asmallmarket;

he

even

acquired

slavewomenforthem,

provided

the women with

pay,

and forbade them divorce.

These

quarters

wereofflimitstotherestofthe

population.

D.

Ayalon,

whohas

analyzed

thisinformation,

s4

shows

parallels

between

al-Mutas.im’s

segregation

of

militaryslaves

andasimi-

larone

in

Mamluk

Egypt,

implying

thatitis

acommonfeature

of

military

slave

systems

and

providing

anotherindicationthat

militaryslavery

existed

by

thetimeof

al-Muetas.im’s

reign.

WhereasunfreesoldiersinearlyIslamhad

foughtspontane-

ously,

as

availability

andneed

coincided,regular

patterns

ofac-

quisition,training,

and

employment

that

began

around205/820

ledto

large

numbersofwell-trained

professionalcorps

ofmili-

tary

slaves.

Informationon

theFirstMilitarySlaveSystem

WhichCaliphDevelopedMilitarySlavery?

Modern

scholarship

has

inextricably

tied

al-Mutas.im’s

nameto

theintroductionofTurksintothe

army

andthe

development

of

51.

Nearly

allthesourceswhichmention

al-Muetas.im’s

slavesalsodiscuss

theseincidents;the

many

accountscouldprobablybecomparatively

studiedwith

profit.

Ayalonunderstandstheantagonisminpartasthatofafreepopulaceto-

wardaslave

soldiery("Reforms,"p.4).

52.Ismaildiscussesthisin"The

Founding

ofaNew

Capital:

Smarr’."Also,

J.

M.

Rogers,

"Smarrfi:A

Study

inMedieval

Town-planning,"

inTheIslamic

City;

A

Colloquium,

ed.A.H.HouraniandS.M.Stern(Oxford,1970),pp.

128-33.

53.KB,

pp.

258-59.

54."Muslim

City,"pp.

315-19.