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

TheFirstMilitarySlaveSystem

153

Thedebateover

whofirst usedTurksneednot

detainus

further;whetheritwasal-Mans.far,

al-Ma’mfin,or

al-MuCtim

depends

onone’sdefinition:

al-Mans.ur

wasthefirstto

acquire

them intentionally,

al-Ma’mfan thefirsttousetheminlarge

numbers,and
al-MuCta.sim

thefirstto

depend

onthemheavily.

More

important

forour

purposes

isthe

question:

whofirst

usedtheTurksandothersasmilitary

slaves?Whoshouldreceive

thecreditor

ignominy

forthisnovelinstitution?Theinforma-

tion

analyzed

herepointsunequivocally

toal-Ma’mfin.

Heini-

tiated

thisuseofslaves,thenhis

younger

brother

adopted

the

usage

so

enthusiastically

the

theinstitutioncametobeidentified

withhim.Aswith

the

Turks,

al-Ma’mfinfirstrecruitedmilitary

slaves,while

al-Mutas.im

cameto

rely

heavily

onthem.

TurkishMilitarySlavesin

aI-Mutaim’s

Service

Turks

predominated

as

military

slavesthanksto

their

superior

martial

qualities.

"No

people

intheworld[are]braver,

more

numerous,

ormoresteadfast,"

al-Mutas.im

is

supposed

tohave

saidaboutthem

(3);

their

abilitieswith

weapons

werefamous

(17);

CentralAsianswere

knownfortheir

courage

anddaring

(43);

and

al-Jbi.z

in

Manqib

al-AtrZzk,discusses theirmilitary

virtuesatlength.

Asaresultofthese,"the

Turksformedthe

Abbasids’armiesthankstotheirsuperiority

overallotherar-

mies"

(8,9).

A1-Mutas.im

undertooktwo

major

militarycampaignsduring

his

caliphate,

theattackonAmorium(a

townin

Anatolia)

and

the

suppression

ofthePersian

rebelBfibk. Inbothofthese,

Turkish

military

slavesplayed

a

major

role;thesourcestell

us

farmoreabout

ahandfulofleaders,however,thanabout

the

massesofsoldiers.

Infact,

byal-MuCtas.im’s

reign,military

slaves

didmostof

the

fighting

forthe

caliphs.

Asearly

as202/818,

when

fighting

a

Khriji

rebel,

hehada

bodyguard

ofTurkish

slaves,oneofwhom

savedhislife.

n

WhenhewenttoEgypt

in

213/818,4,000

Turks

accompanied

him,andthey

leftwithhim

twoyears

later,

s7

On

coming

to

power

in218/833,

al-Mutas.im

delegated

much

56.T,

3:1017;

Miskawayh,p.

438;TMaw,p.352.

57.al-Kindi,pp.

188-89;ITB,2:208-09.