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

158

Origins

introducing

themintotheIslamicate

polity.

Onthe

positive

side,

al-Qazwniquotes
Yah.

yb.Aktham’sstatementtothemamlks,

"Ifnotfor
you

wewouldnotbebelievers,"

meaning

thatthe

slaves had
kept

the Muslimssafe.Apparently

thisviewcon-

vinced

al-Ma’mntotakemamlksintohis

personal

service

(33).

Alsoonthepositiveside,Diyfib

al-Iklidi

reports

that

al-MuCtaim

wasknownasthesecondfounderoftheAbbasid
Kingdom

be-

causetheservileTurks
rejuvenated

the

army(27).

A

majority

ofwriters

regard

theTurks

negatively.

At.-Tabari

recordsanantislave

pointof

view.

A1-MuCta.sim

askedone

of

his

top

counselors, afreeman

placed

in a

high positionby

al-

Ma’mCln,

why

al-Ma’mfinsucceededin

finding

first-rateaides

while
al-MuCta.sim

failedatthis.Thecounseloranswers

ellipti-

cally

thatal-Ma’mfin

madeuseofsociallyrespectablemen(he

"consideredtheroots andthe

branchesflourished"),

while

al-MuCta.sim

didnot

(he

"usedbrancheswhichdidnotflourish

because

they

hadno

roots"---28).

Thebiasofthis

reply

becomes

apparent

when one realizes thatthe men

who

are

claimed

to havefailed
al-Mutaim

infact servedhim

superbly

over

decades.

IbnBadrfin

explains

thedeclineoftheAbbasid

dynasty

asa

resultofthe

power

of%bds,theTurkish

military

slaves(17).Ibn

Khaldn

similarlyexplains

theriftbetweenthe

dignity

ofthe

caliphate

andthe

power

ofnon-Arabian

military

commanders

bytheintroductionoftheTurkishmawlas
(18).A1-Maqrizi,

who

livedundera

dynasty

ofTurkishandother

military

slave-rulers,

ruefully

notes thatafter

al-Mutas.im’s

time, "Turks

(against

whom the
Prophet

calledusto

fight)

becametherulersofthe

[Muslim]

kingdoms"(23).

Indeed,as

long

as

al-Muta.sim

andhis

son

al-Wthiq

ruled,theslaves

obeyed;

subsequently,theytook

overtherulethemselves(17,22).

The

findings

ofthis

chaptergenerally

confirmtheestablished

notion

that

al-Muta.simbeganusingmilitary

slavesforthefirst

time,
though

Iascribetheinitiativetohisbrotheral-Ma’mfin.

Having

locatedanddescribedthefirst

military

slave

institution,

itremainsnowto
provide

an

explanation

howit

developed

when

and
whereitdid.