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

HowMilitary

SlaveryFirstOccurred

163

slavesfor

militarypurposes.

19

Soghdiamaintainedanextensive

trading

network

throughout

InnerAsia,and

alarge

part

ofits

populationengaged

in

commercial

pursuits

which

tookthemfar

from

Soghdia. Indeed,

the

Soghdians engaged

so

heavilyin

trading

that

they

lacked

adequate

manpower

todefend

their

caravans

and their

country.

To

protect both of these

they

neededoutside

sourcesof

militarymanpower;these

they

found

inthechildrenofthe

InnerAsiannomads.The

merchants

pro-

curedthechildrenwhile

traveling,

brought

thembackto

Sogh-

dia,

and

trainedthemassoldiers.It

seemsthatthenomadchil-

dren

provedthemselves

highlycapable

and

loyalsoldiers--even

incombat

against

theirown

peoples.Sincethe

Soghdiansalways

neededthesechildrenandthenomads

couldcontinueto

supply

them,

this

arrangement

wentonfora

longtime.

Besidesthe

vagueindicationsforthis

Soghdian

system,

there

ismore

specific

evidenceon

slaves

fighting

forthe

Sasanians.

Rulers

evenbeforethetimeof

KhosroesI(r.

531-78)brought

captives

into

theirarmies,but

what

distinguishes the

transplantations

of

peoples effected

by

Khosroesfromearlier

onesis...the

systematic

useof

those[later]

colonizersfor

militarypurposes.The

[captured]

barbarians

were

endowedwith

a

physicalvigorsuperiortothe

degenerate

Iranian

peasants,

and

sowere

preferred

for

[colonizing]

the

regions

ex-

posed

totheattacksof

enemy

peoples.They

wereset

uptherein

returnfor

lendingmilitaryservicetothe

empire.

Inthis

manner,

KhosroesI’s

permanentarmyincludedIranian

cavalryandcol-

onizedbarbarians.

Thelatter

quickly

assimilated

totheirnewenvi-

ronmentwithout

losingtheir

militaryqualities.

2

TheSasanianuseofthe

Sayfibija,Zu,and

Andaghfir

confirmed

this

practice.According

to

al-Balfidhfiri,allthese

peoples

"were

in

the

army

ofthePersians.

Theywere

people

ofSindwhohad

beentaken
captive

and

thenenrolled[inthe

armywhichhad

captured

them].

’’1

19.The

followinginformationderivesfrom

discussionswith

RichardFrye

and
Omeljian

Pritsakon

30

July

1975;seealso

Bosworth,inCHI,

4:162.

20.

A

Christensen,L’Iransousles

Sassanides,2ded.

(Copenhagen, 1944),

p.

370.

21.

FB,p.375.