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

HowMilitarySlaveryFirstOccurred 169

isolatetheArabiansin
garrisons

(m#rs)failedbecausecities

grew

uparoundthemilitaryencampments;theprohibitionontheir

owning

land

collapsed

inthefaceoftheir

eagerness

to

acquire

property.

42

AstheArabianstook

up

commercialor

agricultural

pursuits,theydeveloped

newconcerns;

eventuallythey

fellfrom

therulingelite

intothe

subjectpopulation.

43

Indicativeofthis

change

wastheirlossofinterestin

genealogy,

the

pride

ofAra-

biannomads.

44

Asaresult,the

soldiery

diminishedinsize;this

wasaseriousmatterinan
army

thatfromthefirsthadbeennu-

mericallysmall.

Arabians in

Syria

and

Jazira

for the most

part

remained

armed, but
many

ofthem became

unruly; they

feuded in-

c’essantly

withthecentral

Umayyadgovernment

as

theypursued

theirown
political

interests.

45

By64/684,

only

the

army

of

(the

Arabians
in) Syria

remained even

moderately

faithfultothe

Umayyads. Consequently,

that

army

"was

gradually

trans-

formed froma
regional

militia,concerned

only

withits

region’s

frontiers,intoan
imperial

forcetocontrolthewhole

empire.

’’46

Arabiansoldiersfromother
regions

supportedthe

Umayyad

government,

but

not

in

large

numbers

orreliably;

47

moreoften,

they

either

ignored

thecentral

government

oractedindefiance

ofit.

AsArabianssettledandbecamedisunited,allthefactions,the

Umayyadsandthedefianttribesmen,felttheneedformore

manpower.

4s

Wherecoulditcomefrom?EitherfromArabia,

the
conquered

territories, or from outside the

empire

al-

together.

Arabia

itselfwasperhapsthemostlikelysourceofnew

soldiers,

butitsresourceshadbeen

depleted.

The

conquerors

stayed

inthelands

they

hadwonand

rarely

returnedto

Arabia;

later,
large

numbersofArabians

emigrated

fromthe

peninsula.

42.Ashtor,p.

37.

43.

Hodgson,1:245.

44.

eIqd,

3:312;

Muq,

1:266.

45.Onthoseinterests,seeCrone,

chap.

andShaban,Islamic

History,

vol.

1,

chap.

6.

46.Shaban,IslamicHistory,1:114.

47.

Ibid.,p.

115.

48.

Ayalon,"Preliminary

Remarks,"

p.

44.