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

HowMilitary

SlaveryFirstOccurred

175

byinstituting

a

new

MilitaryRegister

toparallel

theoldone.

nl

Ratherthan

listing

soldiersbytheir

tribalaffiliation(nasab),

the

newregister

listed "the names

ofthe soldiers, their

fathers’

names,andtheirvillages.

’’62

By

thuseliminatingany

reference

totribalgenealogy,

AbfiMuslimmade

it

possible

fornontribes-

men

to

join

the

army

asfull-fledged

soldierswithoutneeding

an

Arabian

patron.

Thetransitionfromtribal

to

geographic

Mili-

taryRegister

may

havetaken

place

gradually,

oa

TheAbbasids

did not

list

everyone

inthe

new

register

butfor

some

years

maintained

two

registers,

one

tribalandanother

geographic;

the

firstlistedtribalArabians

andthesecond,all

nontribal

persons.

WhentheAbbasids

cameto

power

theystoppedadding

names

tothetribalregister,allowing

itto

dwindleinsizethrough

natu-

ralattrition.

Directenrollment

ofnon-Arabiansinto

the

armygave

thema

new

political

and

social status. As full-fledged

soldiers, they

could

forthefirsttimeparticipate

inIslamicatesociety

ontheir

own

terms,

withoutan

Arabian

patron.

Thus,

an

apparently

minor

change

intheMilitaryRegister

affected

Islamicate

society

ina

very

fundamentalway:

Byaltering

the

key

fortheregistration

inthe

army

roll,

AbfiMus-

limenablednon-Arabsto

enlistinthe

army

onthesame

statusas

Arabs.This

wasa

revolutionary

act,whichlater

boredecisiveand

far-reaching

historical

consequences.

4

MilitarySupport

for

theAbbasid

Movement. Itusedtobethought

thatthe

Abbasids

represented

an

Iranianrevolt

against

Arabian

rule.

a5

Thisviewhasbeen

discredited,however,

andamore

61.

Its

popularity

amongmawlasmay

beseeninthefactthatthe

firsttwodi

rectorsoftheAbbasidMilitaryRegister

weremawlas:ADA,p.

216 +T,2:1968;

ADA,

p.

376.

62.T,2:1957,1969;

alsoIbn

al-Faqih,p.

315.

63. Thefollowing

accountderivesentirely

fromSharon,Advent,

pp.

271-272.

NotealsoBiddle,

pp.

62-64.

64. Sharon,"CAbbasid

daCwa,

p.

XXXV.

65.F.cUmar,

Tatn’Cat

ad-DaCwaal-CAbbya

98/716-132/749[Thenatureofthe

Abbasidcall](Beirut,

1389/1970),pp.86-90,

pre,

sentsa

history

ofthisidea.The

mostimportant

recent

explanationportrays

the

Abbasid

goal

asthe

"complete

assimilationofallmembersof

theMuslim

community"(Shaban,

CAbbsidRevolu-

tion,p.

168).Certainlymanyofthe

Abbasid

supporters

hadlessloftyaims,

but

their

precise

motivations

are

yet

littleunderstood.