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

HowMilitary

SlaveryFirstOccurred

177

Marwanid

times

changed

whentheAbbasidsseizedpower;sup-

ply

anddemandboth

diminished.Theeasyavailability

ofun-

freesoldiersduring

theArabian

period

came

toanend. No

significantconquests

hadtakenplace

since119/737,so

theAb-

basidsfoundthat

the

supply

of

captives

had

dried

up.

Even

moreimportantly,they

hadenfranchised

freemawlas,sothese

nolongerprovided

asource

ofunfreesoldiers.Theneed

for

unfreesoldiershadalso

declined;theAbbasids

cameto

power

withan
army

of

fresh

marginal

areasoldiers

thatwouldnothave

tobereplaced

untiltwo

generations

later.During

thefirst

sixty

years

ofAbbasidrule(132-95/747-811),

the

government

did

nothaveunreliablesoldiers.

Slavesandmawlashad

anotincon-

siderable

military

roleduring

thefirsttwo

generations

afterthe

Abbasidtakeover,

butitwasnotso

great

asearlier.

Nothing

in-

dicates

thatthe

army

atthistimehad

aneedfor

military

slavery.

Abbasid Weakness.

The

Umayyads

never mobilized

theirown

forcesbuthad

toreachan

agreement

with

thetriballeaders;

still,they

did

usually

arrive

ataconsensusand

preserved

their

rule

overallDfral-Islm.TheUmayyadregime

hadits

shareof

rebels,

butit

vanquished

themall

(until

theAbbasids),

main-

tainedsomecontrol

overallthelandsruledby

Muslims,and

continued

to

wage

warsof

expansion.

TheAbbasidrecordwas

farless

impressive;

theirtakeover

in

132/750markedthe

endofMuslim

expansion

andunity.

The

last

significant

military

advance occurredin Inner

Asia, cul-

minating

inthe

BattleofTalasandthe

occupation

ofTashkent

in

133/751.

69

Raids

against

Canton

in 141/758, theAbbasid-

T’ang

alliance

against

Tibet

in182/798,andintermittent

war-

fare

against

Byzantium

did

nothing

to expand

the Muslims’

frontiers.

7

The Abbasidscould notresume

the earliercon-

quests.

71

Worse,they

failedevento

hold

together

theempire

69.D.M.

Dunlop,

"ANewSource

ofInformationonthe

BattleofTalasor

At.lakh,"UraLAltaischeJahrbcher

36

(1964):

326-30.

Tashkent:P.K.Hitti,

H/s-

tory

of

theArabs,9threv.ed.(New

York,1967),

p.

210.

70.Canton:

G.F.Hourani,ArabSeafaring(Princeton,N.J.,

1951),p.

63.

Tibet:

J.

Delorme,

Chronologie

descivilisations(Paris,

1949),

p.

117.

71.

Muslim

expansion

didnotendin

132/750,buthenceforthotherdynasties,

such the

Aghlabids,

Samanids,andTahirids,carried

it