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

xxii Introduction

proximatelength

oftinebetween the

training

ofslavesin a

corps (atabout

age

fifteen)andtheirrise to

prominence

(at

about

ageIbrty-five).

It

might

alsotakeslavesmuch

longer

toac-

quirepower,

or

theymay

neverdo

so,

buttheir

advancing

toan

importantmilitary

and

political

roleinlessthan

thirtyyearsap-

pearshighlyunlikely.

Thesetwo

assumptions

combined

permit

meto

postulate

the

existenceofa

military

slave

system

atleast

thirtyyears

before

slavescometodominatea

dynasty.

For

example,

the

Ayyubids

lost

power

totheir

military

slavesin648/1250;this

implies

thata

system

existed

by

atleast617/1220.These

assumptions

arevital

forthe

study

ofthefirstcaseof

militaryslavery.

Thefirstknown

caseofslaves

dominating

an Islamicate

dynasty

occurred in

247/861

whentheTurkishslavestookcontroloftheAbbasid

dynasty.

Onthebasisoftheabove

assumptions,

a

system

totrain

theseslavesmusthaveexisted

by

thetime

al-Mueta.sim

roseto

power

in

218/833.

It

may

have

emerged

atanearlier time,

however--even

during

the

Prophet’slifetime.

Accordingly,

this

studybegins

withthe

very

first

years

of

Islam

andconcludesin

the

year

218/833,withfewreferencestolater

events,

forIam

assuming

theexistenceof

militaryslaveryby

aboutthatdate.

This

study

containstwo

parts,

ofthree

chapters

each:

part

I

placestnilitaryslavery

in

itsgeneralIslamicatecontext;

part

II

searchesoutthefirstinstanceof

militaryslavery

and

explains

its

occurrence.The
specificinquiry

in

part

II

requires

the

analytical

fools

shaped

inthe

general

discussionandsomustfollowit.

Chapter definesthe

military

slaveandshowshowdistincthe

isfromother

types

of

slaves;

asthetermisused

here,

heisa

slavewhohasbeen

acquired

ina

systematic

manner,trainedin

an
organized

fashion,andthen

employed

asa

professional

sol-

dier.
He
onlyoccasionally

fitsthestandard

Englishmeaning

of

"slave," dependingonthe
degree

ofcontrolhismasterexerts

overhim.

The second

chaptersurveys

the

general

recordofslavesin

warfare
andconcludesthatwhile
theyfought

allovertheworld,

militaryslavery

existed

onlyin

Islamdom.Thisis

significant;

es-

tablishingmilitaryslavery

asan

exclusively

Islamicate

phenom-

enonmeansthatitsrationale
(proposed

in

chapter3)

mustdistin-