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

HowMilitary

SlaveryFirstOccurred 193

formation

todecideOnthe

significance

of

al-H.

akamb.Hishfim’s

measuresandto

judge

whetherornot

they

constituteda

system

of

militaryslavery.

If

so,his

may

havethehonorof

preceding

theoneestablishedbyal-Ma’mfinand

al-MuCtas.im.

137

Wasitmerecoincidencethatthis

heavy

relianceonslavesin

Spain

occurred

simultaneously

withtheAbbasids’

development

of

militaryslavery?

Canitbeaccidentalthaia

systemunprece-

dented

inhuman

history

occurredintwo

places

atthesame

moment?Ithinknot.The

SpanishUmayyads

andtheAbbasids

sharedtwo

legacies:

theIslamicateneed(for

marginal

areasol-

diers)andthe

Marwanidanswer

(usingmarginal

area

soldiersin

an unfree

way,

as

mawlas).

In combination, these elements

prompted

both

dynasties

torecruit

marginal

areasoldiersas

slaves.

138

The

simultaneity

of

developments

in

Spain

andIran-

Iraqcanhardly

be

coincidental;together,

Islamicateneedand

Marwanidprecedent

accountfortheinitial

development

of

mil-

itaryslavery.

Conclusion

This

explanation

forthe

origins

of

militaryslavery

confirmsthe

argument

forits Islamicaterationale

proposed

in

chapter

3.

Briefly,

thatrationalemaintains:(1)thatthe

impossibility

ofat-

taining

Islamic

public

idealscaused

Muslim

subjects

torelin-

quish

theirmililtary

role;

(2)

that

marginal

area

soldiersfilled

this

power

vacuum;

(3)

that

they

became

rapidly

unreliable,

creating

theneedfor fresh

marginal

areasoldiersanda

way

to

bind

them;(4)

that

militaryslaverysupplied

a

way

both

to

ac-

quire

andtocontrolnew

marginal

areasoldiers.

Inthefirst

development

of

militaryslavery,

the

following

se-

137.

Papoulia,

p.13,notesthispossibilitytoo.Anotherdiscussionofal-

H.

akam’scorps:

Lvi-Provengal,

p.

130.

138.Mostoftheslaverecruitswere

Saqliba;Ayaion

hasannouncedadetailed

study

onthisterm

("Aspects,"p.

224),so referthereadertohisresearchforan

explanation

ofthiselusiveethnicidentification(itismore

ambiguous

inthe

Spanish

contextthanelsewhere).

SlavesalsocamefromNorth

Africa,bothBer-

hersandBlacks(S.

M.Imamuddin,Some

Aspects

of

theSocio-EconomicandCultural

History

of

Muslim

Spain

[Leiden,1965],

p.61).