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

Introduction xxiii

guish

afunction

unique

toMuslims.Forreasonsrelatedtothe

nature

of

the

Islamicate

political order,

Muslims

depended

heavily

ona

foreignsoldiery

fromremoteareas;asaresultof

this
dependence,

Muslims aloneneededtoinstitutionalizeits

use;
militaryslavery

servedasamechanismtoacquireand

con-

trolsuchsoldiers.

PartIIfillsamuchsmaller

canvas,investigating

thedateand

circumstancesofthefirst
military

slave

system.Chapter

4 doc-

umentstheMuslimuseofunfree
persons

inwarfrom

Mu.ham-

mad’s time until 205/820,
establishing

thatthey fought

fre-

quently. Using

the

distinguishing

traits of

military

slaves as

previously

defined,

chapter

5

argues

thattheirfirstappearance

camenotbefore198-205/814-20and
analyzes

theavailablein-

formationontheminthis
period.

The finalchapterexplains

howthis

initial

development

of

militaryslavery

occurred;anun-

usual

methodof

using

slavesandfreenon-Arabianconvertsto

Islaminthe

period

64-132/684-750

provided

a

prototype

for

the

systematic

useofslaveslateron.

The

wide-ranging

discussion

in

part

Iis

indispensable

forthe

detailed
inquiry

intothe

origins

of

militaryslavery:

definitionof

the institution in

chapter

makes

possible

the

dating

and

identificationofitsfirst

appearance

in

chapter

5;and

interpre-

tationofitsfirstoccurrence

in

chapter

6

requires

theunder-

standing

ofitsrationaleproposed

in

chapter

3.

Historiography

Along

withmost

historians,

I am

skeptical

ofthe

veracity

or

accuracy

oftheinformation

dealing

withthefirst

sixtyyears

of

Islamicatelife.It

appears

thata

majorreediting

of

theIslamic

past

took

placeduring

cAbdal-Malik’sreign(an

idea

put

for-

ward

byGoldziherforthe.hath,

Lammensforthesralitera-

ture,

Nothforhistorical

writing,

andCroneandCookforthe

entireIslamic

tradition).

24

Almostallhistorical

informationon

24.I.Goldziher,MuhammedanischeStudien,2:3-87.

OnLammens,seethedis-

cussioninK.S.Salibi,"IslamandSyriain

the

Writings

ofHenriLammens,"

H/s-

torians

of

theMiddle

East,

ed.B.LewisandP.M.Holt

(London,1962),pp.

330-42.