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

PartI

mayappeartobeanachronistic;like

old-stylehistories,it

ignores

timeand

place--appearing

to

imply

that

nothingreally

changedamong

Muslims--anditfindsin

Islam the

key

toa

military

institution--suggesting

thatIslam

explains

everything

about

Muslims.

Despite

theirarchaic

ring,

however,

myideas

aboutthe

history

of

Muslimsdiffer

fundamentally

fromtheold

assumptions.

Tomakethisclear,Iwishtoindicate

some

general

viewsbefore

takingupmilitaryslavery.

First,thisisnotan"essentialist"

study.

Westernscholars

used

toviewthe

history

ofnon-Western

peoples

asstatic:cultural

traits were fixed millennia back

and have remained similar

henceforth. Since then, motion has

occurred but without

changing

theessenceofthatculture.

(In

contrast,weseeour-

selvesas

always

developing;

each

century,

evendecade,hasa

distinct

spirit

and

role.)

Forthe

history

ofMuslims,thisviewledtothenotion

ofaclas-

sical

civilizationthat

developed

inthefirstcenturiesof

Islam,

followed

bysteadydecline.An

increasingappreciation

inthis

century

forthe

adaptive

andcreative

forceswhichcharacterized

Islamicateinstitutionshasmodifiedthisstatic

approach.*Now

we
knowthatIslamicatelifewas
continuouslychanging,

both

overtimeand

space;mostrecenteffortsinthefieldofMuslim

history

endeavorto

understandthose

changes.

Inthecaseof

militaryslavery,

thismeans

thatithaddifferentfunctionsin

ninth-century

Iran,

eleventh-centuryEgypt,

thirteenth-century

India,

fifteenth-centuryBengal,seventeenth-century

Morocco,

and
nineteenth-century

West

Africa.Atvarious timesandin

various
places,

slavesoldiersservedtheir

mastersasbodyguards

andelite
troops,infantry

and

cavalry,politicalagentsand

pro-

vincial
governors,

asaforcetocentralizeortoextend

political

power.

Later

rulershaddifferentneedsfromthosewhofirstde-

veloped

theinstitutionand

adapted

it

toachievetheir

purposes.

Changesoccurring

inthe

military

slave

system

areas

yet

un-

knownindetail,butitevolved
considerably

overamillennium.

I

pass

over

changeand

diversity

here,notbecause

they

areless

importantthansimilarities,butinorderto
study

theinstitution

*E.W.Said,Orientalism

(NewYork,1978),

chapter

3 tothe

contrary.