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

6 TheIslamicate

Context

648/1250andthemid-13th/19th

century.

Even

knowledgeable

scholarsconfusetheserelatedbutdistinct

meanings.

2

Besides

lacking

universaland

specificterminology,

thever-

nacularsalsohavenoabstraction

comparable

to

"military

slav-

ery."(This

isalso

why

I

prefer"military

slave"tothemore

pre-

ciseand

euphonic

"slavesoldier".)Ratherthancoina

neologism

inoneoftheIslamicate

languages,

itseemswisesttodiscussthis

unusual institution in

English terminology.

Such

practice

is

facilitated

by

the fact

that,

unlike the

majority

of

European

termsapplied

to non-Western institutions

(for

instance, feu-

dalism,clergy,bourgeoisie),"military

slavery"has

no

meaning

inWesterncivilization,soitcarries

withitnoWesternconnota-

tionstoconfuseor

misleadthereader.

DifferencesfromOtherSlaves

Incontrasttoallother

slaves,

the

military

slavedevoteshislifeto

military

service.Hischaracteristicfeaturesderivefromthefact

that

heworksasasoldier.Fromthetimeheis

acquired

until his

retirement,

he

lives

differently

fromotherslaves,forhe

partici-

pates

in a

lifelong system

with itsown rulesand rationale.

Specifically,

hediffersfrom

two

otherkindsofslaves:

ordinary

slaveswho

happen

to

fight

and

government

slaves.

OrdinarySlavesinWarfare

Ordinary

slavesareallthosenotinthe

army

or

government.

They

cometomindwhenonethinksof

slavery

initsusualform:

domesticserviceorlaboratsome

economicallyproductive

task.

Suchslavesdo

happen

to

fightoccasionally,buttheyareentirely

differentfrom

military

slaves.Forthesakeof

comparison

with

ordinary

slaves,thelifeofa

military

slave

may

bedividedinto

three

parts:acquisition,

transition, and

employment;

ateach

stage

his

life-pattern

differs

dramatically

fromthatoftheordi-

nary

slave.

The

differencesbegin

with

ownership,

forthe

possession

of

a

2.Forexample,E.Be’eri,Arab

Officers

inArabPoliticsand

Society(Jerusalem,

1969),

pp.

296-99.