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

14

TheIslamicateContext

historians view
military

slaves

as slaves,

though

with reser-

vations,
being

discomfitedby

the

waythey

so

blatantly

contradict

thelowlyimage

ofaslave.

Lybyer

writesofthe

10th/16th

cen-

tury

thatthetitlekul

(Turkish,

"slave")wasnot"mere

form:with

few

exceptions,

allmembersenteredthesystem

asactualslaves,

andtherewas

nowhere

along

thelineof

promotionany

formal

orreal
process

ofemancipation.

’’14

GibbandBowen

imply

that

military

slaveswereslaves,but

they

findit"unfortunate

thatwe

shouldbe

obliged

touse theword’slave’for

persons

ofthis

status.For

it

isappropriateonly

insome

ways[given

that]their

servitudecarriedwithit

scarcelyany

socialinferiority[or]

ob-

loquy.

’’15

Papoulia,

too,findsthemrealslaves,

16

butshe

qualifies

thisviewintwoinsightful

footnotes.Inthefirstshe

says,"they

remainedslavesonly

so

long

as

theydirectly

servedtheruler";

17

in

the

other,

she

points

outthat

many

oftheruler’spowers

over

militaryslaves

werethoseofanabsoluteruleroverhissubordi-

natesandhad
nothing

todowiththe

slavestatusof

military

slaves

(thispoint

isfurtherdiscussedbelow,p.19).

18

Incontrasttotheseviewsofmilitary

slavesasslaves,some

scholarsrefertothem

asmercenaries,

though

without

justifying

this

terminology.19

Only

onescholar,M.A.Shaban,

argues

that

military

slavesare

notslavesin
any

sense,especially

inthe

earlyperiod

ofIslam.

14.A.H.

Lybyer,

TheOttoman

Empire

in

theTime

of

Suleiman

(Cambridge,

Mass.,1913),

p.

48.

15.H. A.

R. Gibband H. Bowen,Islamic

Society

andtheWest (London,

1950-57),

vol.

1,pt.1,p.

43.Bosworth,"Armiesofthe

Prophet,"p.

208,makes

similarstatement.

16. B.
    Papoulia,Ursprung

undWesender"Knabenlese"imosmanischenReich,

p.

2.

17.

Ibid.,p. 21

n.54.

18.Ibid.,p.

8

24.

19.For

example:(a)

J.

Karabacek,"ErstesurkundlichesAuftretenvonTiir-

ken,"

Mittheilungen

ausder

Sammlung

der

PapyrusErzherzog

Rainer(Vienna,1887),

p.

93;

(b)

Lvi-Provenqal,

L’Espa.ne

musulmane lOmesicle,p.130;(c)

Here

andthereinC.E.Bosworth’swritings

onIslamicate

militaryorganizations;(d)

Kldy-Nagy,

"TheFirstCenturiesoftheOttoman

MilitaryOrganization,"p.

153

and

passim.

Thedifferencesbetween

military

slavesandmercenarieswillbedis-

cussed
briefly

inthelast

part

ofthis

chapter

andat

greater

length

in

chapter

3.

M.Weber,

Wirtschaft

und

Gesellschaft,pp.

1015-18,understandsthe

differences

clearly.