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

16

TheIslamicateContext

poraries

referred

tohim

simply

asaslave,

usually

without

ds-

tinguishing

betweenthe

important

differences.

InitsIslamicate

meaning,

slaveisshorthand

for"a

person

of

slave

origins";similarly,military

slave

means"asoldierofslave

origins."

Theslaveappellation

refers

only

toa

person’sorigins

and

nottohis

subsequentposition

orfunction.In

this

sense,

it

resemblesthetitle"doctorof

philosophy"

in

ourculture.This

kindofdoctorreceiveshistitleoncompleting

adoctoraleduca-

tionand

keeps

itregardless

ofhis

subsequent

career.Doctorin

thissensedoes

notdefineastatusor

activity

butindicates

an

educational

background;

heis"a

person

of

graduate

schoolori-

gins."

TheIslamicateusage

ofslave

similarly

describes

nothing

inlaterlife,only

an

earlyexperience.

Slave

inthis

study

hasitsIslamicate

meaning:

a

person

ofslave

origins.

Freereferstoa

person

whohasneverexperienced

slav-

ery,

someonenotofslave

origins.

Admittedly,

these

usages

do

not

correspond

to

their

standard

Englishmeanings,

butanIs-

lamicate

institutionmustbedescribedinitsownterms.Asever,

onemustbecautiousin

applying

thevocabulary

fromonecivili-

zationtoanother.Trueslaverefersto

theslave

as

heis

commonly

understoodin

English:

a

person

inastateof

legal

andactualser-

vility.

Itisinthissense

thatweaskwhetherthe

military

slaveisa

trueslave;

doeshefitthestandard

Englishmeaning

ofthe

word

slave?Ordoeshefitonlythemoregeneral

Islamicate

meaning,

a

person

ofslave

origins?

TheDiversePositions

ofTrueSlaves

The

argumentagainst

military

slaves

being

trueslavesfocuses

ontheir

highly

favorable

position

assoldiersandmembersofthe

ruling

elite.Itisan

apparent

contradictionforatrueslave

to

sharemorewiththe

mighty

thanwiththe

weak.

This view

presupposes

thata

slavemustlive aservileand

wretched

life

in

orderto

qualify

asatrueslave,

yet

thistoo

is

plainlywrong.

Occidentals,

particularly

Americans,

haveanar-

rowideaof

slavery,perhaps

in

part

because

they

associateitwith

Simon

Legree

and

thesometimes

exaggerated(?)

z2

horrorsof

22.EventheU.S.situation beseeninadifferent

light.

SeeR.

W.

Fogel