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

22 The

IslamicateContext

itary

slaveswhoare

legally

freefromthosewhoremain

legally

enslaved.Twocases

illustratehowlittleattentionwas

paid

tothe

manumission of

military

slaves:

one of the Fatimid

caliphs

"realizedone

day

thatallthe

great

meninhisstatewere

legally

slaves,that

they

weremarried

contrary

toIslamic

law,thattheir

children

were

illegitimate,

andsoforth.Hethen

proceeded

to

legitimize

this

stateofaffairs.

’’z7

Thatthesituationcouldhave

reachedsucha

pointbetraysthefundamental

insignificance

of

manumission.Intheother

example,

nooneknewwhether

or

notIltutmish,theMuCizzisultanofDelhi

(r.607-33/1211-36)

wasstill

legally

aslavewhenhebecameruler.

Only

whenhis

op-

ponentschallenged

his

legitimacyon

the

groundsthathewasa

slavedidhemake

public

hismanumissioncertificate,

zs

Both

of

thesecasesshowhowmanumissionwasinthe naturalcourseof

events

oftenforgotten.A

comparativereading

in

military

slave

systems

suggests

that

manumissionoccurredinabouthalfthe

cases.

Formerslaves

act as

independentprofessional soldiersfor

whomfinancial

considerationshave

paramountimportance.

As

long

astheirformer

master

pays

them

regularly,theyobeyhim;

butwhennot,

they

tendtotake

matters

into

theirownhands.

Appearances to the

contrary, military

slaves dostill

differ

fundamentallyfrommercenaries.

They

resemblemercenaries

in

theirreadinesstoturn

againsttherulerwhofallsbehindinhis

payments,

but

they

differinthat

mercenariesalwaysremainout-

siders and

military

slavesbecomeinsiders.

While dissatisfied

mercenaries

mayexpress their

grievancesbyrampaging

and

settingup

theirownrule,

military

slaves

are

part

ofthe

govern-

27.

J.

Schacht,inUV,p.163.

28.S.L.Rathor,"APlea

againstthe

Charge

of

UsurpationbyIltutmish,"

Is-

lamicCulture 32
(1958):266.ThestatusofthefirstMuCizzfruler,
Qut.b

ad-Dfn

Aybak

(r.

602-07/1206-10)

isalso

open

to

question;somethinkhebecamea

king

while

yetaslave.Cf.A.Schimmel,"TurkandHindu:A

PoeticalImageand

its
Application

to

HistoricalFact,"inIslamandCultural

ChangeintheMiddleAges,

ed.S.
Vryonis,
Jr.

(Wiesbaden,1975),

p.

112.A.Mez,TheRenaissance

oflslam,

trans.S.KhudaBakhshandD.S.

Margoliouth(Patra,1937),

p.

217,tellsof

contrarycase,when
righteousqSdf

demanded

thattheFatimidgeneralal-

Mu’nis

prove

that

hewasno

longer

aslave.