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

Chapter

Two

Slaves in

War:

The Historical

Record

Many

differences

between

ordinary

andmilitary

slavesassured

themdissimilarexperiences

inbattle.Not

selectedorprepared

[br

warfare,norcultivated

fortheir

loyalty,

ordinary

slavesdid

not

play

acentralmilitary

rolein

any

army

orwar,and

they

hardly

ever

gainedindependentpolitical

power?Although

they

didoccasionallyprovidesignificant

help

totheirmastersin

bat-

tle,ordinary

slavesinwarfarenever

amountedtomore

thanan

irregular

or

peripheral

phenomenon.

On

theotherhand,mili-

tary

slaves

were

acquired,

trained,andemployed

forthepur-

pose

ofwarfare;

consequently,

they

hadfar

greater

military

and

politicalsignificance.

Pleasenote two

points:

(1)

sinceslaveswho foughtagainst

theirmasterscontrastdiametrically

withthecontrolled

useof

slavesinwarfare,

slaverevoltsfallentirely

outsidethisdiscus-

sion.

2

(2)Militaryslavery

did

notexistin

early

Islam(seechap.

5),

soIshalldrawonexamples

of

ordinary

slavesin

warfarenot

1.Rulersofslave

origins

outsideIslamdomarevery

rare.Two

examples,

Toussaint

L’OuvertureandHenriChristophe,

comefromHaitiinthe

Napo-

leonic

period.

Theslave

rebellioninHaitiwasoneofthe

very

fewinhistoryto

havelastingsuccess.

Some

rulersofslave

origins

inIslamdomhad

nothing

todo

with

military

slav-

ery.

Foran

example,

seetheTuaregcasedescribedby

F.Rodd,

Peopleqfthe

Veil

(London,1926),pp.

96-97,103-05,108.

2. Rouland,
   pp.

25-26,makesthesame

distinction.

24