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

30

TheIslamicateContext

Thereweretwo

situationsinwhichamastercouldnotcount

onhisslaves’

loyalty

atall:incivildisturbancesandwhen

using

just-captured prisoners

ofwar. Civildisturbanceserodedthe

bondsbetweenmasterandslave,asdomestic

enemieswereless

ofathreat

toaslaveandcould

appeal

tohisself-interest.Inter-

nalwarsoften

gave

slavesthe

opportunity

to

bargain

witheither

side,

auctioning

offtheirservicesforfreedom

and

promises

of

booty.

3

TheCorinthianPactof 538

B.c.

specificallystipulated

thatneithersignatory

couldmanumittheother’sslavesinreturn

fortheir

military

services.

31

Insmall-scalecivilwars,slavesre-

sembledmercenaries in

so

farasthey

actedasdisinterested

profit

seekers;large-scale

civilwars

might

havethesameeffect

asforeigninvasions,however,

sincethe

enemy

camefromafar

andcouldnotdeal

directly

withtheslaves.The

huge

scaleofthe

United States Civil War

partly explainswhy

someslavesre-

mained

loyal

totheirmastersintheConfederacythough

this

meant

disregarding

theirown

long-term

interests.

War

prisoners

whohad

just

beenenslavedshowedno

loyalty

totheirnewmasterswhatsoever.

They

hadtobeforcedto

fight,

especially

whenthe

enemy

wastheirown

people.Unlikely

asthis

useofslavessounds,

itdid

happen.

Inhazardoussituationsthese

slavescouldbeusedasshock

troops

inordertosavethelivesof

more valuablesoldiers. The

Mongolssystematically deployed

captives

fromacity

just

conqueredtostormthedefensesofthe

nextone;theypushedthesemiserableunarmedslavesuptothe

frontlineandordered

themtoattack

just

touse

upenemy

am-

munition.The

Mongol

warriorsstoodbehindthem,

prepared

to

shoot downslaves whoturned back; ahead theslaves faced

nearly

certaindeath

against

the

city

walls.Thisoffensivetactic

was so

important

that"the ruthless

employment

of

captives"

stoodoutasoneofthemainfeaturesof

Mongolsiegecraft,

a2

30.Rome:Westermann,

p.

67;K/ihne,

passim;

Pouland,_p. 25 and

chap.

2.

U.S.:AR,p.vii.Lombardi,pp.37-46,explains

the

complexVenezuelansituation.

31.C.Moss6,"LeR61edesesclavesdanslestroubles

politiques

dumonde

grec

/lafinde

l’6poqueclassique,"

Cahiersd’Histoire 6

(1961):

353-54.Welwei,

p.

104,

remarksthatslavesdidnothaveadecisiveinfluenceinthecivilwarsofancient

Greece.

32.

D.Martin,"The

MongolArmy,"Journal

of

the

Royal

Asiatic

Society(1943),