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

52

TheIslamicateContext

importantpositionsuntiltheoverthrow

of

KingFfirfiq

in1371/

1952.130

Slave

soldiers

fought

acrossthe

widthandbreadthofIslam-

dom.

Perhapsfour-fifthsofallMuslim

dynastiesmade

regular

useof

them.Afewcases

fromthecornersof

Islamdom

(par-

ticularlythose areas not

represented

by

the

major dynasties

listed

above)

mayhelp

to

illustratethis.

Sub-Saharan

African Muslim

dynasties

probably

made the

greatest

useofslave

soldiers,afactwhich

reflectsthe

especially

important

place

ofslaves

in theireconomiesand

sociallives.

Slaveshad

ubiquitous

military

and

politicalrolesin

manydy-

nasties;

TM

some

ofthebetter-studiedinclude

DarFur,

13

the

Sudanese

Mahdiya,

13a

Bornu,

TM

theFulani

emirates,

135

and

the

Ton-Dyon.

136

Military

slavery

existedinmost

parts

oftheArabian

penin-

sula,but

particularlyinthe

region

with

themost

highly

devel-

oped

political institutions--the Yemen. For

example,

a5th/

1

lth-century

dynastythere,

the

Najahids,emerged

froma

mili-

taryslave

corps.137

Oneofthe

very

lastincidentsofslave

soldiery

was

reportedinMeccaatthe

beginning

ofthis

century?

s

In

India,

military

slavesinthenorth

came

mostly

fromCen-

tral

Asia,whilethosein

thesouthandeastderivedfrom

Africa.

For

example, MilikAmbar,who

ruled asizable

part

ofthe

130.G.

Baer,StudiesintheSocial

History

of

Modern

Egypt(Chicago,1969),pp.

161-67,

220-23.

131.A.G.B.Fisher

andH.

J.

Fisher,

Slavery

andMuslim

Society

in

Africa

(Gar-

den

City,N.Y.,1971),

pp.154-70.

132.

R.

S.

O’Fahey,"Slavery

and

theSlaveTradeinDar

Fur,"Journal

ofAfri-

can

History

14

(1973):29-43;R.S.

O’Fahey

andJ.

L.

Spaulding,Kingdoms

of

the

Sudan
(London,1974),
pp.

151-54.

133.P.M.

Holt,

The

MahdistStateintheSudan

1881-1898,2ded.

(Oxford,

1970),

pp.

43,63,

207;idem,"Bizinkir"inEl2.

134.

L.Brenner,The

Shehus

of

Kukawa(Oxford,

1973),pp.46,89,95-104,

115,118.

135.

J.

P.

Smaldone,

Warfare

inthe

SokotoCaliphate

(Cambridge,Eng.,1977).

136.L.

Tauxier,HistoiredesBambara

(Paris,1942),

pp.

80-90.

137.Z.

Riyfid,

"Dawlat

.Habasha

fi’l-Yaman,"

al-Majalla at-Ta’rkhygz

aLM#riya 8 (1959):101-30.

138..

A.

ar-Ray.hinf,MulkaLCArab

(Beirut,1924),

p.

226.