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

An

Explanation

of

MilitarySlavery

57

thenewmilitary

order

acquiredpolitical

andeconomic

power

too

andevolvedintoan
aristocracy.

Thus,the

stirrup

ledtoaseries

of
adjustments

whichcreatedasocialdivision

inwestern

Europe:

it
produced

amilitary aristocracy

and

charged

the

peasantry

withtheexpense.

Did the

stirrup

have a

comparable

effectin Islamdom?

Perhaps

itcausedashift

alonggeographic

ratherthansociallines.

In

mostofthe

heavilypopulated parts

oftheEasternHemi-

sphere(notably

thoseinNorthAfrica,theMiddleEast,India,

and

China),

war-horsescouldnotberaised.

8

Theintroduction

ofthe

stirrup

enhanced

the

power

ofthe

peoplesliving

where

horses could be raised--primarily

in

steppe

lands and in

deserts--andreducedthestrength

of

peoplesliving

in

densely

inhabitedareas, especially

cities.

Bymaking

horses moreim-

portant

towarfare,the

stirrup

redistributed

power

fromciv-

ilizedtobarbarian

peoples.

Thenon-horse-breeding

areas

in

Islamdom,

like the

peasantry

in western

Europe,

became a

nearlypassive

sourceoffundsforthehorse

aristocracy,

inthis

casefromthe

steppes

anddeserts.Thecentersofcivilization

cameunderassaultfromhorseLbreeding

barbarians

during

the

roughly

sevencenturies

when

cavalryreignedsupreme(700-

1400

c.E.).

Ifone

accepts

this

reasoning--and

I

propose

itherewithout

being

convincedofit

myself--thenmilitary

slaveryappears

tobe

ananswer

by

thecivilizedcenterstothe

predations

ofthe

horse

barbarians.Thecentersadopted

various

strategies

todealwith

thehorsemen:

allmadeeffortsto

acquire

horsesoftheirown;

andtheMuslimsalsomadethe

imaginative

and

successful

effort

to

bring

intheriderstoo.Thus,

militaryslavery

canbe

under-

stoodasaresponse

totheshiftin

military

balancecaused

by

the

stirrup.

To

explainmilitaryslavery

inthis

way

alsoneatlyac-

countsforits

appearance

not

long

afterthe

stirrupappeared

on

thescene,withoutanyreference

toIslam.Unliketheclimaticor

Turkic

reasons,

thisoneanswers

whymilitaryslavery

didnot

7.Its

possible

effectsinsub-SaharanAfricaarediscussed

inJ.

Goody,

Technol-

ogy,

Tradition,andtheStatein

Africa

(London,1971),pp.

34-37.

8.Here,asso

often,Japan

resembles

Western

Europe.