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

An

Explanation

ofMilitary

Slavery

61

Militaryslavery

lendsitself

particularlywell

tothisrelation

be-

causeitcorrelatestoIslamso

visibly

andhasno

comparable

existenceoutsideIslamdom.Howdoesonemakeaconnection

betweenslavesoldiers

and

Islam?

A

numberofwriters,bothsocialthinkersandhistoriansof

Islam,

19

havelinked

militaryslavery

withthe

patrimonial

nature

ofIslamicate

governments.

(A

patrimonialgovernment

isone

based

ultimately

on

relationships

of

paternalauthority

andfilial

dependence

incontrasttoafeudalone,whichis marked

by

contractually

fixed

fealty

basedon

knightlymilitarism.)

2

Pat-

rimonialrulers

always

needed trusted

agents

toexecutetheir

will;outsiders

(aliens

and

unprivilegedsubjects)

havethefewest

conflictinginterests,

so

they provide

themostreliable

agents.

Fromthis

vantagepoint,militaryslavery

couldbesaidtobea

meansof

acquiring

such

agents.

Muslimsalone

developed

a

sys-

temto

bring

in

agents,

becausetheir

governments

werethemost

patrimonial.

This

simpleexplanation

is

unfortunately

neither

adequate

nor

accurate.Itisnot

enough

to

explainmilitaryslavery

asaconse-

quence

of

patrimonialism;

thebasic

question

stillremains:

why

were Islamicate

governments

patrimonial? Furthermore,

it

is

nottrue

thatIslamicate

dynasties

were

predominantlypatrimo-

nial;

many

ofthemost

important

ones(forinstance,the

Seljuks,

Ayyubids,

Mamluks,Ottomans,Safavids,andMughals)hadim-

portant

feudalelements.Moreover,itisamistaketoviewmili-

tary

slavesas

politicalagents;

over

/nd

over,they

wererecruited

primarily

assoldiers.

They

werewarriors

brought

intostaffar-

housesbuilt

to

insureprivacy;deforestation(duetosheepand

goats

replacing

pigs);

urbandominationof

surroundingdistricts;religious

segregation

incities

and

countryside.

Sexualand

psychological:separation

ofthesexes:theveiland

harem;women’shonor

emphasized;

four

interpersonal

relations

present,four

absent

(according

to

Halpern).

Other: men

encouraged

to

marry

father’s

brother’sdaughter;Arabicpersonalnames;feworganizedathletics

(except

in

Iran).

19.Onthem,seeD.

Pipes,

"The

Strategic

Rationalefor

MilitarySlavery,"

Journalof

Strategic

Studies 2

(1979):

34-35.

Myexplanationssuggested

inthis

articleare

supercededby

the

argumentspresented

here.

20. R.Bendix,MaxWeber:AnIntellectualPortrait(London,1966),p.360.