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

66

TheIslamicateContext

dynasties

tofar-flung

empires,

rulersfrom

militaryconquerors

to

religious

revivers,warfarefromtribalskirmishesto

sieges

of

manyyears.

Withinthis

largediversity,

onefundamentalpattern

prevailed:political

and

military

realities

virtually

never

mettheideals

established
by

Islam.Theactual

courseofIslamicate

history

com-

pares

sadly

with theidealofaunifiedumma underacaliph

wagingjih(dagainst

non-Muslims

only.

Bothof

theseidealswere

transgressedagainstearly

and

permanently.

The

unity

ofthe

ummadidlast,admittedly,

forabout

thirtyyears(until

themur-

derofUthmin in 35/656),

but

major

intra-Muslim

warfare

began

in

37/657

with

thecivilwarbetweenCAliandMueRwiya;

a

centurylater,

in138/756,theummawasformally

split

whenthe

Umayyad

rulerof

Spain

refused

to

recognize

theAbbasid

caliph

as

sovereign;

from

thattimeonforabouta

century,

anewre-

gion

becameindependentevery

five

years.

24

The

unity

ofthe

ummawasneverreestablished.Perceived

commonenemies

(for

example,

theCrusaders,Mongols,Zionists)

could

produce

local

feelings

ofsolidaritythereafter,

butno

positive

bondseffectively

unitedMuslims.Furthermore,thesizeoftheumma

anditsdiver-

sity

made

unityimpossible;

theever

expanding

area

ofDiral-

Islimwas

simply

too

large

to

remain

politically

unified.

The

caliphate

endureda

slowerdecline.Itwithstoodthevicis-

situdesofthefirstthreecenturies,

remaining

powerful

andvir-

tuallyunchallenged.

Shfefs,

Khrijfs,

andrebelliousgovernors

had

only

limited

impact,

andevenwhen

the

caliphs

fellunder

thecontrolof

military

slaves

inthemid-3d/9th

century,

their

prestige

survived.

Thenthefirstrival

caliphemerged

in

297/

909,whentheShfCfFatirnidstook

power

in

Tunisia;

not

long

after,in316/929,therulerofUmayyadSpain

alsodeclaredhim-

self

amgral-mu’mingn

("Commander

of

theFaithful," another

termfor

"Caliph").

More

serious

yet,

theShfCr

Buyidsconquered

Iraq

in

334/945

andheldtheAbbasid

caliphs

near-captive

fora

century;

fromthisdateonthe

caliphs

becamemere

figureheads.

Seljuk

substitution

for

Buyidoverlordship

in

447/1055

didnot

change

this, though

the

Seljuks

were Sunnis. Aside

from a

purely

local revivalat theend ofthe

6th/12th

century,

the

24.Alistofthebreakawaydynastiesmay

befoundon

pp.

178.