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

AnExplanation

ofMilitary

Slavery

69

umma

hadbecomea

pipedream,itremainedavital

emotional

anchor.

Regardlessofthedivisions

into

kingdoms

andthe

war-

fare

among

them,

the

community

ofIslamdid

notloseitsallure

forMuslim

peoples;theysawdevotiontothe

ummaasan

expres-

sion

of

allegiance

toIslam

andits

principles.

Concern

forthe

totality

of

Muslims,oftena

fuzzynotion,tookthe

place

oflocal

patriotism.

Muslim

subjectsfeltmoreofa

bondtotheummathan

to their

governments; the

transitory, arbitrary, local ruleof

some

kingpaled

intheface

ofthe

permanent,grand,universal

umma.

2

Asthe

unityoftheumma,rule

by

the

caliph,

andwarfare

against

only

unbelievers

turnedinto

piousfictions,Islamicideals

became

evermoreisolatedfrom

life.

The

governmentofAllahandthe

governmentofthesultan

grew

apart.

Socialand

politicallifewaslivedon

two

planes,

ononeof

which

happeningswouldbe

spirituallyvalidbut

actuallyunreal,

whileon

theotherno

validity

could

everbe

aspired

to.

28

But, unreal

as

they

were, Islamic

public ideals

continued to

dominate Muslim

thinking. Any number of

examples

show

this;

militaryslaveryitselfmakesthe

pointwell.Thescholarsar-

guedfine

points

ofShariCabut

didnot

recognize--oratleast

acknowledge--this

preeminentinstitution.Withthe

singleex-

ceptionof

Ni.zm

al

Mulk’sbrief

description

(Appendix2),

no

writeron

politics

deigned

to discuss

military slavery!

And

it

never

appears

in

theShariCa.

Having

no

placein

theory,

slave

soldiershad

no

place

intheMuslim

consciousness, which

re-

mainedattuned to

Islamic ideals and

pulled

away

fromdis-

cordantrealities.Buttheworld

wasfilledwithharsh

facts;how

did

theMuslimsdealwiththem?

TheWithdrawalfrom
Power

Muslim

subjects responded to troublesome realities

by with-

drawingfrom

politics

andwarfare.

They

avoidedthe

blatant

nonimplementationofIslamic

goalsinthe

publicspherebyre-

27.

Goitein,p.40;

Lapidus,p.30;

Hodgson,

2:53,57.

28.

Grunebaum,Medieval

Islam,p.143;also

p.

153.