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The Mamlūks of the Seljuks: Islam's Military Might at the Crossroads Author(S): David Ayalon Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol

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The Mamlūks of the Seljuks: Islam's Military Might at the Crossroads Author(S): David Ayalon Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol The Mamlūks of the Seljuks: Islam's Military Might at the Crossroads Author(s): David Ayalon Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Nov., 1996), pp. 305-333 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25183239 Accessed: 09-04-2017 00:48 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Cambridge University Press, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sun, 09 Apr 2017 00:48:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Mamluks of the Seljuks: Islam's Military Might at the Crossroads* DAVID AYALON General overview The study of the Mamluks under the Seljuks is of pivotal significance, because those Mamluks formed the essential connecting link between their predecessors in the 'Abbasid Caliphate and their successors in the Sultanates of the Zangids, the Ayyubids and the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria on the one hand, and in the Sultanate of the Ottomans on the other. They were also part of an exceptionally important stage in the ethnic transformation which those Mamluks underwent with the progress of time. The full dimensions and centrality of the Mamluk factor under the Seljuks can be seen, in my view, only on the basis of the following premises, guidelines and considerations. (a) The Mamluk socio-military institution, in its various forms, had been the mainstay of Islam's military might throughout the greatest part of its existence, with the ethnic transformation just mentioned having no mean share in that phenomenon. The pagan Turks and their like formed for many centuries the backbone of the elite Mamluk armies because of their remarkably superior military qualities, according to the criteria of those times. By force of circumstances they were very gradually replaced by Mamluks of Christian (mainly Eastern) origin, and this is what gave that institution its relative adaptability to the advance of technology and, consequently, a longer lease of life. (b) During the early centuries of Islam the centre of gravity of its might moved steadily eastwards and north-eastwards, until it eventually drew its major military manpower from Central Asia and the areas adjacent to it. (c) The preponderance of the eastern lands of Islam (including Egypt), vis-a-vis its western ones was decisive. This is true in spite of the fact that without those western lands Islam could never have become that great religion and civilization which we know today. The Seljuks and their Turkmens coming from Central Asia merged into that eastern part. (d) The Mamluk and the eunuch institutions became, at least from the end of the ninth century onwards, that is about a hundred years before the Seljuks set foot on Islamic soil, closely connected or even intertwined with each other. One of the reasons for that closeness * This study is an enlarged version of my lecture which was delivered to the Royal Asiatic Society on 12 October 1995. A considerably larger one is in preparation. [Editorial note: JRAS, 1946, part 1, contained, on pp. 67?73, an article on "The plague and its effects on the Mamluk army", by David Neustadt, as he then was. This was Professor Ayalon's first published learned article in a European language. The Society is very pleased to be able to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its publication in so uniquely appropriate a way.] JRAS, Series j, 6, 3 (1996), pp. 305~333 This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sun, 09 Apr 2017 00:48:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 306 David Ayalon was that the eunuchs were then already assigned the task of supervising and bringing up the young Mamluks. In this context it would be worth mentioning that the eunuchs were made part of the ruler's court, without fuss, by Caliph Mu'awiya, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, as early as the third quarter of the seventh century. The Mamluks, on the other hand, were made the major military element of the 'Abbasid Caliphate only in the second quarter of the ninth century, by Caliph Mu'tasim (218-27/833-42), an act which was accompanied by much publicity and severe internal struggle. From that crucial event onwards the surest way to reach sound scholarly results on both Mamluk and eunuch research is to study them together. (e) When the Seljuks entered Islamic territory towards the end of the tenth century or thereabouts, both the Mamluks and the eunuchs were already everywhere, strongly entrenched, holding key positions and extremely powerful. In order to avoid any misun derstanding, I would like to emphasize in advance that the dominant designation of "eunuch" at that time, and long before and after it, was the euphemism khddim (pi. khadam), meaning literally "servant".1 If one replaces khddim in the historical sources by khasi (= "the castrated"), quite a different history, and the correct one, will emerge. Now the Seljuks came from Central Asia into the lands of Islam as vassals of stronger Muslim rulers, and gathered strength only gradually, until they reached the peak of their power. During all that process, there is mention of no systematic attempt to suppress the Mamluks, and none whatsoever to uproot the eunuchs. If such an attempt had been made, it would have been recorded in considerable detail, and it would certainly have ended in ultimate failure, as did so many other attacks on the Mamluks that were made in the Muslim East. Furthermore, the Seljuks had no long-range reasons for eliminating the Mamluk military element. On the contrary, they had every reason to preserve and strengthen it. Otherwise, there would have been no Seljuk empire, at least not the great and enduring one we know, with all the far-reaching consequences which would have resulted from that.2 Basing oneself on such premises, guidelines and considerations, one is bound to find that the dimensions of the Mamluk military establishment were immense under the Seljuks, at least from the reign of Sultan Tughril onwards, although the picture will unfold only gradually. We are still at the beginning of this process. Within the framework of those premises and within the limits of the theme of the present study, I would like to highlight some specific aspects of my general view of the Mamluk institution. I shall start by singling out two most indicative instances, completely independent of each other, which belong to a rather late period in Seljuk history. The first is that of the famous vizier Nizam al-Mulk (died 1092); and the second is that of Caliph 1 I repeatedly dealt with this term in a number of studies of mine, and not only those confined to the subject of eunuchs. In a book which I finished recently, called Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans - A Study in Power Relationships, now in the Magnes Press of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, I discuss that and other terms relating to eunuchs in a very detailed Appendix. Earlier studies where eunuch terminology is discussed at considerable length are: "The eunuchs in the Mamluk Sultanate", Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 267?9; "On the eunuchs in Islam", JSAI, I (1979), pp. 74-93; "On the term khddim in the sense of'eunuch' in the early Muslim sources", Arabica, XXXII (1985), pp. 289-308. 2 See also my "Aspects of the Mamluk phenomenon", part A, Der Islam, LIII (1976), pp. 209-18. This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sun, 09 Apr 2017 00:48:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Mamluks of the Seljuks: Islam's Military Might at the Crossroads 307 al-Muqtafi (530-55/1136?60). I chose the first because it shows that that vizier's theory and practice concerning the Turkish Mamluks were in complete accord. The second was chosen because of its centrality in the history of both the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the Seljuk Sultanate (it reflects with unique clarity the attitude of the Caliphs and the Sultans to pagan Turkish Mamluks vis-a-vis Eastern Christian ones); because of its far-reaching implications beyond that history; and, last but not least, because it has been given an erroneous interpretation which has deprived it of both its purport and its focal significance. Afterwards I will present and very briefly analyze a small selection of source evidence relating to the period preceding the Seljuks, which proves the great superiority of the warlike qualities of the Turks inside and outside the Mamluk military society. This will be followed by an indication of the close relations existing between the Turks and the Islamic region bordering their homeland, and of the immense impact of that region on the Mamluks who entered through it into the lands of Islam. Then will come a case in point: a brief examination of the role of the Saqaliba in the East, as compared with that of the Turk.
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