Slaves on Horses
The Evolution of the Islamic Polity

An explanation of the Muslim phenomenon of slave soldiers, concentrating on the period AD 650–850.

Patricia Crone (Author)

9780521529402, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 October 2003

316 pages
21.7 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.426 kg

Slave soldiers are a distinctively Muslim phenomenon. Though virtually unknown in the non-Muslim world, they have been a constant and pervasive feature of the Muslim Middle East from the ninth century AD into modern times. Why did Muslim rulers choose to place military and political power in the hands of imported slaves? It is this question which Dr Crone seeks to answer. Concentrating on the period from the rise of the Umayyads to the dissolution of the 'Abbasid empire (roughly AD 650–850), she documents the consequences of the fusion between religion and politics in Islam, which she sees as an essential forging characteristic of the Muslim social structure and state. Primarily addressed to specialists and advanced students of Arabic and Islamic history, the book will also appeal to comparative historians and social anthropologists.

Preface
A note on conventions
Part I. Introduction: 1. Historiographical introduction
2. The nature of the Arab conquest
Part II. The Evolution of the Conquest Society: 3. The Sufyanid pattern, 661–84 [41–64]
4. Syria of 684 [64]
5. The Marwanid evolution, 684–744 [64–126]
6. The Marwanid faction
7. Syria of 744 [126]
8. Umayyad clientage
Part III. The Failure of the Islamic Empire: 9. The abortive service aristocracy
10. The emergence of the slave soldiers
11. The emergence of the medieval polity
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
General index
Prosopographical index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]