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.

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.

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.