The Slave Soldier System

The OTTOMANS, the MAMLUKS, and the MING HIST 1301 | History The Slave Soldier System A distinctive method of staffing their armies and administrations was employed by many of the Islamic nations that arose in western Asia throughout the centuries: the formation of an elite composed of highly skilled, foreign-born, enslaved, or previously enslaved people. The Abbasid Caliphate's rulers recruited Turks from central Asia across the Oxus River to fight for the empire starting in the ninth century. Nonetheless, adult male enslaved outside the state was more likely to revolt if they were mistreated as they were loyal to their buyer rather than the state. For Muslim monarchs, briefly losing control of the state due to similar upheavals in the ninth century served as a lesson. After that, they tried to enslave young boys so they could be trained and schooled by the state and become more integrated into the society that they would later serve as adults. Islam prohibited the enslavement of fellow Muslims, which is why non-Muslim children were selected. The lads, who were educated and converted to Islam, were mostly abducted from Turkic tribes in central Asia, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe. They were given the name "mamluks," which comes from an Arabic term that means "someone owned." They did not break the prohibition against slavery other Muslims since they were released after finishing their instruction. Riding, archery, and military tactics constituted the majority of their training. Some received formal training in the bureaucracy in an effort to produce knowledgeable and competent state administrators. Following the completion of their studies, the young men were released in a unique ceremony. After that, they were permitted to develop beards, get married, and start their own families, where they might add their own newly acquired mamluks. Nonetheless, they may continue to live in the home of their previous master, the monarch to whom they were supposed to show loyalty. The mamluks had some resemblance to the liberated individuals of classical Rome, who frequently maintained connections with their previous owners. Mamluks and their masters were thought of as having a familial bond; they frequently addressed one another as "brother" and their lord as "father." Their "father" would find them a position in the ruler's service when their schooling was over. The majority of mamluks were able to secure employment in the army, and many of them later rose to administrative posts. After toppling the sultan in the Ayyubid Sultanate, the mamluks finally took control of the government and went on to dominate the country as the Mamluk Sultanate. Being an enslaved soldier in Mamluk Egypt was frequently the route to the highest social status and prosperity. Mamluks were granted important roles, including that of commander of the annual Mecca pilgrimage and province governor. The mamluk in question was the sultan. While Egyptian mamluks married and had children, it was deemed improper if these offspring were given significant positions in government when true mamluks were available. Appointed mamluks were thought to be more entitled to positions of power and authority than were a man's biological sons. When this occurred, the mamluks were unhappy since they often had the last say in who became sultan. Entrusting men who had been slaves with key military and political roles would sound risky, but the Ayyubids, who broke away from the Abbasid empire to form their own dynasty in the eleventh century, accepted the system because of its benefits. Since the mamluks had received extensive training and education, they were qualified to hold the positions that were assigned to them. A monarch may select the most capable among them, but a sultan's offspring could be biologically unfit to hold positions of power. The mamluks were likely to be faithful to their "father," who had been in charge of their upbringing and to whom they owed their social standing, because they were not of Arab descent and had been abducted from their homes in other countries when they were young. The sultan generally did not have to worry that his mamluks would put the interests of their distant and longabsent biological relatives ahead of his own, even though the descendants of the Arab aristocracy may take actions to further the fortunes of their families that did not align with his wishes. Men in slavery held a comparable status across the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans began buying slaves or utilising prisoners of war to bolster their army's numbers in the fourteenth century. To oppose the dominance of the Turkish aristocrats who controlled the army and the state's administration, the Ottoman sultans, however, quickly turned to bringing Christian children from the European areas they captured after their conquest of the Balkans. As part of the levy placed on their European subjects, Ottoman agents recruited Christian youths through a system known as the devshirme, or "gathering." Boys, ideally between the ages of eight and ten, were abducted by sultan's agents every three to five years to work for the Ottoman Empire. After being taken to Istanbul, where they received an education and were forced to convert to Islam, they were taught to speak Turkish. They received training to become scribes, royal bureaucrats, or soldiers as they grew to be teenagers. After completing their schooling, those chosen to work in the palace frequently advanced to hold significant roles, such as Grand Vizier. Many also had the chance to become wealthy and received timars as compensation for their services. Most of the boys received military training, and some of them joined the elite infantry unit known as the Janissaries, which gets its name from the Turkish phrase "new soldier," yeni cheri. They guarded the sultan's home and went into combat with him. The Janissaries were required to be obedient to their ruler, the Ottoman sultan, just as the mamluks. Because the Janissaries were totally dependent on the sultans for their status and privileges and because they had been cut off from their biological families, to whom they may have otherwise owed their first loyalty, the sultans actually thought that the Janissaries would prove to be more trustworthy than the noble vassals. At the Battle of Ankara, Bayezid I's Turkish vassals fled, leaving him in the hands of the Mongols, demonstrating the danger of placing your reliance in the Turkish nobles. Within Ottoman society, the Janissaries enjoyed great prestige. Many parents objected to their children being taken away from them and occasionally fought against the system, but other fathers who wanted to give their boys a chance to succeed in life allegedly bought off Ottoman authorities to choose their sons. It is said that certain Muslim parents, whose boys were exempt from the devshirme, even made up their faith in order to get their sons hired by the sultan. Other types of enslaved individuals were also held by the sultans. Some foreign Christian women were bought and sold in slave markets, while others were either captured as POWs or presented as presents to the sultan. They were put to reside among the sultan's female relatives and children in his harem, where they also performed attendant duties for the courtesans. A rigid system was used to rank women in the harem, and advancement was contingent upon both skill and duration of service. The minority that the sultan selected for sexual partnerships also enjoyed special treatment, particularly if they had offspring for him. Some were made "ladies" and went on to become the mothers of sultans in the future. They might be quite powerful. While a handful of these ladies were extremely powerful, the majority worked as maids and were often freed from their positions after a few years to marry members of the royal administration. The men who guarded the Ottoman harem were enslaved eunuchs, castrated males who were frequently bought in African slave markets and appointed to significant positions like running the ruler's and other nobles' households because to their perceived sexual peculiarities. These guys had immense authority because of their dominance over the harem, even though they were slaves. People other than sultans held enslaved individuals who did arduous physical labour on farms or as domestic servants, despite the fact that mamluks and enslaved men and women who served the Ottoman sultan were regarded as among the elite of their cultures and possessed relatively privileged positions. They might not be paid or educated, and they might be inadequately clothed and nourished. Additionally, they couldn't hope to be liberated. Regardless of age, individuals might be sexually assaulted and treated like property that can be pawned or sold at the whim of their owner. Compared to the experiences of the mamluks, the Janissaries, or the ladies of the Ottoman harem, these individuals were significantly more common and representative of the slaves, including Africans enslaved in the Americas beginning in the sixteenth century.