Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T03:27:52.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Relation of the Slave and the Client to the Master or Patron in Medieval Islam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Paul G. Forand
Paul G. Forand
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In antiquity and in the Middle Ages slavery played a significant role in the military, economic, political and social life of the Near East. Many studies have been made of these aspects of life, but little has been said in the context of Islam about the psychological bonds which, at least to some extent, characterize the relationship between slave or freedman and master. The institution of ‘mutual alliance’ also played an important part in Islamic history, and there were certain similarities between the relation of the ‘ally’ to the patron on the one hand, and of the freedman to the former master on the other. But it is the purpose of this discussion, in part, to point out some basic differences between the two relationships.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 59 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 59 note 1 Hedaya, p. 517;Google ScholarBiog. Dict. vol. II, p- ix;Google ScholarFagnan, E., Additions aux dictionnaires arabes (Alger–Paris, 1923), s.v. w–l–y. (A list of abbreviations for works cited more than once is given on page 66.)Google Scholar

page 59 note 2 Cf., Tyan, vol. I, pp. 25–6, 36 f.Google Scholar

page 60 note 1 Al-Muţarrizhî, , Al-mughrib fî tartîb al-mutrib (2 vols., Haydarabad, 1910), vol. II, p. 52.Google Scholar

page 60 note 2 Mabsût, vol. VIII, pp. 91–2.Google Scholar

page 60 note 3 Hedaya, p. 518.Google Scholar

page 60 note 4 Mabsût, vol. vIII, p. 91.Google Scholar

page 60 note 5 E.g. Tab. vol. III, pp. 1316, 1327–8; Mas'ûdî, vol. VII, p. 397; Fragmenta, p. 478. Ibn Khaldûn ('Ibar, vol. I, p. 114) records a tradition which distinguishes between a mawlâ istinâ' wa-hilf and mawlâ riqq.Google Scholar

page 60 note 6 E.I.2, art. ‘Abnâ'’.

page 60 note 7 Mas'ûdî, vol. vII, p. 59; Fragmenta, pp. 351, 430Google Scholar; Ibn, al-Athîr, Al-kâmil fî 'l-ta'rîkh, ed. Tomberg, C. J. (thirteen vols., Leiden, 1851–1883), vol. vi, p. 225;Google ScholarNujûm, vol. ii, p. 166.Google Scholar

page 61 note 1 More detailed discussions of this incident can be found in Montgomery Watt, W., Muhammad at Medina (Oxford, 1956), p. 282;Google ScholarRoberts, R., Social Laws of the Qoran (London, 1925), pp. 49–52;Google ScholarRobertson Smith, W., Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, (2nd ed., London, 1903), p. 52.Google Scholar

page 61 note 2 Al-hidâya (four vols., Cairo, 1908), vol. III, p. 318.Google Scholar

page 61 note 3 Kashf al-asrâr: sharh 'alâ kanz al-wusûl...li'-l-Pazdawî (four vols., Istanbul, 1890–1891), vol. iv. p. 319.Google Scholar

page 61 note 4 Mediterranean Soc., vol. I, pp. 132, 432 n. 7,Google Scholar citing in the note Gottheil, R. and Worrell, W. H., Fragments from the Cairo Geniza in the Freer Collection (New York, 1927), p. 50.Google Scholar

page 61 note 5 Tria Opuscula, ed. van Vloten, G. (Leiden, 1903), p. 13.Google Scholar

page 62 note 1 Le Livre de la couronne, trans. Pellat, C. (Paris, 1954), p. 146.Google Scholar

page 62 note 2 Ihyâ' 'ulûm al-dîn (four vols., Cairo, 1916), vol. II, p. 193.Google Scholar

page 62 note 3 ‘Studies in Jabartî, I: Notes on the Transformation of Mamluk Society under the Ottomans’, JESHO, vol. iii (1960), pp. 285–86.Google Scholar

page 62 note 4 Ayalon elsewhere (Gunpowder and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom [London, 1956], p. 100) defines khushdâshiyya in these terms: ‘Mamlûk military society, in the absence of any hereditary principle, was split up into a series of slave families, each owing allegiance to a different master (ustâdh). The freedmen of each sulţân were bound by ties of loyalty only to that particular ruler and to their comrades in servitude and liberation (khushdâshiyya).’Google Scholar

page 62 note 5 An interesting parallel can be found in the Jewish community of Cairo as reflected in the Geniza documents (Mediterranean Soc., vol. I, pp. 145–6).Google Scholar

page 62 note 6 Al-Khaţîb, al-Baghdâdî, L'Introduction topographique à l'histoire de Baghdâd, ed. and trans. Salmon, G. (Paris, 1904), pp. 70–3; al-Ya'qûbî,Google ScholarLes Pays, trans. G. Wiet, passim. Although al-Afshîn was his title, his name, Khaydhar b. Kâwus, was well lmown (cf. E.I.2, s.v. ‘Afshîn’), as was that of Juff b. Yaltakîn, forefather of al-Ikhshîd of Egypt (Biog. Dict., vol. iii, pp. 217–18;Google ScholarNujûm, vol. iii, p. 236).Google Scholar

page 63 note 1 'Ibar, vol. I, p. 114;Google ScholarThe Muqaddimah, trans. Rosenthal, F. (three vols., New York, 1958), vol. i, p. 277.Google Scholar

page 63 note 2 E.g. Qur'ân, 2:177, 90:13; Wensinck, A. J., A Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradition (reprint, Leiden, 1960), s.v. ‘Slavery’.Google Scholar

page 63 note 3 E.g. Qu'ran, 55:14; Fitzgerald, The Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm, nos. lx, lxi. Much older examples are the Egyptian god Nu, the prince who advanceth at his hour to vivify that which cometh forth from his potter's wheel’ (The Book of the Dead, trans. Wallis Budge, E. [New Hyde Park, N.Y., 1960], p. 112);Google Scholar and the god Khnemu, ‘... whose name seems to be connected with words which mean “to build”, “to fashion”, “to put together”. [He] fashioned man on a potter's wheel’ (ibid. p. 173).

page 63 note 4 E.g. al-Tanûkhî, Al-faraj ba'd al-Shidda (Cairo, 1955) p. 57;Google ScholarTakmila, p. 313;Google Scholar Abû Shâma apud Tyan, , vol. II, p. 45.Google Scholar

page 63 note 5 E.g. Tab. vol. iii, pp. 1316, 1327, 1646; Ibn, Tayfûr, Sechster Band des Kitâb Baghdâd, ed. and trans. Kelier, A. (Leipzig, 1908), p. 257;Google ScholarNujûm, vol. iv, p. 259.Google ScholarCf., A. F. Rifâ'î, 'Asr al-Ma'mûn (three vols., Cairo, 1927), vol. I, p. 440;Google ScholarWiet, G., Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum,(MIFAO, vol. LII, Cairo, 1929), p. 49 n. 6.Google Scholar The use of the word 'abd has an interesting history of its own (cf. E.I.2, s.v.). 'Abd and one of its plurals, 'abîd, were used in later times in reference to slaves, especially black slaves, held by men, while its other plural, 'ibâd, was used for slaves, i.e. worshippers, of God. This distinction is not uniformly observed in the Qur'ân, however, for in at least one verse (24:32) 'ibâd refers to slaves held by Muslims. 'Abîd occurs only five times (3:182, 8:51, 22:10, 41:46, 50:29; all nearly identical), and refers to the slave-worshippers of God. Cf., al-Bukhârî, Kashf al-asrâr, vol. iv, p. 281,Google Scholar for 'abîd used in both senses. On mankind as God's mamâlîk see al-Tabarî, , Tafsîr (sixteen vols. [incomplete], Cairo, 1961–1969), vol. XIII, p. 321, commenting on Qur. 7:194.Google Scholar

page 64 note 1 E.g. Hilâl, al-Sâbi', Kitâb al-wuzarâ', ed. Amedroz, H. F. (Leiden, 1904), p. 116;Google ScholarTakmila, p. 313.Google Scholar

page 64 note 2 Siasset Naméh, tr. Schefer, C. (Paris, 1893), p. 140;Google Scholared. Muhammad, Qazvînî(Tehran, 1956), p. 110.Google Scholar

page 64 note 3 Bûlâq, 1904, pp. 115–16.