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.
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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.
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This work presents an explanation of how and why slave soldiers came to be a central feature of the Muslim polity. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This work presents an explanation of how and why slave soldiers came to be a central feature of the Muslim polity. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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4.8 out of 5 stars
4 reviews
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The standard text on the emergence of Islam as an empire
5 Jan 1999
By readersf
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
It is a pity this book is out of print, because no other work so clearly describes the challenges facing the early Caliphs (Khalifa) as they were compelled to turn their divinely inspired kingdom into a very earthly empire with something approaching a regular army. The early Islamic conquests were made by the entire mass of (male) believers, organized on tribal lines, responding to the call of the Khalifa...but such a force was unreliable and as likely to kill the Caliph as defend him.. Crone analyzes the alternatives pursued as the Caliphs moved from being successors to the Prophet to Kings in their own right. Brilliantly done-
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book by a brilliant author
31 Jan 2008
By M. Kline
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Dr. Crone has acquired more knowledge than any human being should rightfully possess, and this becomes immediately apparent when one reads her book. Although Slaves on Horses is a 'scholarly' work, it is nevertheless accessible to any lay reader interested in early Islam. Her writing is smooth, succinct, and even passionate. My only grievance is that the work is rather short; appendices and endnotes take up nearly two thirds of the book. I sometimes wish she had elaborated on some of her more controversial statements within the text itself, rather than burying her justifications in the endnotes. Nonetheless, Slaves On Horses is still an exceptional book and well worth the read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
don't forget the appendix
18 Nov 2011
By David Reid Ross
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Patricia Crone wrote this in 1980, adapting it from the first part of her PhD thesis. (Another part became the book "Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law" - as of 1997, this has been challenged and as far as I know, Crone has abandoned it.) Anyway "Slaves on Horses" is the first work of Crone's which I can recommend.
Her earlier work relied on "Islam as others saw it", to borrow a phrase. This work assumes the barest skeleton of the "Hagarism" narrative, and fleshes out that skeleton from the historical Muslim accounts mainly from hadith and administrative records. The book seeks to explain how and why the Caliphate ended up reliant upon "slaves on horses" to defend it. After all, the phrase "slaves on horses" is a phrase of horror in Jewish and Christian literature; and Islamic apocalyptic complains about it too.
As such this is best termed a military and caste history, from the 650s on. Crone finds the evolution of the Caliphal armies to be explicable by practical concerns, not religious. As a result she has little of Islam-as-religion in here, excepting the propaganda from this or that rebel.
It is less a "book" than an 80-something-page monograph, with extensive appendices. The appendices are the important part: they tell you who was stationed where and when, and of what family and tribe... in Syria and Iraq. (Egypt and North Africa and Spain do not feature.) These appendices are still of value for those who are fact-checking hadiths of the Fertile Crescent. They are in this book to show how Sufyani administration differed from Marwani administration which, in turn, differed from `Abbasi administration.
The writing style is breathless and endnote-reliant - typical of Crone's earlier work - and you can be lulled into reading quickly past many pages before realising that you have not followed the argument. The book's argument is, however, solid; you just have to work harder at it to absorb it. The book has held up over time; I have not found in the literature debunkings on the scale as, say, Crone's OWN debunking of her "Meccan Trade" in "Quraysh and the Roman Army".
Her earlier work relied on "Islam as others saw it", to borrow a phrase. This work assumes the barest skeleton of the "Hagarism" narrative, and fleshes out that skeleton from the historical Muslim accounts mainly from hadith and administrative records. The book seeks to explain how and why the Caliphate ended up reliant upon "slaves on horses" to defend it. After all, the phrase "slaves on horses" is a phrase of horror in Jewish and Christian literature; and Islamic apocalyptic complains about it too.
As such this is best termed a military and caste history, from the 650s on. Crone finds the evolution of the Caliphal armies to be explicable by practical concerns, not religious. As a result she has little of Islam-as-religion in here, excepting the propaganda from this or that rebel.
It is less a "book" than an 80-something-page monograph, with extensive appendices. The appendices are the important part: they tell you who was stationed where and when, and of what family and tribe... in Syria and Iraq. (Egypt and North Africa and Spain do not feature.) These appendices are still of value for those who are fact-checking hadiths of the Fertile Crescent. They are in this book to show how Sufyani administration differed from Marwani administration which, in turn, differed from `Abbasi administration.
The writing style is breathless and endnote-reliant - typical of Crone's earlier work - and you can be lulled into reading quickly past many pages before realising that you have not followed the argument. The book's argument is, however, solid; you just have to work harder at it to absorb it. The book has held up over time; I have not found in the literature debunkings on the scale as, say, Crone's OWN debunking of her "Meccan Trade" in "Quraysh and the Roman Army".
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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