The trailer for Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator started with the tagline: “The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor.” While the only real thing that would have come close to something like that in Rome was the slave revolt of Spartacus (which may have influenced the story of the movie), there really wasn’t much of a chance for a slave to achieve power in Rome, no matter how good a storyline it makes. There have, however, been different eras and geographical regions of the Islamic world where history has seen the rise of enslaved people, who tore down the positions of those who ruled over them, and became their own masters. This is an exploration of this phenomenon and a brief overview of the slaves who became kings.
This isn’t going to be a legitimisation of slavery in Islam. Thankfully, ‘official’ slavery has ended across the world (unofficially slavery continues even in developed economies in the form of sexual exploitation and people trafficking). Slavery existed in every pre-modern human society, Muslim included and despite the fact that Islamic law had strict rules pertaining to slavery and the treatment of slaves (compared to early modern European and American societies), these rules were flaunted across different levels of the Muslim world, which led to the continual subjugation of fellow human beings. It has been argued (rather convincingly) that Islam’s approach to slavery was to make it so restrictive that it would eventually lead to its natural abolition[2] but whether that would have happened if it weren’t for European-led abolitionism is a different discussion.
As Dr Jonathan Brown argues in his book ‘Slavery & Islam’[1] what constitutes ‘slavery’ has differed in various times and places to such an extent, that using that single word to describe a vast swathe of human experience can prove cumbersome. For ‘Eurocentric’ readers in particular, the term ‘slavery’ brings to mind the transatlantic slave trade specifically. Given the copious amount of literature, film and poetry about the transatlantic slave trade and its effects, that still continue to burden communities today, it can be difficult to switch our mindset to think of slavery as something else, but for the purpose of this article, bear in mind that when we talk about slavery, it may not be exactly how you imagine it.
The Abbasids
During the time of the Abbasid Caliphate the practice of recruiting slave soldiers became common. Taken from their native lands on the Eurasian Steppe, young boys (mostly of Turkic origin) were taken from their families to be trained as soldiers. Naturally gifted horse riders and fighters, enhanced by their natural habitats away from sedentary lifestyles, they were prized for their loyalty and strength. As they were taken far away from their homelands, they began their careers with no political affiliations or loyalty to any ruler, something that would have been hard to come by if recruiting locals for the army. Eventually, these soldiers, known as ‘Ghilman’, aligned with one another, and became so relied upon, that they eventually became the de facto rulers of the caliphate. Their numbers grew so vast and their power became so unpopular that eventually the Caliph al-Mu’tasim had to establish a new capital in Samarra to house them.
The Ghilmans of the Abbasid Caliphate would eventually lead to the rise of the Ghaznavid Empire and the rule of the famous Mahmud of Ghazni who would become sultan of much of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-west India.
The Mamluks of Egypt
Over the centuries as a number of empires would rise and fall across the Muslim world, the Ghilmans, now more commonly knowns as Mamluks (literally slaves), would offer their services to whoever controlled the reins of power. In reality however, the Mamluks themselves would be the true rulers of the empire as they held high ranking positions within different governments. In the western Islamic world, they came to the fore at the end of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt, when they officially took control and made themselves masters of the empire that they had ruled behind the scenes for years.
Their zenith arguably came under the rule of Baybars, who seized power after the Mamluks stopped the Mongol advance at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. The Mamluks would leave their legacy in medieval Cairo, much of which still stands today in the spiralling minarets and mosques of the old city.
In the eastern Islamic world, after the end of the Ghaznavids came the Ghurids, and when the last Ghurid king fell, his slave soldier-general Qutb al-Din Aybak (also a Qipchak Turk just like the Egyptian Mamluks) would seize power and establish another Mamluk empire in India, which became more commonly referred to as the Delhi Sultanate.
The Siddis of India
In India, as well as the Qipchaks, there were another group of enslaved people who would also define the history of the region. Slaves from East Africa had been brought into the Sub-Continent for centuries and would eventually lead to the establishment of the Black African communities known as Siddis/Shiddis.
One of the first to make a name for himself was Jamal al-Din Yaqut. Yaqut started as a soldier for the Delhi Sultanate but eventually became a close confidant of Razia Sultana, one of the few queens of Islamic history, after she took over the throne. Classic Bollywood fans may know the (romanticised) story through the 1983 film Raziya Sultana, with the iconic actor Dharmendra in the role of Yaqut (unfortunately he performed the role in blackface). The most famous Siddi however would come many years later. Malik Ambar (1548 – 13 May 1626) was an Ethiopian born slave-soldier who would eventually go on to become Prime Minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate and essentially its de facto ruler. He challenged Mughal claims to the subjugation of the sultanate, and established a new tax system and commissioned numerous buildings and infrastructure.
While Ambar’s achievements were no mean feat, he wasn’t breaking new ground. Before him, Ikhlas Khan, another East African slave turned nawab, was the de facto ruler of the nearby Bijapur state. The Siddi community would eventually go on to establish the Janjira state and dynasty, which was never conquered or invaded by any opposing army, and would survive until the independence of India from British rule.
The Ottomans
In the 16th century, another group of Turks from the Eurasian plains rose up and took the reigns of power from the Mamluks: the Ottomans, who would go on to rule until the modern era.
Whereas previously the soldier slaves of Muslim empires were mostly made up of Turkic people (as well as Circassians, Abkhazians, Mongols and others) the Ottomans mostly took their soldiers from the Christian communities of the Balkans. They were known as Janissaries. Taken from their families as part of the devşirme system (sometimes referred to as a “blood-tax”) from areas controlled by the Ottomans, they were converted to Islam and raised to be soldiers loyal to the sultan, much like the Mamluks before them.[3] While the Janissaries never performed any sort of coup to take power from their masters, some of them rose through the administrative ranks of Ottoman bureaucracy to the highest possible levels. One of the most famous was Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. Taken as a young boy from his village in Herzegovina, he would eventually become the grand vizier (the equivalent of prime minister) under three different sultans and even married a princess from the royal family.
But there was another part of the royal household which also ruled behind the scenes and even become more powerful than the grand vizier. As well as young boys taken to be raised as soldiers, Ottoman slavers would regularly kidnap young girls from central Europe to be sold into concubinage. While this was a travesty of a trade, there was a silver lining for some of these girls. Many of them would find their way into the harem of the Ottoman sultan, where they would vie for power amongst themselves to find favour with their master.
Apart from the obvious advantages, there was another more important thing to be earned: in many of the tribes and cultures of the Steppe, inheritance of power was not defined by primogeniture (eldest son wins), but would usually result in a feud (more often than not, a civil war) amongst the deceased sovereign’s sons and brothers, as to who was most fit to rule. Often, in Ottoman history, it was down to which prince was ruthless enough to have his brothers murdered first (the most notorious being Mehmet III who had all 19 of his brothers killed). But sometimes bloodshed could be avoided if the sultan named his successor during his lifetime, and if one of his wives was beloved enough, her son(s) would be next in line. And so it could be that a young girl, who was taken as a captive in a faraway land, separated from her family and sold in the most depraved of circumstances, would rise to power and become the sultan valide, the queen mother, the second most powerful individual in the empire.
The most famous example was Roxelana, the favourite wife of Suleyman the Magnificent. So powerful was her influence that she convinced Suleyman to have his son Mustafa killed (his mother was one of Suleyman’s other wives and Roxelana’s rival in the harem). Despite the fact that he was popular and seen as being the most capable in succeeding his father as sultan, his death lead to Roxelana’s sons being the only possible heirs to the throne[4].
Concluding Remarks
The purpose of this article was not to argue that ‘slavery in Islam was not all bad,’ and in fact, many historical incidents, such as the ones mentioned in this piece, show that Muslims flaunted the laws of their faith in their enslavement of fellow human beings, and their treatment was at times just as bad as during the European transatlantic slave trade. The aim here was simply to highlight extraordinary moments in history in which individuals managed to rise up against all the odds.
One may wonder why this happened in the Islamic world more often than elsewhere. Perhaps, it could be argued, it had something to do with Islam’s insistence on the equality of all human beings; or because slavery was not determined on the basis on one’s ethnicity. Or, more simply, that the use of slaves specifically for military purposes, a particular feature of the Muslim world, most likely led to this phenomenon. All we have is speculation, alongside the legacies of those who achieved the seemingly impossible, for us to reflect on.
Footnotes
[1] Dr Jonathan AC Brown, ‘Slavery & Islam’, Oneworld Academic 2019
[2]‘A Trajectory of Manumission: Examining the Issue of Slavery in Islam‘ by Nathaniel Mathews
[3]This was in contradiction to Islamic law where a person may only be taken as a slave if they were a non-Muslim who was part of a community that was at war with Muslims at the time. Many of those taken as part of the devşirme system were from areas controlled by the Ottomansdirectly or indirectly by those who ruled under their suzerainty.
[4]In true Turkish fashion there is a soap opera or “dizi” called Muhteşem Yüzyıl that charts Roxelana’s rise (if you’re interested).
Further reading
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