The Turkic Peoples in Medieval Arabic Writings

Yehoshua Frenkel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780415747646
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317619581
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Translating a collection of the most important descriptions of the Turks found in medieval Arabic texts into English, this book aims at delineating the coming of the Turkic people in the eleventh century, their military successes in Iran and Iraq, and the emergence of the sultanate.

The book introduces the reader to the history of the Islamic Caliphate and the Turkic people. This introduction is followed by annotated translated sources which illuminate; the view of the Eurasian steppes in Muslim-Arabic geographical writing from the pre-Salj?q period, the self-image and ideology of the victorious Salj?qs and their fundamental claim to legitimacy, and the conventional narrative of the coming of the Salj?qs in later Arabic historiography.

Illustrating the variety of sources available on the history of Turkic tribes in the Eurasian steppes and in central Islamic lands, ranging from geographical writing, to chronicles, to mythological legends, this book will be an essential resource for students and scholars with an interest in Turks and image, History, and Middle East Studies.

Part I

Overview

1 The Turkic peoples (atrāk) and the Islamic Caliphate

The Turkic people first encountered the empires of the world of Late Antiquity when they created a new steppe empire (Türk Qaghanate) in Central Asia in the sixth century CE.¹ The territory that they inhabited was not unknown to Greek, Latin and Syriac authors. Historians of Byzantium added a new layer to the stories about the Eurasian peoples.² In the course of time, this topic was taken over by Arab authors who included new information on the Eurasian steppes and its population in their chronicles and geographical writings.³

Owing to the rapid expansion of Islam, Muslim troops soon reached the Caspian Sea and Inner Asia (c. 650). One of the results of these military achievements was direct contact between the Abode of Islam and the Eurasian peoples. The armies of the Caliphate engaged them in two frontier zones as early as the Umayyad period (660–750). One frontier (ribāṭ, thaghr/thughūr) was the land controlled by the Khazars.⁴ The second frontier was in Central Asia,⁵ in the territory that the Arab geographers called the “Land beyond the Oxus River” (Transoxiana = mā warāʾ al-nahr).⁶ Turkic peoples constituted the lion’s share of the population in this frontier land. Although the Arab geographer al-Iṣṭakhrī (d. 957) argues that the Khazars were not atrāk, nevertheless ceremonial rituals at the royal (khāqān or bek) court suggest the survival of Türk practices.⁷

2 Slaves and soldiers

Yet armed conflict was not the sole dimension of contact between the Eurasian peoples and the Islamic Caliphate. The political and military needs of the Caliphate created a hunger for qualified manpower to fill its armies and administration.⁸ Demand for fresh conscripts kept the requirement for foreign recruits, including slave soldiers, high.⁹ Among the recruits were soldiers from the frontier zones of the Abode of Islam, particularly from the Eurasian steppes. Within the rank and file of the new Islamic army two types of conscripts may be distinguished:

1 Mawālī: freedmen who were related or attached to an influential Muslim patron and were considered his clients.¹⁰

2 Slave soldiers (ʿabīd) who were enrolled by the Caliphate to serve in its new military battalions.¹¹ Some of these bonded men were atrāk (Turkic people).¹²

The assimilation of the Eurasian recruits into Islamic society took place in three stages: 1) enslavement and conversion to Islam; 2) promotion of slaves’ descendants who became close companions of their masters or even retainers in the caliphs’ service, filling high-ranking positions in the administration; and 3) integration into civil society.

The newcomers who arrived in the central Islamic lands developed into the nuclei of a new military force. In the new ʿAbbāsid army that regrouped after the wreckage of the war between al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn, the sons of Hārūn al-Rashīd, the position of Eurasian page boys (ghulām, pl. ghilmān) became evident.¹³ Their brother al-Muʿtaṣim pursued a policy of enlisting slave soldiers from the northeastern frontiers of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate.¹⁴

Due to their growing numbers, social tension in the capital of Baghdad increased and led to violent incidents between the atrāk and the local population. This forced the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim to search for an alternative capital. He decided to move northward along the banks of the Tigris River and founded the city of Samarra.¹⁵ The organisation of the city reflects the ethnic composition of the new army as well as the political role of the Eurasian soldiers. The geographical sources narrate that the caliph recruited Eurasian slaves and allocated them separate quarters, according to their lands of origin.¹⁶ A growing number of them had a distinctive Turkic appearance and names.¹⁷

The story of the building of Samarra conveys some brief remarks that reflect the prevailing hostile attitude towards Eurasians, how they were perceived and their place in society. The historian and geographer Aḥmad b. Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 897 or 905)¹⁸ provides a long section on the foundation of this new ʿAbbāsid capital.¹⁹ He narrates:

In earlier times Samarra was a wasteland in the diocese of al-Ṭīrhān (Tīrhan).²⁰ Only a monastery stood in this region. There was no settlement. On the location of the monastery, the governmental (sulṭān) compound was built that is known as the general complex. The monastery building was converted to the treasury. In the year 218/833 al-Muʿtaṣim ascended the throne of the caliphate. He moved from the Mediterranean coastal town of Tarsus to Baghdad, and settled in the palace of his brother al-Maʾmūn. Then he constructed a palace on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. He dwelt there until the year 221/836. With him was a band of Turks. At that stage they still were barbarian infidels (ʿajam).

Jaʿfar al-Khushkī told me: Al-Muʿtaṣim used to dispatch me, during the days of the caliph al-Maʾmūn, to Nūḥ b. Asad in Samarqand. He commissioned me with purchasing Turk slaves. Every year I returned to Baghdad, bearing with me a group of Turks. Already during the days of al-Maʾmūn he accumulated about three thousand pageboys (ghilmān). After he inherited the caliphate he strove to obtain more Turks. He brought slaves from private owners and thus collected a great number of slaves. Among them were Ashinas, who had been the slave (mamlūk) of Naʿīm b. Khāzim Abū Hārūn b. Naʿīm; Ītākh, who had been the slave of Sallām b. al-Abrash; Waṣīf, an armament smith (zarrād) who had been a slave of the al-Nuʾmān family: and Sīmā (silver) of Damascus, who had been a slave of Dhū al-Riʿasatayn al-Faḍl b. Sahl.

Whenever these barbarian infidels rode they galloped on their horses and bumped into people without heed. Baghdad’s mob often attacked them, killing and injuring some of them. It is in vain that they bled: No one took revenge and no perpetrator was punished. This troubled al-Muʿtaṣim and he decided to depart from Baghdad. First he travelled to al-Shamsiyya, a location at which al-Maʾmūn used to stay for long days and months. Al-Muʿtaṣim decided to build a town there, but the place was too close to Baghdad and the potential construction site was too small; hence he found the location unsuitable. His vizier al-Faḍl b. Marwān advised him in 221/836 to move to al-Bardān.

One day, al-Muʿtaṣim rode and hunted until he reached Samarra, which at the time was a wasteland in the diocese of al-Tīrhan, bare from building or man. Only a monastery stood there. Al-Muʿtaṣim conversed with the monks. Inquiring about the place’s name, he was told by a monk: “It is written in our ancient sacred books that this place is named Sāmarrāʾ, meaning: happy is the one who sees it. In olden days, Shem the son of Noah lived in this town. The place will be rebuilt after long years of desolation by a glorious, triumphant and victorious king. He will be accompanied by men whose faces resemble those of wild birds that live in dry deserts. He and his son will inhabit the town”.

Al-Muʿtaṣim cried out: “By God, I am the king. I will build it”. He settled there, accompanied by his son. He narrated that one day Hārūn al-Rashīd instructed his sons to travel and hunt: “I went together with al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn my brothers, and other sons of the caliph. Each one of us hunted an animal or a bird. I captured an owl. We returned and presented our prey. The eunuchs that accompanied us described to Hārūn al-Rashīd what each of us had caught. When it was time to explain what I had caught he saw the owl. The eunuchs were troubled by the possibility that the bird would escape or that I would be disgusted and evade presenting the owl. Hārūn al-Rashīd asked who had caught it and they said: ‘Abū Isḥāq al-Muʿtaṣim’. Yet he regarded it as a good omen. He demonstrated his delight and rejoiced, saying: ‘One day he will be the caliph. His army, his commanders and supporters will be people whose faces resemble the look of this owl. He will rebuild an ancient city and settle the place with them’”.²¹

The recruitment...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Prologue
• Part I Overview
• Part II Translated sources
• Bibliography
• Index