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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
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky

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
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

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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

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