Ghilman

Ghilman (singular Arabic: غُلاَم‎ ghulām ,[note 1] plural غِلْمَان ghilmān )[note 2] were slave-soldiers and/or mercenaries in the armies of the Abbasid, Samanid, Ottoman, Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires.

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Slavery

The Quran mentions ghilman (غِلْمَان) as serving boys who are one of the delights of Jannah or paradise/heaven of Islam, in verse 52:24. (Verse 56:17 is also thought to refer to ghilman.) [1][2]

History

The ghilman were slave-soldiers taken as prisoners of war from conquered regions or frontier zones, especially from among the Turkic people of Central Asia and the Caucasian peoples (Turkish: Kölemen). They fought in bands, and demanded high pay for their services.[3]

Ghilman were introduced to the Abbasid Caliphate during the reign of al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842), who showed them great favor and relied upon them for his personal guard. Accounts cite that their numbers increased in the caliphal household as Mu-tasim tried to address the court factionalism.[4] These slave-soldiers were opposed by the native Arab population, and riots against them in Baghdad in 836 forced Mu'tasim to relocate his capital to Samarra.

The use of ghilman reached its maturity under al-Mu'tadid and their training was conceived and inspired through the noble furusiyya.[5] From a slave, a ghulam attained his freedom after completing the formative training period and joined the elite corps as a mounted warrior.[5] The ghilman rose rapidly in power and influence, and under the weak rulers that followed Mu'tasim, they became king-makers: they revolted several times during the so-called "Anarchy at Samarra" in the 860s and killed four caliphs. Eventually, starting with Ahmad ibn Tulun in Egypt, some of them became autonomous rulers and established dynasties of their own, leading to the dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate by the mid-10th century.

A ghulam was trained and educated at his master's expense and could earn his freedom through his dedicated service. Ghilman were required to marry Turkic slave-women, who were chosen for them by their masters.[6] Some ghilman seem to have lived celibate lives. The absence of family life and offspring was possibly one of the reasons why ghilman, even when attaining power, generally failed to start dynasties or proclaim their independence. The only exception to this was the Ghaznavid dynasty of Afghanistan.

The Ottomans and various Iranian dynasties (Safavid, Afsharid, Qajar) drew its peoples generally from the Balkans and the Caucasus.[7]

Heaven

The Quran mentions ghilman in verse 52:24: "There will circulate among them ghilman for them, as if they were pearls well-protected." Ghilman are traditionally described as servant boys provided especially for believers in heaven. In verse 56:17: "There will circulate among them [the faithful in heaven] young boys made eternal" -- "them" refer to the faithful in heaven and "young boys made eternal" to ghilman.[1][2] Descriptions of the ghilman by tenth and sixteenth-century theologians were focused on their beauty. Their commentaries also hold that the extratemporal parameters of the Paradise, which the young servants inhabit, are also extended to them so that they do not age or die.[8]

Some have suggested that just as wine is forbidden to Muslims on earth but allowed in heaven, so to prohibitions on homosexuality might not apply in heaven where there is no need for procreation, and that the ghilman might be the male equivalent of the famously beautiful female houris that the faithful marry in heaven.[2] Others scholars have vehemently denounced this idea and stated that the verse "says that they [the youth] will serve the inhabitants of Paradise, and will go around taking food and drink to them, and no more than that."[9]

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See also

References

Notes
  1. Other standardized transliterations: ġulām / ḡulām . IPA: [ʁʊˈlæːm, ɣoˈlæːm].
  2. Other standardized transliterations: ġilmān / ḡilmān . IPA: [ʁɪlˈmæːn, ɣelˈmæːn].

Citations
  1. El-Rouayheb, Khaled (2005). Before Homosexuality in the Arab‐Islamic World, 1500–1800. University of Chicago Press. pp. 131–136.
  2. Afary, Janet. "The Quran and Homosexuality in the Muslim World". Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  3. "Ghulam - Oxford Islamic Studies Online". Oxfordislamicstudies.com. 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
  4. Shome, Ayan (2014). Dialogue & Daggers: Notion of Authority and Legitimacy in the Early Delhi Sultanate (1192 C.E. – 1316 C.E.). Quills Ink Pvt Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 978-93-84318-44-4.
  5. Coetzee, Daniel; Eysturlid, Lee W. (2013). Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers [2 Volumes]: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9780275989774.
  6. "Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set - Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Linda Gale Jones - Google Books". Books.google.com. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
  7. "BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran". Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  8. Günther, Sebastian; Lawson, Todd (2016). Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam (2 vols): Volume 1: Foundations and the Formation of a Tradition. Reflections on the Hereafter in the Quran and Islamic Religious Thought / Volume 2: Continuity and Change. The Plurality of Eschatological Representations in the Islamicate World Thought (SET). Leiden: BRILL. p. 301. ISBN 978-90-04-33095-5.
  9. "174691. Refuting the fabrication of the liars who say that the immortal youths (in Paradise) are created for homosexuals!". Islam Question and Answer. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
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