posted                         

quote:

---

In this article, I revisit some aspects of the organization of the Fatimid army, and more specifijically to the role played by its black contingents, who are still often considered the most faithful supporters of the dynasty. Wherever they came from and regardless of their social and legal status, black soldiers, whose Egyptian-ness was indisputable, were major players in the history of the Fatimid Caliphate. Medieval authors, who sometimes conveyed negative representations linked with racial bias, and who are not necessarily accurate in dealing with other races, even acknowledged this role. Originating in Ifrīqiyya, the Fatimids conquered Egypt at the end of the tenth century CE. They established a Shi’i caliphate that disappeared in the last quarter of the twelfth century. The Fatimid caliphs adopted a policy of expansion. This expansion was ideological, led by the Ismaili Daʿwa, especially in Yemen and the Persian Gulf. It was also economic: the Fatimid state, which was largely based on trade, created an extensive road and maritime network for economic purposes. Finally, it was a political and military one, as the Fatimid caliphs extended their influence to southern Syria and Arabia.

---

quote:

---

Latin chroniclers provide many details about these expeditions. In general, they stress the strength of “Ethiopian” troops of the Fatimids. For instance, Baldric of Bourgueil, who wrote the Historia Ierosolimitana around 1105–1107 CE, provides a description of the battle of Ascalon. He adds some details to the anonymous Gesta Francorum upon which he based his account. In particular, he refers to Ethiopian bowmen, who stood on one knee and had been ordered to lie still for the fight, without fleeing nor moving forward. As such, they were “much down[ed] by the sword of the Christians . . . as the harvest is mowing.” Albert of Aix, who wrote the first part of his Historia in the first years of the twelfth century, also outlines the role played by Ethiopian troops in the battle of Ascalon.

---

quote:

---

In any case, these “Ethiopians” sometimes even represent for Latin authors a “synecdoche for the whole of Egyptian troops.” But they focused on them although the Fatimid army included other corps. Indeed, the Fatimid army was a multiethnic one, including Berbers, blacks, Arabs, Turks, Daylamis, Kurdish, and Armenians. It is traditionally divided by scholars into three categories: al-Mašāriqa, “the Easterners”; al-Maġāriba, the “Westerners”; al-Sūdān. As William Hamblin demonstrated more than forty years ago, “each of three divisions could potentially contain a number of different cultural, linguistic and religious groups,” and “the actual numbers, sources and relative proportion of the soldiers in each of these groups varied greatly throughout the history of the Fatimid dynasty.” For instance, the Maġāriba gradually disappeared whereas the Armenians became increasingly important among the Easterners at the end of the eleventh century.

---

quote:

---

As for the Sūdān, the sources are unanimous: they were almost always the most
numerous group, and totaled not less than tens of thousands of men

---

quote:

---

It is also not so easy to know where black soldiers came from. A great number certainly came from Nubia. The texts are unambiguous on the continuous arrival of black slaves from Nubia, whether they were sent by Nubian kings or imported through the slave trade. The information is scarcer on other types of importation. However, one cannot shake off the impression that certain Sūdān came from western sub-Saharan Africa, even if the flow seem to have decreased starting in the eleventh century. A similar idea comes to mind regarding the Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia. As stated, however, nothing can be asserted without doubt given the inaccuracy of the sources.

---

Posts: 7083 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged |