ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the civil wars which followed the death of Hārūn al-Rashīd in 193/809, there was a pressing need to recruit and maintain an effective army whose loyalty would be to the Caliphs alone. The army of the Khurāsāniya and Abnā’ which had supported the early ‘Abbasid Caliphate was broken and demoralised and its loyalty to the new regime was doubtful. The Caliphate had lost control of large areas, notably Syria, Palestine and Egypt and the mountainous districts of northern Iran. These needed to be reconquered if ‘Abbasid rule was to be made effective. In order to achieve this, al-Ma’mūn (198-218/813-33) and his successor al-Mu‘taṣim (218-27/833-42) looked to new groups 2 who, so to speak, brought no political baggage with them. The best known and most important of these were the Turks, but there were also important contingents from the Iranian principalities of Transoxania, notably Farghāna and Ushrūsanā and Arabs from the Ḥawf districts of Egypt. Al-Ma’mūn’s mother had come from Khurāsān and at the beginning of his struggle with his brother al-Amīn, most of his support had come from Khurāsān and Transoxania. It was probably the contacts he developed at this time which led al-Ma’mūn, and later his brother al-Mu‘taṣim, to look to these regions when recruiting new soldiers. The army of Baghdad, which had by and large supported his brother, was largely disbanded. However, it is possible that elements of the old Abnā’ were kept on in the groups known as the jund and the shākiriya, though the evidence for this is not clear. 3
