From Samarkand to Samarra: Turks in the Army of the Abbasid Caliphs (9th century CE)

This lecture will take place in person at ISAW.

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The caliph Harun al-Rashid, of Arabian Nights fame, divided the vast Islamic empire between his sons, which led immediately after his death to civil war. One of the sons, Ma'mun, based himself in Merv, in modern Turkmenistan, and sought the support of elite Sogdian and Turkish families of Central Asia and, with his brother, Mu'tasim, he recruited young Turkish soldiers into a private militia and, when he had defeated all his rivals, brought them back with him to form a key part of the caliphal army, housing them in a new purpose-built city in northern Iraq, Samarra. This talk will explore some of the questions and controversies surrounding the deployment of these Turkish troops and its consequences, drawing upon a contemporary literary work recently translated by the speaker, "The merits of the Turks and the composition of the caliphal army" by the celebrated Arabic writer al-Jahiz (d. 868).

Robert Hoyland is a professor of the late antique and early Islamic history of the Middle East at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU), having previously taught at Oxford and St Andrews in the UK. He is the author of several books on Middle East history and has carried out archaeological work across the region, including the Gulf, where he is currently excavating a monastery and a Sasanian-period settlement on an island off the coast of the Arab Emirates. His latest book is an edition, translation and study of the work of one of the most famous of all Arabic prose writers, al-Jahiz (d. 868), namely "The merits of the Turks and the composition of the caliphal army".

The reception following this lecture will celebrate Robert Hoyland's latest book, The Turks and the Caliphal Army (NYU Press, 2025).

Photo background: Great Mosque of Samarra, Iraq
Foreground: Wall painting of a rider, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

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