SOURCE: "The Regiments of the Imperial Army: Notes on Al-Jahiz's Epistle to Al-Fath B. Khaqan," in The Shaping of Abbasid Rule, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 116-38.

In the following essay, Lassner discusses al-Jahiz's On the Virtues (Manaqib) of the Turk and what it reveals about early 'Abbasid armies.

Al-Ma'mun, al Mu'tasim, and an officer whose name is not mentioned, disagreed as to the bravest among the officers [quwwad], troops [jund], and clients [mawali]. Al-Ma'mun maintained that there were none braver than the non-Arabs among the people of Khurasan [ajam ahl Khurasan, that is, the Transoxanians who brought him to power]. Al-Mu'tasim, in turn, favored the Turks [that were the backbone of his support], but the officers held out for the abna '. They were the ones that shackled the Turks [that is, lead them to Islam], just as their forefathers led the ['Abbasid] revolution [dawlah]. They fought the...