Ghilman

Ghilman (singular Arabic: غُلاَم ghulām,[note 1] plural غِلْمَان ghilmān)[note 2] were slave-soldiers and/or mercenaries in armies throughout the Islamic world. Islamic states from the early 9th century to the early 19th century consistently deployed slaves as soldiers, a phenomenon that was very rare outside of the Islamic world.[1]

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.). [2][3]


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Daniel Pipes (1981). Slave Soldiers and Islam: The Genesis of a Military System. Daniel Pipes. pp. 35, 45. ISBN 0300024479.
  2. ^ El-Rouayheb, Khaled (2005). Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500–1800. University of Chicago Press. pp. 131–136.
  3. ^ Afary, Janet (9 April 2009). "The Quran and Homosexuality in the Muslim World". Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107394353. Retrieved 6 August 2020.