ghilman

Ghilman is a historical term used in Persianate and Arabic-speaking worlds to describe slave soldiers who formed an elite military corps. The word ghilman (plural of ghulam) derives from Arabic ghulam, meaning “young man” or “slave,” and in practice denotes a trained, Islamized soldier loyal to a ruler. Ghilman were typically purchased or captured, often of Turkic, Caucasian, or Persian origin, and raised in a royal military household.

In the Abbasid Caliphate and its successor states, as well as in the Buyid, Ghaznavid, and Seljuk polities, ghilman served as professional troops and administrators. They could be deployed in frontier defense, palace guard, or as field generals; some rose to high offices such as vizier or governor, influencing politics and dynastic succession.

The system persisted in various forms into the late medieval period and shaped later slave-soldier institutions, including the Mamluks of Egypt and other Islamic polities. The term appears in historical and literary sources to describe military households and their role in state-building, conquest, and diplomacy.

In modern scholarship, ghilman is treated as a distinct institution within Islamic military history, distinct from hereditary nobility and regular cavalry. See also ghulam, mamluk, janissaries, and slave soldiers.