In this paper, an intelligent sliding-mode position controller (ISMC) for achieving favorable decoupling control and high precision position tracking performance of permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) servo drives is proposed. The intelligent position controller consists of a sliding-mode position controller (SMC) in the position feed-back loop in addition to an on-line trained fuzzy-neural-network model-following controller (FNNMFC) in the feedforward loop. The intelligent position controller combines the merits of the SMC with robust characteristics and the FNNMFC with on-line learning ability for periodic command tracking of a PMSM servo drive. The theoretical analyses of the sliding-mode position controller are described with a second order switching surface (PID) which is insensitive to parameter uncertainties and external load disturbances. To realize high dynamic performance in disturbance rejection and tracking characteristics, an on-line trained FNNMFC is proposed. The connective weights and membership functions of the FNNMFC are trained on-line according to the model-following error between the outputs of the reference model and the PMSM servo drive system. The FNNMFC generates an adaptive control signal which is added to the SMC output to attain robust model-following characteristics under different operating conditions regardless of parameter uncertainties and load disturbances. A computer simulation is developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent sliding mode position controller. The results confirm that the proposed ISMC grants robust performance and precise response to the reference model regardless of load disturbances and PMSM parameter uncertainties.