Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Due to the nature of the Arab slave trade, it is impossible to precisely estimate actual numbers of slaves
traded.[4][5][6] European and American historians assert
that between the 8th and 19th century, 10 to 18 million A female Bantu slave in Mogadishu (18821883).
1
As recently as the 1950s, Saudi Arabia's slave population was estimated at 450,000 approximately 20% of
The Arab trade of Zanj (Bantu) slaves in Southeast Africa the population.[34] During the Second Sudanese Civil War
is one of the oldest slave trades, predating the Euro- people were taken into slavery; estimates of abductions
2.2
Europeans were enslaved in North Africa, from the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th, by
slave traders from Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli alone (these
numbers do not include the European people which were
enslaved by Morocco and by other raiders and traders
of the Mediterranean Sea coast),[44] and roughly 700
Americans were held captive in this region as slaves be[45]
The Arab slave trade in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, tween 1785 and 1815. 16th- and 17th-century customs
statistics suggest that Istanbuls additional slave import
and Mediterranean Sea long predated the arrival of
have totaled around 2.5 million
any signicant number of Europeans on the African from the Black Sea may
from 1450 to 1700.[46] The markets declined after the
[29][39]
continent.
loss of the Barbary Wars and nally ended in the 1830s,
when the region was conquered by France.
3
Timbuktu. His principal work is called A Gift to
Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and
the Marvels of Travelling.
Ibn Khaldun (died in 1406), historian and philosopher from North Africa. Sometimes considered as
the historian of Arab, Berber and Persian societies.
He is the author of Muqaddimah orHistorical Prolegomena and History of the Berbers.
2.3
3.2
5
would like the money they earn to be counted toward their
emancipation, then this has to be written in the form of a
contract between the slave and the master. This is called
(mukataba) in Islamic jurisprudence. Muslims
believe that slave owners are strongly encouraged to perform mukataba with their slaves as directed by the Quran:
...And if any of your slaves ask for a deed in
writing (to enable them to earn their freedom
for a certain sum), give them such a deed if ye
know any good in them: yea, give them something yourselves out of the means which Allah
has given to you. ...|Quran, sura 24 (An-Nur),
ayah 33[47]
The framework of Islamic civilization was a welldeveloped network of towns and oasis trading centers
with the market (souq, bazaar) at its heart. These towns
were inter-connected by a system of roads crossing semiarid regions or deserts. The routes were traveled by convoys, and slaves formed part of this caravan trac.
In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade, where the malefemale ratio was 2:1 or 3:1, the Arab slave trade instead usually had a higher female-to-male ratio. This suggests a general preference for female slaves. Concubinage
The Slave Market (c. 1884), painting by Jean-Lon Grme.
and reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves (often Caucasian), though many were also imconquered the Sassanid Persian Empire and many ter- ported mainly for performing household tasks.[48]
ritories from the Byzantine Empire, including the Levant, Armenia and North Africa. The Muslims invaded
the Iberian peninsula, where they displaced the Visigothic 3.2 Arab views on African people
Kingdom. These regions therefore had a diverse range of
dierent peoples and were, to some extent, unied by an In the Hadith, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and
Islamic culture built on religious, political and legal foun- the overwhelming majority of Islamic jurists and
dations. For example, they used the Arabic language and theologians, all stated that humankind has a single orithe dinar (currency) in commercial transactions. Mecca gin and rejected the idea of certain ethnic groups being
in Arabia, then as now, was the holy city of Islam and superior to others.[1]
the center of pilgrimages for all Muslims, whatever their Despite this, some ethnic prejudices later developed
origins.
among Arabs for at least two reasons: 1) their extenThe conquests of the Arab armies and the expansion of
the Islamic state that followed have always resulted in
the capture of war prisoners who were subsequently set
free or turned into slaves or Raqeeq ( )and servants
rather than taken as prisoners as was the Islamic tradition in wars. Once taken as slaves, they had to be dealt
with in accordance with the Islamic law which was the
law of the Islamic state, especially during the Umayyad
and Abbasid eras. According to that law, slaves were allowed to earn their living if they opted for that, otherwise
it is the owners (master) duty to provide for that. They
also could not be forced to earn money for their masters
unless with an agreement between the slave and the master. This concept is called
(mukhrajah) (Lane:
And He made an agreement with him, namely, his
slave that he (the latter) should pay him a certain impost
at the expiration of every month; the slave being left at
liberty to work: in which case the slave is termed
)"in Islamic law. If slaves agree to that and they
By the 14th century, an overwhelming number of slaves In the 8th century, Africa was dominated by Arabcame from sub-Saharan Africa, leading to prejudice Berbers in the north: Islam moved southwards along the
against black people in the works of several Arabic histo- Nile and along the desert trails.
rians and geographers. For example, the Egyptian historian Al-Abshibi (13881446) wrote: It is said that when
The Sahara was thinly populated. Nevertheless,
the [black] slave is sated, he fornicates, when he is hunsince antiquity there had been cities living on a trade
gry, he steals.[53]
in salt, gold, slaves, cloth, and on agriculture enabled
by irrigation: Tiaret, Oualata, Sijilmasa, Zaouila,
and others.
In the Middle Ages, the general Arabic term bild
as-sdn (Land of the Blacks) was used for the
vast Sudan region (an expression denoting West and
Central Africa[56] ), or sometimes extending from
the coast of West Africa to Western Sudan.[57] ). It
provided a pool of manual labour for North and Saharan Africa. This region was dominated by certain
states and people: the Ghana Empire, the Empire
of Mali, the Kanem-Bornu Empire, the Fulani and
Hausa.
3.3
In April 1998, Elikia Mbokolo, wrote in Le Monde diplomatique. The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara,
through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and
across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for
the benet of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the
nineteenth). He continues: Four million slaves exported
via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili
ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to
twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean[55]
In eastern Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were controlled by local Muslims, and
Arabs were important as traders along the coasts.
Nubia had been a supply zone for slaves since antiquity. The Ethiopian coast, particularly the port of
Massawa and Dahlak Archipelago, had long been
a hub for the exportation of slaves from the interior, even in Aksumite times. The port and most
coastal areas were largely Muslim, and the port itself was home to a number of Arab and Indian
merchants.[58] The Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia
often exported Nilotic slaves from their western borderland provinces, or from newly conquered southern provinces.[59] The Somali and Afar Muslim
sultanates, such as the Adal Sultanate, also exported
Nilotic slaves that they captured from the interior,
as well as some vanquished foes.[60] Additionally,
Arabs set up slave-trading posts along the southeastern coast of the Indian Ocean; most notably in the
archipelago of Zanzibar, along the coast of presentday Tanzania. The Zanj region or Swahili Coast
4.2
Routes
anking the Indian Ocean continued to be an important area for the Oriental slave trade up until the
19th century. Livingstone and Stanley were then
the rst Europeans to penetrate to the interior of
the Congo Basin and to discover the scale of slavery there. The Arab Tippu Tip extended his inuence there and captured many people as slaves. After Europeans had settled in the Gulf of Guinea, the
trans-Saharan slave trade became less important. In
Zanzibar, slavery was abolished late, in 1897, under
Sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed.
4
4.1
7
Hayrettin Eendi, was freed in 1918. The slaves of
Slavic origin in Al-Andalus came from the Varangians
who had captured them. They were put in the caliph's
guard and gradually took up important posts in the army
(they became saqaliba), and even went to take back
taifas after the civil war had led to an implosion of the
Western Caliphate. Columns of slaves feeding the great
harems of Crdoba, Seville and Grenada were organised
by Jewish merchants (mercaderes) from Germanic countries and parts of Northern Europe not controlled by the
Carolingian Empire. These columns crossed the Rhone
valley to reach the lands to the south of the Pyrenees.
There are also historical evidence of North African Muslim slave raids all along the Mediterranean coasts across
Christian Europe and beyond to even as far north as the
British Isles and Iceland (see the book titled White Gold
by Giles Milton).[61] The majority of slaves traded across
the Mediterranean region were predominantly of European origin from the 7th to 15th centuries.[62] The Barbary pirates continued to capture slaves from Europe and,
to an extent, North America, from the 16th to 19th centuries.
Slaves were also brought into the Arab world via Central
Asia, mainly of Turkic or Tartar origin. Many of these
slaves later went on to serve in the armies forming an elite
rank.
At sea, Barbary pirates joined in this trac when
they could capture people by boarding ships or by
incursions into coastal areas, mainly in Southern Europe as well as other European coasts.
Nubia and Ethiopia were also exporting regions:
in the 15th century, Ethiopians sold slaves from
western borderland areas (usually just outside the
realm of the Emperor of Ethiopia) or Ennarea,[63]
which often ended up in India, where they worked
on ships or as soldiers. They eventually rebelled and
took power (dynasty of the Habshi Kings in Bengal
1487-1493).
The Sudan region and Saharan Africa formed another export area, but it is impossible to estimate
the scale, since there is a lack of sources with gures.
Photograph of a slave boy in Zanzibar. 'An Arab masters punishment for a slight oence. ' c. 1890.
Merchants of slaves for the Orient stocked up in Europe. Danish merchants had bases in the Volga region and dealt in Slavs with Arab merchants. Circassian
slaves were conspicuously present in the harems and there
were many odalisques (from the Turkish odalk, meaning "chambermaid") from that region in the paintings
of Orientalists. Non-Muslim slaves were valued in the
harems, for all roles (gate-keeper, servant, odalisque, musician, dancer, court dwarf, concubine). In the Ottoman
Empire, the last black slave sold in Ethiopia, named
4.2 Routes
Caravan trails, set up in the 9th century, went past the
oasis of the Sahara; travel was dicult and uncomfortable
for reasons of climate and distance. Since Roman times,
long convoys had transported slaves as well as all sorts of
products to be used for barter. To protect against attacks
from desert nomads, slaves were used as an escort. Any
who slowed down the progress of the caravan were killed.
Historians know less about the sea routes. From the evidence of illustrated documents, and travellers tales, it
seems that people travelled on dhows or jalbas, Arab
ships which were used as transport in the Red Sea. Crossing the Indian Ocean required better organisation and
more resources than overland transport. Ships coming
from Zanzibar made stops on Socotra or at Aden before
heading to the Persian Gulf or to India. Slaves were sold
as far away as India, or even China: there was a colony
of Arab merchants in Canton. Serge Bil cites a 12thcentury text which tells us that most well-to-do families in
Canton had black slaves whom they regarded as savages
and demons because of their physical appearance. Although Chinese slave traders bought slaves (Seng Chi i.e.
the Zanj [64] ) from Arab intermediaries and stocked up
directly in coastal areas of present-day Somalia, the local
Somalisreferred to as Baribah and Barbaroi (Berbers)
by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively (see Periplus of the Erythraean Sea),[30][65][66]
and no strangers to capturing, owning and trading slaves
themselves[67] were not among them:[68]
One important commodity being transported by the Arab dhows to Somalia was
slaves from other parts of East Africa. During
the nineteenth century, the East African slave
trade grew enormously due to demands by
Arabs, Portuguese, and French. Slave traders
and raiders moved throughout eastern and
central Africa to meet the rising demand for
enslaved men, women, and children. Somalia
did not supply slaves -- as part of the Islamic
world Somalis were at least nominally protected by the religious tenet that free Muslims
cannot be enslaved -- but Arab dhows loaded
with human cargo continually visited Somali
ports.
Catherine Lowe Besteman, Unraveling
Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of
Slavery[69]
4.3 Barter
4.5
9
ket by their purchasers; indeed there is every
reasons to believe that the slave-dealers almost
universally force the young girls to submit to
their lust previous to their being disposed of.
From such scenes one turns away with pity and
indignation.[70]
5 A recent topic
The history of the slave trade has given rise to numerous
debates amongst historians. For one thing, specialists are
undecided on the number of Africans taken from their
homes; this is dicult to resolve because of a lack of reliable statistics: there was no census system in medieval
Africa. Archival material for the transatlantic trade in the
16th to 18th centuries may seem useful as a source, yet
these record books were often falsied. Historians have
to use imprecise narrative documents to make estimates
13th-century slave market in Yemen
which must be treated with caution: Luiz Felipe de Alencastro states that there were 8 million slaves taken from
the British research ship Ternate, visited such a market Africa between the 8th and 19th centuries along the Oriental and the Trans-Saharan routes.[71]
in Zanzibar in 1811 and gave a detailed description:
'The show' commences about four o'clock
in the afternoon. The slaves, set o to the
best advantage by having their skins cleaned
and burnished with cocoa-nut oil, their faces
painted with red and white stripes and the
hands, noses, ears and feet ornamented with
a profusion of bracelets of gold and silver and
jewels, are ranged in a line, commencing with
the youngest, and increasing to the rear according to their size and age. At the head of this le,
which is composed of all sexes and ages from 6
to 60, walks the person who owns them; behind
and at each side, two or three of his domestic
slaves, armed with swords and spears, serve as
guard.
Thus ordered the procession begins, and
passes through the market-place and the principle streets... when any of them strikes a spectators fancy the line immediately stops, and
a process of examination ensues, which, for
minuteness, is unequalled in any cattle market
in Europe. The intending purchaser having ascertained there is no defect in the faculties of
speech, hearing, etc., that there is no disease
present, next proceeds to examine the person;
the mouth and the teeth are rst inspected and
afterwards every part of the body in succession, not even excepting the breasts, etc., of
the girls, many of whom I have seen handled
in the most indecent manner in the public mar-
6 See also
Slavery in antiquity
Christian views on slavery
Judaism and slavery
Black orientalism
Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies
Slavery in Spain
Slavery in the United States
Slavery in the British and French Caribbean
7 References
This article was initially translated from the featured French wiki article "Traite musulmane" on
19 May 2006.
10
REFERENCES
[20] Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World, New Amsterdam Press, New York, 1989. Originally published in
French by Editions Robert Laont, S.A. Paris, 1987, page
28.
[43] Dr Susan
11
[54] Translation and the Colonial Imaginary: Ibn Khaldun Orientalist, by Abdelmajid Hannoum 2003 Wesleyan University.
8 Further reading
Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, trans. F. Rosenthal, ed. N. J. Dawood (Princeton 1967)
12
External links
Arab Slave Trade
BBC - History - British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
BBC - Islam and Slavery
Encyclopdia Britannica's Guide to Black History
iAbolish.ORG! American Anti-Slavery Group
(AASG) - particular focus on North African slaves
Digital History/Slavery Facts & Myths Mintz, S.
EXTERNAL LINKS
13
10
10.1
10.2
Images
File:African_slave_trade.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/African_slave_trade.png License: CC BYSA 3.0 Contributors: File:Traite_musulmane_medievale.svg Original artist: Runehelmet derived from Aliesin
File:Ambox_important.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)
File:Ambox_rewrite.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Ambox_rewrite.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: self-made in Inkscape Original artist: penubag
File:Arabslavers.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Arabslavers.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Image accessible here: http://uk.encarta.msn.com/media_461543653_761572628_-1_1/Arab_Slave_Traders.html
Original artist: Uploaded by DavidYork71 at en.wikipedia
File:Boutre_indien.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Boutre_indien.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: http://www.marine-marchande.net/ Original artist: Herv Cozanet
File:Captain_walter_croker_horror_stricken_at_algiers_1815.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/
Captain_walter_croker_horror_stricken_at_algiers_1815.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.archive.org/details/
crueltiesofalger00crokuoft Original artist: Walker Croker
File:Different_cowries.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Different_cowries.jpg License: CC BY 2.5
Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Egyptian_Slavemaster_and_Slave.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Egyptian_Slavemaster_and_Slave.
jpg License: PD-US Contributors:
Original publication: UK
Immediate source: http://thecivilisingmission.com/2010/08/27/the-arab-slave-trade-in-east-africa/ Original artist:
Unknown
(Life time: 1900s)
File:Geromeslavemarket.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Geromeslavemarket.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: http://www.orientalist-art.org.uk/gerome13.html Original artist: Jean-Lon Grme
14
10
10.3
Content license