- Published: August 24, 2022
- Updated: August 24, 2022
- University / College: University of Wollongong
- Language: English
- Downloads: 1
Islamicslavery began long before the Atlantic slave trade, and its purposeswere largely different. Although some slaves were put to work in thefields, they were more valued as items of conspicuous consumption. The Muslim elite wanted them as guards and soldiers, as concubines, cooks and musicians, simply to show how rich they were.
Someslaves in Islam reached high ranking positions in the army. Forexample, a Turkish slave led an army that defeated a Mongol invasionof Egypt in 1260. An Ethiopian slave became a governor of a province. Many of these male slaves werecastrated, otherwise known as eunuchs. The eunuchs were used to guardfemale dormitories and private rooms. Many were governors andgenerals. One black eunuch was chief administrator of Mecca andMedina.
(Hochschild, 2004). DuringRoman times, slaves came from internal sources, the slave populationwas occasionally recruited from the outside when new territory wasconquered. This was not possible in the Islamic empire becauseenslavement of their own people was banned. The result was a massiveimportation of slaves from the outside.(Lewis, 1990). The slave population ofthe Islamic world was recruited from various nations includingCentral and Eastern Europe where slaves there were generally known as’Slavs’. These white slaves were brought to the Crimean Peninsula, located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson and west of theRussian region of Kuban, and, then shipped to slave markets inIstanbul and other Turkish cities.
This trade came to an end when theRussians attained Crimea in 1783. The Islamic empire, deprived ofmost of their white slaves, turned more to Africa, which through the19th century came to provide the majority of slaves used in Muslimcountries. (Lewis, 1992). Theenslavement of Africans for production was tried in Iraq but proved adisaster. It provoked results whichlasted for 14 years, up until 883, this ended the mass exploitationof black labour in the Arab world.
Not until the 19th century didslavery for production re-emerge in a Muslim country one black slaveswere used on plantations to produce goods that were exported towestern markets. (M`bokolo, 1998). From1400 to 1600, The geographical areaalong the southern borders of the Sahara Desert, the red Sea shores, and the East African coast, were most important for the dominantIslamic influence. In sub-Saharan Africa slaves were often used inproduction more so than they were in north Africa and the MiddleEast. (Lovejoy, 2012). Fromthe late 1840s onwards, steps were taken by a number of consecutiveBritish governments to persuade the central government of the Turkishempire, to impose restrictive measures on the slave trade to theArabic empire.
Action by the Turks was not taken for over a decade, into the mid 1850s. A Royal mandate was issued in 1857 whichprohibited the slave trade of Africans throughout the Arabic empire, except in most of the western part of modern-day Saudi Arabia. In1890 the Turkish government joined with other European andnon-European powers in signing the Brussels act against the Africanslave trade. (Toledano, 1982).