Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (21 page)

The hareem may consist, first, of a wife, or wives (to the number of four);
secondly, of female slaves, some of whom, namely, white and (as they are
commonly called) Abyssinian (but more properly Galla) slaves, are generally
concubines and others (the black slaves) kept merely for servile offices, as
cooking, waiting upon the ladies, &c; thirdly, of female free servants, who are,
in no case, concubines, or not legitimately so. The male dependents may
consist of white and of black slaves, and free servants; but are mostly of the
last-mentioned class. Very few of the Egyptians avail themselves of the licence,
which their religion allows them, of having four wives; and still smaller is the
number of those who have two or more wives, and concubines besides. Even
most of those men who have but one wife are content, for the sake of domestic
peace, if for no other reason, to remain without a concubine-slave: but some
prefer the possession of an Abyssinian slave to the more expensive maintenance of a wife; and keep a black slave-girl, or an Egyptian female servant, to
wait upon her, to clean and keep in order the apartments of the hareem, and to
cook....

The white female slaves are mostly in the possession of wealthy Turks. The
concubine-slaves in the houses of Egyptians of the higher and middle classes
are, generally, what are termed "Habasheeyehs," that is, Abyssinians, of a
deep brown or bronze complexion. In their features, as well as their complexions, they appear to be an intermediate race between the negroes and white
people: but the difference between them and either of the above-mentioned races is considerable. They themselves, however, think that they differ so little
from the white people that they cannot be persuaded to act as servants, with
due obedience, to their master's wives; and the black (or negro) slave-girl feels
exactly in the same manner towards the Abyssinian, but is perfectly willing to
serve the white ladies. . . . Most of them [the Abyssinians] are handsome. The
average price of one of these girls is from ten to fifteen pounds sterling, if
moderately handsome; but this is only about half the sum that used to be given
for one a few years ago. They are much esteemed by the voluptuaries of Egypt;
but are of delicate constitution: many of them die, in this country, from consumption. The price of a white slave-girl is usually from treble to tenfold that
of an Abyssinian; and the price of a black girl, about half or two-thirds, or
considerably more if well instructed in the art of cookery. The black slaves are
generally employed as menials.12

A similar distinction between true blacks and Abyssinians was noted by
several travelers in Arabia. The same point is made by Arnold Kemball,
British assistant resident in the Persian Gulf, in a report on the African slave
trade dated July 8, 1842. In the former group,

the Men are employed in all hard and out door work, the women in cooking,
bringing water, etc. and but very rarely as concubines except by the poorer and
lower classes.

As to the Abyssinians,

Slaves of both sexes are at all times much cared for well clothed and well fed.
The Males are early sent to school and having learnt to read and write are
employed in the performance of house duties . . . and very frequently if intelligent in the most trustworthy situations as supercargos of ships, stewards and
superintendents.

The Females are most generally retained as concubines or employed in the
lightest duties as attendants in Harems... .

Nubian and Hubshee [Abyssinian] Eunuchs are very high priced and only to
be seen in the Service of the King, Nobles and very rich Merchants.' 3

Eunuchs were in fact required in considerable numbers, in many countries, for households from the palace downward. They were also employed in
the service of mosques. By a custom established in the late Middle Ages which
continued into the twentieth century. the custodians of the tomb of the
Prophet in Medina were eunuchs, mostly black, recruited by purchase at an
early age and groomed for their sacred duties, which gave them an almost
priestly status."

In earlier times eunuchs had been recruited from both white and black
slaves, and the Ottoman palace establishment, for example, had included
separate corps of black and white eunuchs, each with its own chief. From the
sixteenth century onward, the white eunuchs in the palace declined both in
numbers and in influence. The black eunuchs increased correspondingly, and their chief, known as the Kizlar Agast, the "Aga of the Girls," was one of the
most powerful figures at the Ottoman court. The corps of eunuchs was virtually the only route by which a black could attain to high office.15

Most eunuchs, of course, remained in humble employment.16 By the nineteenth century they were recruited overwhelmingly from Africa. According to
Louis Frank, writing in 1802, between one and two hundred African boys were
castrated every year at Abu Tig in Upper Egypt, on the slave caravan route
from the Sudan to Cairo. The victims were usually boys between eight and ten
years old-never older. A eunuch, he notes, could be sold at double the price of
an ordinary Negro, "and it is this increase in price which determines the owners,
or rather usurpers, to have some of these wretches mutilated.""

Rather more detail is given by the Swiss Arabist J. L. Burckhardt, who
traveled extensively in Upper Egypt and the Sudan in 1813 and 1814. He
found two places where slaves were mutilated in this way. The less important
of the two was at a place west of Darfur, from which a few eunuchs went to
Egypt and the remainder were "sent as presents by the Negro sovereigns to
the great mosques at Mekka and Medina, by the way of Souakin." The main
center was at Zawiyat al-Dayr, a predominantly Coptic village near Asyut
(Siout) in Upper Egypt. Here, says Burckhardt, was

the great manufactory which supplies all European, and the greater part of
Asiatic Turkey with these guardians of female virtue.... The operators, during my stay in that part of the country, were two Coptic monks, who were said
to excel all their predecessors in dexterity, and who had a house in which the
victims were received. Their profession is held in contempt even by the vilest
Egyptians; but they are protected by the government, to which they pay an
annual tax; and the great profits which accrue to the owners of the slaves in
consequence of their undergoing this cruel operation, tempts them to consent
to an act which many of them in their hearts abhor. The operation itself,
however extraordinary it may appear, very seldom proves fatal. I know certainly, that of sixty boys upon whom it was performed in the autumn of 1813,
only two died; and every person whom I questioned on the subject in Siout,
assured me that even this was above the usual proportion, the deaths being
seldom more than two in a hundred. As the greater number undergo the
operation immediately after the arrival of the Darfour and Sennaar caravans
from Siout, I had no opportunity of witnessing it but it has been described to
me by several persons who have often seen it performed. The boys chosen are
between the age of eight and twelve years, for at a more advanced age, there is
a great risk of its proving fatal.

A youth on whom this operation has been successfully performed is
worth one thousand piastres at Siout; he had probably cost his master, a few
weeks before, about three hundred; and the Copt is paid from forty-five to
sixty for his operation. This enormous profit stifles every sentiment of mercy
which the traders might otherwise entertain. About one hundred and fifty
eunuchs are made annually. Two years ago, Mohammed Aly Pasha caused two
hundred young Darfour slaves to be mutilated, whom he sent as a present to
the Grand Signor. The custom of keeping eunuchs has greatly diminished in
Egypt, as well as in Syria. In the former country, except in the harems of the Pasha and his sons, I do not think that more than three hundred could be
found; and they are still more uncommon in Syria. In these countries there is
great danger in the display of wealth; and the individual who keeps so many
female slaves as to require an eunuch for their guardian, becomes a tempting
object to the rapacity of the government. White eunuchs are extremely rare in
the Turkish dominions.18

Later, castration was forbidden on Egyptian soil, and eunuchs were bought
ready-made from the Sudan.

Kemball's indication that African slaves were used for "hard and out door
work" as well as the more commonly cited domestic tasks is confirmed in
other sources and dates back to early times. Travel accounts-and more particularly consular reports-sent at the time of the British anti-slavery campaign, suggest the wide use of slave labor in agriculture and construction.'9 In
nineteenth-century Egypt, African slaves were imported for economic use,
chiefly agricultural. Slave gangs were employed in sugar plantations and on
irrigation works; the boom in Egyptian cotton during the American Civil War
enabled newly prosperous Egyptian farmers to spend "some of their profits in
the purchase of slaves to help them in the cultivation of their lands.""

Most of the known black slaves were domestic and lived as part of a
household. On the evidence of European travelers, they suffered terribly at
the hands and under the lash of slavers and slavedealers from capture until
final sale but were well treated by their urban masters.

The drying up of the sources of white slaves, while greatly increasing the
depredations of the slaveraiders in Africa, also brought some benefit to those
black slaves who survived their capture and transportation and reached their
destinations. In the absence of white slaves, black slaves were increasingly
given tasks and positions which were previously the preserve of whites, and
acquitted themselves to the satisfaction of their masters. In the course of the
nineteenth century, black slaves-and more frequently black freedmen-are
found occupying important positions and often exercising great power. This
occurs quite frequently in Arabia, much less frequently in other parts of the
Middle East and North Africa.

In the course of the nineteenth century the revulsion against slavery, which
gave rise to a strong abolitionist movement in England, and later in other
Western countries, began to affect the Islamic lands. What was involved was
not, initially, the abolition of the institution of slavery but its alleviation and in
particular the restriction and ultimately the elimination of the slave trade.
Islamic law, in contrast to the ancient and colonial systems, accords the slave a
certain legal status and assigns obligations as well as rights to the slaveowner.
The manumission of slaves, though recommended as a meritorious act, is not
required, and the institution of slavery not only is recognized but is elaborately regulated by Shari`a law. Perhaps for this very reason the position of the
domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in either
classical antiquity or the nineteenth-century Americas.

While, however, the life of the slave in Muslim society was no worse, and
in some ways was better, than that of the free poor, the processes of acquisition and transportation often imposed appalling hardships. It was these which
drew the main attention of European opponents of slavery, and it was to the
elimination of this traffic, particularly in Africa, that their main efforts were
directed.