Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry (28 page)

7. Gal 3:28; cf. similar statements in 1 Cor 12:13 and Col 3:11, "Where there is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond
nor free, but Christ is all, and in all."

8. E.g., Luke 12:37-38, 17:7-9, 19:13-22, 20:10-12; Mark 12:2-5, etc. By using
"servant" to render the Greek doulos, "slave," the English (and other European)
translators of the Bible sub-edited slavery out of Christianity. For the Hebrew 'ehhed
in the Old Testament, the English translators use "slave," "bondsman," and sometimes
"servant." The Vulgate, correctly, translates both doulos and 'ebhed as servus.

9. For other acceptances of slavery, see 1 Cor 7:21-23 and Col 3:21; G. E. M. de
Ste. Croix, "Early Christian attitudes to property and slavery," in Church, Society, and
Politics, ed. Derek Baker (Oxford, 1975), pp. 15-16; Westermann. Slave Systems, pp.
128-29,149-62.

10. Piero A. Milani, La schiavitu net pensiero politico dai Greci al basso medio evo
(Milan, 1972), pp. 147ff., 161ff., and, on the Roman Stoics, pp. 204ff.; Westermann,
Slave Systems, pp. 109-17.

11. Philo Judaeus, Quod omnis prohus, 79; cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews,
18, 21: "Essenes ... do not own slaves.... They believe it contributes to injustice";
Davis, Problem of Slavery, pp. 81-82; Westermann, Slave Systems, p. 117. For other
examples, see Robert Schlaifer, "Greek theories of slavery from Homer to Aristotle,"
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 10, no. 7 (1936), pp. 127-29 (reprinted in
Finley, Slavery, pp. 199-201); Milani, La schiavitu, pp. 145ff.

12. Aristotle, Politics 1254b20.

13. Milani, La schiavitu, pp. 68ff.; Pierre Vidal-Naquet, "Reflexions sur l'historio-
graphie grecque de l'esclavage," in Travail et esclavage en Grece ancienne, by JeanPierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet (Paris, 1985).

14. Significantly, even in the Middle Ages. Jewish legal texts dealing with slavery refer to the non-Jewish slave as a Canaanite, e.g., Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, section on slaves. On the curse of Ham, see below, chap. 8, n. 9, pp. 123-25.

15. See W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford, 1965), pp. 293-96,
344. On the Banu Qurayza, of whom the men were beheaded and the women and
children sold into slavery, see Encyclopedia of Islam, 2d ed.-hereafter E12-s.v.
"Kurayza" (by W. Montgomery Watt) and sources cited there.

16. Slavery in the Islamic world still awaits a comprehensive study. In the meantime, the best short accounts are those of R. Brunschvig, s.v. "'Abd" in EI', and of
Hans Muller, "Sklaven" in Handbuch der Orientalistik, ed. B. Spuler, pt. 1, Der Nahe
and der Mittlere Osten, vol. 6, Geschichte der Islamischen Lander, sec. 6, Wirtschafts-
geschichte des Vorderen Orients in Islamischer Zeit, pt. 1 (Leiden and Cologne, 1977),
pp. 54-83; also, by the same author, a brief general introduction to the subject, "Zur
Erforschung des islamischen Sklavenwesens," in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, suppl. 1, vol. 2, Deutsche Orientalistentag, Wurzburg 1968
(Wiesbaden, 1969), pp. 611-22. A selection of translated documents relating to slavery will be found in Bernard Lewis, Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture
of Constantinople, vol. 2, Religion and Society (New York, 1974), pp. 236-56. See also
A. Mez, Die Renaissance des Islams (Heidelberg, 1922), pp. 152ff. (The Renaissance of
Islam, trans. S. Khuda-Bukhsh and D. S. Margoliouth [London, 1937j, pp. 156 ff.);
Franz Rosenthal, The Muslim Concept of Freedom Prior to the Nineteenth Century
(Leiden, 1960), pp. 29-34; D. I. Nadiradze, "Vopros o rabstve v khalifate VII-VIII
vekov," Narodi Azii i Afriki 5 (1968), pp. 75-85; 1. P. Petrushevsky, Islam in Iran,
trans. Hubert Evans (Albany, NY, 1985), pp. 154-59; idem, "K istorii rabstva v
khalifate VII-X vekov," Narodi Azii i Afriki 3 (1971), pp. 60-71; Walid `Arafat, "The
attitude of Islam to slavery," Islamic Quarterly 10 (1966), pp. 12-18. The laws concerning slavery are treated in most, though not all, standard works on Islamic law, usually
not as a separate heading but as part of the discussion of the various topics of personal,
commercial, and criminal law. For useful presentations, see David Santillana, Istituzioni di diritto musulmano malichita, con riguardo anche al sistema sciafiita, vol. 1
(Rome, 1926), pp. 111-26, where the major Arabic treatises are cited; Th. W.
Juynboll, Handbuch des islamischen Gesetzes nach der Lehre der Schafi'itischen Schule
(Leiden and Leipzig, 1910), pp. 202-8. An earlier German dissertation deals specifically with the laws on slavery: Kurt E. Weckwarth, Der Sklave im Muhammedanischen
Recht (Berlin, 1909), mainly on the basis of translated Ottoman evidence and without
reference to Arabic sources. A new study, which comes to hand as this book goes to
press, is Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World (New York, 1989). While devoting
some attention to earlier history, it is mainly concerned with modern and recent times.

17. Santillana, Istituzioni, vol. 1, p. 111, citing Malik ibn Anas: "Every Muslim is
the equal of every other Muslim" (Al-Mudawwana al-Kubra, vol. 4 [Cairo, 1323/1905],
pp. 13-14; Muwatta', vol. 3 [Cairo, 1310/1892-931, pp. 57, 262).

18. For example in Ibn Sa'd's account of the Prophet's address to the Muslims at
the "Farewell Pilgrimage" (Kitab al-Tabagat al-Kabir, ed. E. Sachau, vol. 2 [Leiden,
1925], p. 133). For hadiths on slavery, see A. J. Wensinck et al., Concordance et indices
de la tradition musulmane, 8 vols. (Leiden, 1933-88), s.vv. Abd, Ghulam, etc. Among
the Greeks and Romans it was a common practice to address an adult male slave as
"boy" (Greek, pais; Latin, puer). There are many examples of this in papyri from
Egypt and in other sources, including the Greek Testament and the Latin Vulgate
translation. This has often been compared with the use of "boy" by colonial and
American slaveowners, and it was generally assumed that this appellation served the
same purpose of degrading and diminishing the adult slave. An Islamic tradition may suggest another explanation. According to a frequently cited /hadlth, the Prophet told
the Muslims not to address a slave or slave woman as "my slave" or "my slave
woman," but rather as "my young man" or "my young woman." The Arabic terms are
fata and fatal. In the context in which it is cited, the purpose of this instruction is very
clearly not to diminish, but rather to elevate, the status of the slave, by treating him or
her as a member of the owner's family. For another version, with numerous other
traditions and dicta urging kind treatment for slaves, see 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani,
Kitab Kashf al-Ghumma, vol. 2 (Cairo, 1370/1950), p. 154. Some jurists, especially
among the Shi'a, maintain that only Muslim slaves should be liberated; the majority of
Sunni authorities approved the manumission of all the "People of the Book," i.e.,
Christians and Jews (Petrushevsky, Islam in Iran, p. 158).

19. Santillana, Istituzioni, vol. I.

20. Mendelsohn, Slavery, p. 5; Westermann, Slave Systems, pp. 6, 30, 70, 84-86.
Free children could also be enslaved by kidnapping or by legal adoption.

21. On Muslim and Christian laws concerning prisoners of war, see Erwin Graf,
"Religiose and rechtliche Vorstellungen fiber Kriegsgefangene in Islam and Chris-
tentum," Die Welt des Islam, n.s., 8, no. 3 (1963), pp. 89-139. On exchanges of
prisoners with Byzantium, see Petrushevsky, "K istorii rabstva," p. 64. On the large
numbers of slaves acquired during the conquests. see ibid., pp. 62ff., relying especially
on Christian (Syriac, Armenian, etc.) historians, who understandably give more attention to the taking and disposal of slaves from among their co-religionists than do the
Muslim historians.

22. For examples of such deeds of manumission, from both medieval and Ottoman
times, see A. Grohmann, Arabic Papyri in the Egyptian Library, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1934),
pp. 61-64; idem, "Arabische Papyri aus den Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin," Der Islam
22 (1935), pp. 19-30; K. Jahn, Turkische Freilassungerklarungen des 18 Jahrhunderts
(1702-76) (Naples, 1963). On Ottoman usage, see further Alan Fisher, "Studies in
Ottoman slavery and slave trade, II: Manumission," Journal of Turkish Studies 4
(1980), pp. 49-56.

23. See Encyclopedia of Islam, 1st ed.-hereafter EI'-s.v. "Umm Walad" (by J.
Schacht).

24. See S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the
Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 1967-88), vol. 3, pp. 147-48; vol. 5, pp. 311, 321-12, 486-87. According to a
ruling by a ninth-century rabbi in Iraq, "If a Jew is caught in fornication with his slave
girl, she is taken from him and sold and the money distributed among the poor, and he is
flogged, his head is shaven, and he is shunned for thirty days" (Rabbi Natronay, cited in
Assaf, Be-ohale Ya agov, p. 230). Among Christians, committed by their faith to monogamy, the ban on concubinage was categorical, and enforced by the threat of excommunication (see, e.g., Mez, The Renaissance, p. 156). There are nevertheless reports of
cohabitation with slave women by delinquent members of both communities.

25. On the redemption of captives, see Eliezer Bashan, Shevi_va u Pedut ha-hevra
ha-vehudit he-artsot ha-yam ha-tikhon (Jerusalem. 1980). In the devastation of Polish
Jewry by the Cossacks and their Tatar allies in 1648. those who fell into Tatar hands
were enslaved and sent to Turkey, and most were redeemed. Those who fell into
Cossack hands were killed.

26. Baron, Social and Religious History, vol. 4, pp. 156, 187-96; Assaf, Be-ohale
Yaagov, pp. 224ff.

27. For an example, see Assaf, Be-ohale Ya agov, pp. 243-44.

28. Such, for example, were Johann Schiltberger (1396-1402), Georgius de Hun- garia (1475-80), Gian Maria Angiolello (1470-?1483), Bartholomeus Georgievitz (ca.
1548), and Albert Bobowski (ca. 1667). Some Europeans were even taken to Mecca,
as slaves of Muslim pilgrims. Such, for example, were the German Johann Wilden
(1604) and the Englishman Joseph Pitts (1680). For bibliographical details of those and
other works, see Carl Gollner, Turcica: Die europaischen Turkendrucke des XVI
Jahrhunderts (Bucharest and Berlin, 1961, 1968); Shirley Howard Weber, Voyages and
Travels in Greece, the Near East, and Adjacent Regions Made Previous to the Year 1801
(Princeton, NJ, 1953) s.vv. Among numerous accounts by Europeans who had been
slaves in North Africa, particular interest attaches to the memoirs of Maria ter
Meetelen, one of the few female slaves to have written a book about her adventures.
Originally published in Dutch in 1748, the book was translated into French by F. H.
Bousquet and G. W. Bousquet-Mirandelle, L'Annotation ponctuelle de la description
de voyage etonnante et de la captivite remarquable et triste durant douze ans de moi
Maria ter Meetelen et de l'heureuse delivrance d'icelle, et mon joyeux retour dans ma
chere patrie, le tout decrit selon la verite et mon experience personnelle. Institut des
Hautes-Etudes Marocaines, Notes et Documents, vol. 17 (Paris, 1956). Among several
modern accounts written from within the harem, see Melek Hanum (Mme. Kibrizli-
Mehemet Pasha), Thirty Years in the Harem, 2 vols (Berlin, 1872); Princess Musbah
Haidar, Arabesque, 2nd ed. (London, 1968).

29. For numerous examples, see Petrushevsky, "K istorii rabstva," pp. 62ff.

30. Text in al-Maqrizi, Kitab . . . al-Khitat, vol. 1 (Bulaq, 1270/1854), pp. 199-200
(= ibid., ed. G. Wiet, vol. 3 [Cairo, 1922-], pp. 290-92). English translation in Yusuf
Fadl Hasan, The Arabs and the Sudan from the Seventh to the Early Sixteenth Century
(Edinburgh, 1967), pp. 22-24. For critical historical discussions of the pact, see Martin
Hinds and Hamdi Sakkout, "A letter from the governor of Egypt to the king of Nubia
and Muqurra concerning Egyptian-Nubian relations in 141/758," in Studia Arabica et
Islamica: Festschrift for Ihsan 'Abbas on His Sixtieth Birthday (Beirut, 1981), pp. 20930; V. Christides, "Sudanese at the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt," Byzan-
tinische Zeitschrift 75 (1982), pp. 6-13. For a contemporary document, complaining
that among other breaches of the pact, the Nubians are sheltering runaways and are
not sending the Muslims young and healthy slaves but "that in which there is no
good-the one-eyed, or the lame, or the weak old man, or the young boy," see J.
Martin Plumley. "An eighth-century Arabic letter to the King of Nubia," Journal of
Egyptian Archeology 61 (1975), pp. 241-45.

31. See B. I. Beshir, "New light on Nubian Fatimid relations," Arabica 22 (1975),
pp. 15-24, where a number of Arabic sources are cited and examined. See, further,
Ugo Monneret de Villard, Storia della Nubia Cristiana (Rome, 1938), pp. 71-83. The
imposition of a levy of slaves, as part of a tax or tribute, is still recorded in earlynineteenth-century Egypt and even later in tropical Africa. See Gabriel Baer, "Slavery
in nineteenth century Egypt." Journal of African History 8 (1967), p. 420; Gustav
Nachtigal, Sahara and Sudan, trans. Allan G. B. Fisher and Humphrey J. Fisher, 4
vols. (London, 1971-87), index (Sahara and Sudan. Ergebnisse seehsjahriger Reisen in
Afrika, 3 vols. [Berlin-Leipzig, 1879-89; reprinted Graz, 19671).

32. For examples, see Tabari, Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muluk, ed. M. J. de Goeje et
al., vol. 2 (Leiden, 1879-1901), pp. 1238, 1245-46; Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan, ed.
M. J. de Goeje (Leiden, 1863), p. 421 (in English, The Origin of the Islamic State,
trans. Philip K. Hitti and Francis Murgotten, 2 vols. [New York, 1916-24]), Ta'rikh-i
Ststan, ed. Bahar (Tehran, 1314/1935), p. 82. According to this text, the rulers of the
eastern Iranian region of Sistan, in surrendering to the Arabs in 650 A.D., agreed to pay
to the caliph an annual tribute of one million silver dirhams, plus one thousand slave girls (wasifat), "each with a golden cup in her hand." The later Arabic historian Ibn al-
Athir (Kamil, ed. C. J. Tornberg, vol. 3 [Leiden, 1883], p. 50) doubles the numbers to
two million dirhams and two thousand slaves (wasif). Cf. C. E. Bosworth, Sistan under
the Arabs, from the Islamic Conquest to the Rise of the Saffarids (30-250/651-864)
(Rome, 1968), p. 17: Ya'qubi, Ta'rikh, ed. T. Houtsma, vol. 2 (Leiden, 1889), pp.
344ff. Another way of ensuring a supply of slaves is indicated in a passage in
Balidhuri, Futuh, p. 225 (cf. Hitti, pp. 353-54) according to which 'Amr ibn al-'As
told a group of Luwata Berbers: "You will sell your wives and children to pay poll-tax
for yourselves." See, further, Petrushevsky, "K istorii rabstva," pp. 65-66.