The Connection, part 2

The Mali Empire

The Famous City of....

Timbuktu: A part of the Mali Empire, flourished throughout the Middle Ages, place of education

Many merchants passed through here which meant the slaves did too. They started to decline as soon as the Portuguese showed up along the coast in the mid-15th century (coincidence? I think not). First they started selling slaves to the Portuguese, but before that they successfully fought off the Portuguese from coming onto the mainland of Africa.

The present country of Mali still allows people to own slaves....

THE MAMLUKS

 

-Slave Soldiers, came from other raids (many of them non-Muslim)

-These slave soldiers took power in the 13th century and ruled until the 16th century

-Were seen as some as the toughest soldiers

and now.....

THE OTTOMANS

 

 

-Janissaries are slave soldiers (non-Muslim)

-Had slaves up until the end of 19th century

-Many merchants brought in slaves from Africa

• Sex Slaves were Ciracassian and Nubians (mainly)
• Many of the other slaves came from central Africa

"Horrible Traffic in Circassian Women—Infanticide in Turkey,"New York Daily Times, August 6, 1856"

http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/311/

Mulatto's were very unpopular in Istanbul at this time which is why so much infantcide was taking place. There was also racism towards the African slaves versus the European slaves. One was seen as more desirable than the other. 

Slave Trade Routes

Notice how the slave trade routes lead North to Islamic Empires and Caliphates. These empires profited off of it, and was able to justify slavery with quotes from the Quran or the Hadith. Even merchants saw trade as something that was beneficial to these societies. Slaves were seen as more capable, but nonethless still slaves. The Mali, Mamluk, and Ottoman empires all had Islamic schools of thought that taught merchants, administrators, and soldiers that the enslavement of people was not just morally acceptable but needed. 

The Connection, part 1

Islam and its Connection to Slavery
    How the Islamic Caliphates and schools of thought encouraged the enslavement of people

          

Sura 33:50

This verse talks about the women being enslaved by soldiers in a time of war or during raids. The men are to keep them as wives or concubines. The women had no control over their body in this case. This verse was used in justfication of when this occurred in holy wars throughout Africa. Another religious verse comes from Sura 24:32. This also talks about the limits of the woman's freedoms. There were many other versus that talked about slavery and one of them was Sura 2:178.

"Retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered; the freeman for the freeman, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female"

A Hadith

Hadiths were stories or lessons that were passed down from Islamic Scholars in the 7th and 8th centuries. I found this translated translated on the University of Southern California's website. One of the stories talks about a man going into slavery for not paying an outstanding debt to someone (sounds a lot like indentured servitude).

<====== This guy is Ibn Battuta, one of my other primary sources. 

He was a merchant that kept a record of his travels throughout the 14th century. He described the importance of slave raids in the Kilwa Sultanate during the 14th century.

"The Sultan of Kilwa ... was called ["the generous"] ... on account of the multitude of his gifts and acts of generosity. He used to engage frequently in expeditions to the land of the Zinj people [in the villages inland from the coast], raiding them and taking booty, and he would set aside the fifth part of it to devote to the [religious "tax" required in the Koran]."

The Zinj people would be enslaved and sold for profit and this profit was given back to the religious tax required by Sharia at that time.