Islam and slavery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series of articles on Islam     History of Islam

Beliefs and practices

Oneness of God Profession of Faith Prayer • Fasting Charity • Pilgrimage

Major figures

Muhammad Companions of Muhammad Prophets of Islam

Texts & Laws

Qur'an • Sunnah • Hadith Fiqh • Sharia • Theology

Major branches

Sunni • Shi'a

Societal aspects

Academics • History Philosophy • Science Art • Architecture • Cities Calendar • Holidays • Women Leaders • Politics • Islamism

See also

Vocabulary of Islam This box: view • talk • edit

Islam and slavery, documents Islam's approach to slavery and the status of slaves within Islamic society. Islam, like Judaism, Christianity and other world religions, accepted and even endorsed the institution of slavery.^[1] Muhammad and those of his Companions who could afford it themselves owned slaves, and some of them acquired more by conquest. However, the Islamic dispensation enormously improved the position of the Arabian slave through the reforms of a humanitarian tendency both at the time of Muhammad and the later early caliphs.^[1] The legal legislations brought two major changes to the practice of slavery inherited from antiquity, from Rome, and from Byzantium, which were to have far-reaching effects. Bernard Lewis, a distinguished Islamic historian, considers these reforms to be the cause of the vast improvements in the practice of slavery in Muslim lands. The reforms also seriously limited the supply of new slaves.^[1]

The Qur'an considers emancipation of a slave to be a meritorious deed, or as a condition of repentance for certain sins. The Qur'an and Hadith contain numerous passages supporting this view. Muslim jurists considered slavery to be an exceptional circumstance, with the basic assumption of freedom until proven otherwise. Furthermore, as opposed to pre-Islamic slavery, enslavement was limited to two scenarios: capture in war, or birth to slave parents (birth to parents where one was free and the other not so would render the offspring free).^[2]

Slavery in Islam does not have racial or color component, although this ideal has not always been put into practice. Nevertheless, historically, black slaves could rise to important positions in Muslim nations.^[3][4] In early Islamic Arabia, Slaves were often African blacks from across the Red Sea, but by expansion of the Islamic empire in later times, slaves could be Berbers from North Africa, Slavs from Europe, Turks from Central Asia, or Circassians from the Caucasus. ^[5] The majority of slaves throughout the history of Arabia were, however, of African origin. The Arab slave trade was most active in eastern Africa, although by the end of the 19th century such activity had reached a significantly low ebb. It was in the early 20th century (post World War I) that slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France (although the extent to which it died out and/or flared up again is disputed).^[2]

Today, slavery continues in some Muslim nations, especially in Sudan and Mauritania, although there is mounting international pressure on these countries to abolish the institution.

Contents 1 Pre-Islamic slavery 2 Slavery in Islamic society 2.1 Slavery in Islamic jurisprudence 2.1.1 Treatment 2.1.2 Legal status 2.1.2.1 Mukatabat 3 Slavery in Islamic texts 3.1 Qur'an 3.2 Hadith 3.3 Treatment of the captive 4 History of Slavery in Muslim lands 4.1 Oriental slave trade 4.2 19th century and post 19th century 5 Slavery in modern times 5.1 Camel jockeys in Arab countries 5.2 Slavery in Sudan 5.3 Existence of slavery disputed 5.4 Propaganda and western demonization of Islam 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Pre-Islamic slavery

Slavery was widely practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia, as well as in the rest of ancient and early medieval world. The majority of slaves within Arabia were of Ethiopian origin, through whose sale merchants grew rich. The minority were white slaves of foreign race, likely brought in by Arab caravaneers (or the product of Bedouin captures) stretching back to biblical times. Native Arab slaves had also existed, a prime example being Zayd ibn Harithah, later to become Muhammad's adopted son. Arab slaves, however, usually attained as captives, were generally ransomed off amongst nomad tribes.^[2] The slave population was recruited by the abandonment, kidnapping or sale of small children. Free persons were also able to sell their offspring, or even themselves, into slavery. Enslavement was also possible due to legal offences of the law, as in the Roman Empire.^[6]

Two classes of slave were apparent: A purchased slave, and a slave born in the master's home— the latter over whom the master had complete rights of ownership, although was unlikely to be sold or disposed of by the master. Female slaves were at times prostituted for the benefit of their masters in accordance with Near Eastern customs, the practice of which is condemned in the Qur'an 24:33.^{[2][7] [8]}

[edit] Slavery in Islamic society

The Qur’an, like the Old and the New Testaments, assumes the existence of slavery, Bernard Lewis states.^[1] The Qur'an regulates the practice of the institution and thus implicitly accepts it. Lewis also notes that slavery was a feature of the ancient times and for example both the Old and New Testaments recognize and accept the institution of slavery. Lewis points out that the Islamic legislation "brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were to have far-reaching effects: "the presumption of freedom" and "the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly defined circumstances". ^[1] Muslim jurists defined slavery as an exceptional condition, with the general rule being a presumption of freedom (al-'asl huwa 'l-hurriya — "The basic principle is liberty") for a person if his origins were unknown. Furthermore, lawful enslavement was restricted to two instances: capture in war (on the condition that the prisoner is not a Muslim), or birth in slavery. Islamic law did not recognize the two classes of slave from pre-Islamic Arabia.^[2]

[edit] Slavery in Islamic jurisprudence

[edit] Treatment

Although slavery itself was not abolished by the Qur'an, Muslims were admonished to treat their slaves well: In the instance of illness, for example, it would be required for the slave to be looked after. Slave manumission (declaring the slave to be free) would be considered a meritorious act, although the slave would be eligible to ransom himself with the money he has earned while conducting his own business. Slave owners were encouraged to allow their slaves to earn their freedom, and to "give them some of God's wealth which He has given you" (24:33).^[8] Azizah Y. al-Hibri, a professor of Law specializing in Islamic jurispundence, states that both the Qur’an and Hadith are repeatedly exhorting Muslims to treat the slaves well and that Muhammad showed this both in action and in words.^[9] Al-Hibri supports her assertion by quoting a tradition from Ibn Hisham in which Muhammad made Bilal, an Ethiopian slave, to be a mu’ath.thin (a person who calls for prayers) of all Muslims, to envy of many Arabs. Al-Hibri also quotes the famous last speech of Muhammad and other hadiths emphasizing that all believers, whether free or enslaved, are siblings. ^[9] Lewis explains, "the humanitarian tendency of the Qur'an and the early caliphs in the Islamic empire, was to some extent counteracted by other influences,"^[1] notably the practice of various conquered people and countries Muslims encountered, especially in provinces previously under Roman law (even the Christianized form of slavery was still harsh in its treatment of slaves). In spite of this, Lewis also states, "Islamic practice still represented a vast improvement on that inherited from antiquity, from Rome, and from Byzantium."^[1]

[edit] Legal status

Within Islamic jurisprudence, slaves are able to occupy any office within the Islamic government, and instances of this in history include Eunuchs(castrated human male) having held military and administrative positions of note.^[10] They are also able to marry, own property, and lead the Muslim congregational prayers (the five daily ritual prayers).^[11] Annemarie Schimmel, a contemporary scholar on Islamic civilization, asserts that because the status of slave under Islam could only be obtained through either being a prisoner of war (this was soon restricted only to infidels captured in a holy war)^[1] or born from slave parents, slavery would be theoretically abolished with the expansion of Islam.^[10] Islam's reforms seriously limited the supply of new slaves, according to Lewis.^[1] In the early days of Islam, he notes, a plentiful supply of new slaves were brought due to rapid conquest and expansion. But as the frontiers were gradually stabilized, this supply dwindled to a mere trickle. The prisoners of later wars between Muslims and Christians were commonly ransomed or exchanged.^[1] Azizah Y. al-Hibri argues that the Qur'an recognized slavery as an undesirable socio-political condition and spelled out many ways for its elimination.^[12] Patrick Manning, a professor of World History, states that Islamic legislations against the abuse of the slaves convincingly limited the extent of slavery in Arabian peninsula and to a lesser degree for the whole area of the whole Umayyad Caliphate where slavery existed since the most ancient times. He however notes that with the passage of time and the extension of Islam, Islam by recognizing and codifying the slavery seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse. ^[13]

Theoretically, free-born Muslims could not be enslaved, and the only way that a non-Muslim could be enslaved was being captured in the course of holy war. ^[14] (In early Islam, neither a Muslim nor a Christian or Jew could be enslaved.^[15]) Slavery was also percieved as a means of converting non-Muslims to Islam: A task of the masters was Religious instructions. Although conversion and assimilation into the society of the master didn't automatically lead to emancipation but there was normally some guarantee of better treatment and was deemed a prerequisite for emancipation ^[16]

The property of the slave technically was owned by the master unless a contract of freedom of the slave had been entered into, which allowed the slave to earn money to purchase his freedom and similarly to pay bride wealth. The marriage of slaves required the consent of the owner. Under the Hanafi and Shafai schools of jurisprudence male slaves could marry two wives, but the Maliki permitted them to marry four wives like the free men. According to the Islamic law, a male slave could marry a free woman but this was discouraged in practice. ^[14] Islam permits intimate relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage referred to in the Qur'an as ma malakat aymanukum or "what your right hands possess"^[17][18]), although he may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife.^[2] Neither can he have relations with a female slave if she is co-owned, or already married. If the female slave has a child by her master, she then receives the title of "Umm Walad" (lit. Mother of a child), which is an improvement in her status as she can no longer be sold and is legally freed upon the death of her master. The child, by default, is born free due to the father (i.e. the master) being a free man. Although there is no limit on the number of concubines a master may possess, the general marital laws are to be observed, such as not having intimate relations with the sister of a female slave.^{[2] [16]} The concubines, under the Islamic law, had an intermediate position between slave and free.^[16] In Islam, "men are enjoined to marry free women in the first instance, but if they cannot afford the bridewealth for free women, they are told to marry slave women rather than engage in wrongful acts." ^[19] Another rationalization given for recognition of concubinage in Islam is that "it satisfied the sexual desire of the female slaves and thereby prevented the spread of immorality in the Muslim community." Concubinage was only allowed as a monogamous relation between the slave woman and her master ^[20], however, in reality in many Muslim societies, female slaves were prey for members of their owners' household, their neighbors, and their guests. ^[21]

In certain legal punishments, a slave would be entitled to half the penalty required upon a freeman. For example: where a free man would be subject to a hundred lashes due to pre-marital relations, a slave would be subject to only fifty. Other cases however, as with theft or apostasy, require the same punishment upon the slave as the free man, as long as the necessary conditions for such punishments are fulfilled.^[2]

[edit] Mukatabat

Mukatabat is a right given to slaves the right to make contract with their masters according to which they would be required to pay a certain sum of money in a specific time period, or would carry out a specific service for their masters; once they would successfully fulfill either of these two options, they would stand liberated. ^[22] And slaves are called mukatab when buying their own freedom.^[23] As stated in Qur'an:

This right of mukatabat was granted to slave-men and slave-women. Prior to this, various other directives were given at various stages to gradually reach this stage. These steps are summarized below:^[22]

1. In the very beginning of its revelation, the Qur'an regarded emancipation of slaves as a great virtue.^[24]
2. People were urged that until they free their slaves they should treat them with kindness.^[25][26]
3. In cases of unintentional murder, Zihar(see footnote for definition) ^[27], and other similar offences, liberating a slave was regarded as their atonement and charity.^[28]
4. It was directed to marry off slave-men and slave-women who were capable of marriage so that they could become equivalent in status, both morally and socially, to other members of society.^[29]
5. If some person were to marry a slave-woman of someone, great care was exercised since this could result in a clash between ownership and conjugal rights. However, such people were told that if they did not have the means to marry free-women, they could marry, with the permission of their masters, slave-women who were Muslims and were also kept chaste. In such marriages, they must pay their dowers so that this could bring them gradually equal in status to free-women.^[30]
6. In the heads of Zakat (Legal almsgiving, Islamic religious tax), a specific head (for freeing necks [emancipation of slaves]) was instituted so that the campaign of slave emancipation could receive impetus from the public treasury.^[31]
7. Fornication (sexual intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to each other) was regarded as an offence. Since prostitution centers around this offence, brothels that were operated by owners using their slave-women were shut down automatically, and if someone tried to go on secretly running this business, he was given exemplary punishment.^[32]
8. People were told that they were all slaves/servants of Allah and so instead of using the words عَبْد (slave-man) and اَمَة (slave-woman), the words used should be فَتَى (boy/man) and فَتَاة (girl/woman) so that the psyche about them should change and a change is brought about in these age-old concepts.^[33]
9. A major source of slaves within the institution of slavery at the advent of Islam were the prisoners of war. The Qur'an rooted this out by legislating that prisoners of war should be freed at all costs, either by accepting ransom or as a favour by not taking any ransom money. No other option was available to the Muslims.^[34][35]

[edit] Slavery in Islamic texts

[edit] Qur'an

[edit] Hadith

[edit] Treatment of the captive

[edit] History of Slavery in Muslim lands

[edit] Oriental slave trade

Main article: Oriental slave trade

The oriental slave trade is sometimes called Islamic slave trade, but religion was hardly the point of the slavery, Patrick Manning, a professor of World History, states. ^[38] Also, this term suggests comparison between Islamic slave trade and Christian slave trade. Furthermore, usage of the terms "Islamic trade" or "Islamic world" implicitly and erroneously treats Africa as it were outside of Islam, or a negligible portion of the Islamic world.^[38]

In the 8th century Africa was dominated by Arab-Berbers in the north: Islam moved southwards along the Nile and along the desert trails. The Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia often exported Nilotic slaves from their western borderland provinces, or from newly conquered or reconquered Muslim provinces. Native Muslim Ethiopian sultanates (rulership) exported slaves as well, such as the sometimes independent sultanate (rulership) of Adal (a sixteenth century province-cum-rulership located in East Africa north of Northwestern Somalia).^[39] On the coast of the Indian Ocean too, slave-trading posts were set up by Arabs and Persians. The archipelago of Zanzibar, along the coast of present-day Tanzania, is undoubtedly the most notorious example of these trading colonies. East Africa and the Indian Ocean continued as an important region for the Oriental slave trade up until the 19th century.^[2] Livingstone and Stanley were then the first Europeans to penetrate to the interior of the Congo basin and to discover the scale of slavery there.^[40] The Arab Tippu Tib extended his influence and made many people slaves.^[40] 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.^[41] The rest of Africa had no direct contact with Muslim slave-traders.

[edit] 19th century and post 19th century

Slavery in Muslim lands was influenced by the revolution against slavery in 19th century in England and later in other Western countries which gave rise to a strong abolitionist movement in Europe. Contrasting with ancient and colonial systems, slaves in Muslim lands had a certain legal status and had obligations to as well as rights over the slave owner. Slavery was not only recognized but was elaborately regulated by Sharia law. Although emancipation of slaves was recommended, it was not compulsory. Lewis eludicates that it was for this reason that "the position of the domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in either classical antiquity or the nineteenth-century Americas", and that the situation of such slaves were no worse than (and even in some cases better than) free poors^[42]. However, the processes of acquisition and transportation of slaves to Muslim lands often imposed appalling hardships, though "once the slaves were settled in Islamic culture they had genuine opportunities to realize their potential. Many of them became merchants in Mecca, Jedda, and elsewhere." The hardships of acquisition and transportation of slaves to Muslim lands drew attention of European opponents of slavery. The continuing pressure from European countries eventually overcame the strong resistance of religious conservatives who were holding that forbidding what God permits is just as great an offense as to permit what God forbids. Slavery, in their eyes, was "authorized and regulated by the holy law". There were also many pious Muslims who refused to have slaves and persuaded others to do so. ^[43] Eventually, the Ottoman empire's orders against the traffic of slaves were issued and put into effect. ^[42]

Slavery in the forms of carpetweavers, sugarcane cutters, camel jokeys, sex slaves, and even chattel exists even today in some Muslim and non-Muslim countries (Some have questioned the use of the term slavery as an accurate description ^[44]). ^[45] Chattel slavery in Mauritania and Sudan, Trokosi slavery ("a trokosi is a virgin girl who is dedicated (married) to a priest as a penance for a crime committed by a member of her family"), Child slavery in asia, Child trafficking in west and central africa are examples of slavery in twenty-first century.

[edit] Slavery in modern times

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

According to Robert Hughes (writing for Time Magazine), slavery in Africa has been dominated by Arabs. ""Slave markets, supplying the Arab emirates, were still operating in Djibouti in the 1950s; and since 1960, the slave trade has flourished in Mauritania and the Sudan. There are still reports of chattel slavery in northern Nigeria, Rwanda and Niger." [1]

And according to Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn, "The saddest and most painful reality of this situation is, that same slave trading is occurring today, still in the name of Islam. It is primarily happening in the countries of Mauritania, located in northwest Afrika, and Sudan, in northeast Afrika." [2]

According to the U.S. State Department:

Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging. Hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Kenya migrate voluntarily to Saudi Arabia; some fall into conditions of involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, the withholding of travel documents, restrictions on their freedom of movement and non-consensual contract alterations. The Government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.

[3]

According to multiple sources, religious calls have also been made to capture and enslave Jewish women. "It is hard to imagine a serious person calling for America to enslave its enemies. Yet a prominent Saudi cleric, Shaikh Saad Al-Buraik, recently urged Palestinians to do exactly that with Jews: "Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women?" [4], [5]

[edit] Camel jockeys in Arab countries

According to BBC news, young children have been kidnapped or sold by their parents to Arab countries, where they are forced to become camel jockeysand "subjected to slave labour." [6], [7]

Children are routinely beaten, starved, overworked, raped, and forced to engage in camel races that sometimes result in the deaths of the child jockeys. Although UAE has promised to end slavery, human rights groups have suggested that those promises may be insincere. [8]

[edit] Slavery in Sudan

Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers. Though it never completely died out in Sudan, there has been a relatively recent upsurge in slave-taking that has its roots in Islam. According to John Eibner, an historian and human rights specialist writing in Middle East Quarterly:

Sudan is the only place where chattel slavery is not just surviving but experiencing a great revival. This renascence of the slave trade began in the mid-1980s and resulted directly from an upsurge of Islamism in Sudan at that time, and especially from the Islamist emphasis on the renewal of jihad. After gaining the upper-hand in Khartoum by about 1983, the Islamists' immediate goal was to transform the multi-ethnic, multi-religious population of Sudan into an Arab-dominated Muslim state, and to do so through jihad. Under Turabi's powerful influence, the ruler of the time, Ja‘far an-Numayri, declared himself to be (sounding like a caliph of old), the "rightly guided" leader of an Islamic state.

[9]

John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International, as quoted by the American Anti-Slavery Groups, discusses slavery in Sudan. He states:

"It begins when the armed forces of the government-backed mujadeen, or allied militias, raid a southern Sudanese village. They kill men on the spot, beat the elderly, and capture the women and children. Raiders and their victims start the horrific march to the North. Children are executed when they cry. People who try to run away are shot. The young girls are taken by soldiers into the bush and gang raped. "Each victim later becomes one of two kinds of slaves, a house slave or a field slave. House slaves cook, clean, fetch water and firewood, and do other household chores. The field slaves cultivate the land, weed, and tend to livestock. Children usually tend cows and goats. But all slaves are mocked, insulted, threatened, and beaten into submission. "Some masters are simply interested in labor and do not convert slaves to Islam. Other masters teach slaves Islam and give their slaves Muslim names. Many female slaves are subjected to genital mutilation or circumcision - a rite of passage for some Muslims, but something not practiced by the Dinka."

[10]

According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece. [11]

According to CNN, Christian groups in the United States have expressed concern about slavery and religious oppression against Christians by Muslims in Sudan, putting pressure on the Bush administration to take action.[12] CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs."[13]

Writing for The Wall Street Journal on December 12, 2001, Michael Rubin said:

What's Sudanese slavery like? One 11-year-old Christian boy told me about his first days in captivity: "I was told to be a Muslim several times, and I refused, which is why they cut off my finger." Twelve-year-old Alokor Ngor Deng was taken as a slave in 1993. She has not seen her mother since the slave raiders sold the two to different masters. Thirteen-year-old Akon was seized by Sudanese military while in her village five years ago. She was gang-raped by six government soldiers, and witnessed seven executions before being sold to a Sudanese Arab. Many freed slaves bore signs of beatings, burnings and other tortures. More than three-quarters of formerly enslaved women and girls reported rapes. While nongovernmental organizations argue over how to end slavery, few deny the existence of the practice. ...[E]stimates of the number of blacks now enslaved in Sudan vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands (not counting those sold as forced labor in Libya)...

[edit] Existence of slavery disputed

According to Seyyed Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University:

If some write today that slavery is still practiced here and there, as in the Sudan or some other African lands, it is more like the slavery of sweatshops in China or the West today. In neither case is it a prevalent practice, nor are such practices condoned by religious authorities. (Heart of Islam, p. 182)

Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the the black south by Arab north is slavery by any definition however the government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources. ^[46]

[edit] Propaganda and western demonization of Islam

Mark Leopold, senior associate member at St Antony's College at Oxford University, states that: ^[47]

Stories of exploitation of Africans at the hands of wicked 'Arab slavers' formed an important ideological theme underpinning European colonialism throughout Africa. The easy association of slavery with Islam throughout much of the earlier literature (found especially but by no means exclusively in Christian missionary writings) is one aspect of much wider, and perhaps currently more dangerous than every Western demonization of Muslim faith and its believers.

Leopold points out that although there is no reason not to use the careful scholarly accounts of the colonial or Christian sources, there is a "continuing sense of unease among many Africanists at the orientalist heritage of European accounts of the East and North East slave trades" ^[47]

Professor Yusuf Fadl Hasan, Professor of Middle East and Sudanese History, and Richard Gray, Emeritus Professor of African History at University of London, state that ^[48]

The Southern Sudan was transformed into a battleground against Islam and Arabs or northern Sudanese. . . . Missionary societies enjoyed a monopoly of education in the South. They utilised that platform to keep the memory of the Arab slave trade alive. . . . Missionaries poisoned the minds of children by teaching them more about Arab slave traders and scarcely anything about the role of Europeans here in the Sudan and in the trans-Atlantic flow of African slaves. Doubtless Islam was badly impaired by the ‘myth’ of the rapacious Arab traders. Its image was greatly tarnished especially when it was exploited by Euro-Christian propaganda. Although the inference painted is unfounded, the ‘myth’ is probably the most important single factor that induced the sense of bitterness, hatred and mistrust that clouded the North-South relationship and which has lingered on until today.

[edit] See also

• Ma malakat aymanukum
• Christianity and Slavery
• Slaves freed by Abu Bakr
• Criticism of the Qur'an

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• "Abd". Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Ed. P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912.
• Al-Hibri, Azizah Y. (2003). "An Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence". 27 Fordham International Law Journal 195.
• Bloom, Jonathan; Blair, Sheila (2002). Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300094221.
• Esposito, John (1998). Islam: The Straight Path. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195112334. - First Edition 1991; Expanded Edition : 1992.
• Hasan, Yusuf Fadl; Gray, Richard (2002). Religion and Conflict in Sudan. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa. ISBN 9966-21-831-9.
• Javed Ahmed Ghamidi (2001). Mizan. Lahore: Al-Mawrid. OCLC 52901690.
• Jok, Madut Jok (2001). War and Slavery in Sudan. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812217624.
• Ed.: Holt, P. M ; Lambton, Ann; Lewis, Bernard (1977). The Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521291372.
• Ingrams, W. H. (1967). Zanzibar. UK: Routledge. ISBN 0714611026.
• Lewis, Bernard (1992). Race and Slavery in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195053265.
• Lovejoy, Paul E. (2000). Transformations in Slavery. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521784301.
• Manning, Patrick (1990). Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521348676.
• Mendelsohn, Isaac (1949). Slavery in the Ancient Near East. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 67564625.
• Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. The Red Sea Press. ISBN 0932415199.
• Nasr, Seyyed (2002). The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity. US: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0060099240.
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1992). Islam: An Introduction. US: SUNY Press. ISBN 0791413276.
• Sikainga, Ahmad A. (1996). Slaves Into Workers: Emancipation and Labor in Colonial Sudan. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292776942.
• Tucker, Judith E.; Nashat, Guity (1999). Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253212642.

[edit] External links

• Race and Slavery in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis